Cleveland at New York, 1:05 (STO)

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Sometimes it's best to let the statistics do the talking:

44.2 innings, 39 strikeouts, 25 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks

Cliff Lee allowed seven hits, but several of those were of the bloop or squib variety. And while he continued to rely on command of his fastball, he used his sweeping curve to great effect when ahead in the count. Because the Yankee hitters had to guess fastball with two strikes, Cliff's slow curve was virtually unhittable. And because Lee continued to throw strike after strike, the patience approach normally employed to great effect by the Yankees was nullified.

As Lee was playing with the Yankee lineup as a sleepy kitten bats a hanging piece of yarn, the offense eeked out three runs off Chien-Ming Wang, who was off to a 6-0 start.* Andy Marte finally got consecutive starts, collected a hit, but was pulled for Travis Hafner in the ninth when his spot in the order came up with the bases loaded. Hafner had a terrible at-bat, ending in a weak inning-ending squib double play.

*In most other stats, he doesn't hold a candle to what Lee's done, but wins are what matter dontyaknow.

Cleveland at New York, 7:05 PM (STO)

via www.fangraphs.com

I guess it would figure that the Indians come back to win a game after the starter barely got through five innings.

Fausto Carmona's frequent walking spells, which would have sent a pitcher with lesser stuff to the minors by now, shortened his outing tonight. Even though the Yankee lineup tends to chew up starters before their normal finishing point, I don't really think it was their patience that forced Fausto out. It was Fausto's mechanics that acted up; like most of his starts, he'd be in the strike zone for several batters at a time, then his pitches would go off the radar. Carmona has now walked 30 batters in almost 40 innings, an astounding number, especially if you consider how low his ERA remains.

Victor Martinez was a late scratch, making Jhonny Peralta (.216/.276/.392) and Ryan Garko (.242/.361/.354) the #3 and #4 hitters. The scary thing is that those were the proper choices, unless you wanted to move Sizemore down. Ben Francisco was in the lineup, just up from Buffalo, not to mention one of Andy Marte's rare appearances. (Side note: If you throw out Jamey Carroll, every one of those in tonight's lineup either made their major-league debut with the Indians or still had rookie eligibility when they debuted with the Indians. And that includes all the pitchers who made appearances in tonight's game as well.)

But despite another shaky outing from Carmona, despite not doing much against Andy Pettitte, the Indians won the game. The offensive production came on two swings of the bat. The first swing was Jhonny Peralta's home run to right-center in the fourth. The second came in the eighth inning off Joba Chamberlain when pinch-hitter David Dellucci flew out to the short porch in right field. Dellucci's home run came after Ryan Garko seemingly let Joba off the hook by weakly flying out when ahead in the count.

For a game in early May, this win was pretty significant. The Indians haven't been the only team struggling early this season, and even with a below-.500 record, they are now just 1.5 games behind the first-place Twins. For all the trials and tribulations April brought, the Indians don't really need to make up much ground.