In the continuing conundrum that is the Indians' 2009, the bullpen was again outstanding tonight: a hitless 2.1 inning performance that featured three strikeouts was turned in by Chris Perez and Jess Todd. All that was for naught though as Jeremy Sowers, after flirting with a no-hitter, again ran into trouble in the dreaded fifth. Despite that, Sowers' final line was decent: a 6.2 IP with only the three earned.

Sowers is still doing this with smoke and mirrors; he had five walks and two strikeouts tonight. I can't imagine Jeremy has a future as a starter in the AL even if he's occasionally able to cobble together a run of starts like he's on now (32 IP and only 11 ER over his last 5 starts). Sowers does still have incredible numbers through his first four innings this year; he's certainly not that good but it's probably worth the effort to try to convert him into a reliever over the offseason by making him do whatever exercises one does to improve warmup time.

The offense got shutout by Jered Weaver but nobody can stop the Luis Valbuena show which featured a double and a single and continues to tick along at a near .800 OPS post-ASB. Choo also had a double and a single. In other news, Chris Gimenez went hitless.

Tomorrow, Lackey vs. Masterson at 7:05.