Well it only took 21 months, but we finally saw the Ubaldo Jimenez the Indians thought they were getting where they traded for him back in July 2011. And it only took 21 games but the Tribe offense that we expected finally seems to have showed up.

Jason Kipnis got the offense going in the top of the when he hit with his first home run of the season to the deepest part of Kaufmann Field.  The would tack on another ruin in the 2^nd inning when Michael Brantley, who had doubled, scored on an Asdrubal Cabrera single to left. Cabrera was 2-for-3 on the night and is now 8 for his last 17.

The Tribe then blew the game wide open in the 5^th inning.  Brantley, who was 3-for-6, doubled down the right field line. Kipnis followed with a walk. Cabrera then lack a double down the line in right, plating Brantley and moving Kipnis to 3^rd. Mark Reynolds followed a Nick Swisher grounds with a great piece of hitting as a blooped a single to right that scored Kipnis. Cabrera would score on a Carlos Santana double. Ryan Raburn would cap off the 6^th run inning with a bomb to left field that would chase Royals starter Wade Davis (2-2 5.55 ERA) from the game.

The Indians would get on the board again in the 8^th, as Raburn homered again, this time an opposite field job to right. Raburn’s 2^nd home run of the night, capped off a 4-for-4 performance by the right fielder.

The story of the night was Ubaldo Jimenez, who had his best start as an Indian. He had no hit caliber stuff, reaching 96 on the radar gun. It was start that was reminiscent of early in the 2010 season, when he started that year 15-1 with a 2.20 ERA. He pitched shut out baseball into the 8th inning, giving up just 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4, and picked up his first win of the year. He also lowered his ERA from 10.06 to 7.13. In his prior 2 starts combined 6 2/3 innings. It was only the 10^th time in 48 starts for the Tribe that Jimenez pitched at least 7 innings.

Jimenez appeared to run out of gas in the 8^th. He gave up a leadoff double to Mike Moustakas and the Jeff Francour followed with a single. Nick Hagadone came in and shut the door, striking out 2 while getting to 95 mph on the radar gun. Cody Allen piched a 1-2-3 9^th to close out the win for the Tribe, who improved to 10-13. The Royals fell to 13-10

The Indians now head back to Cleveland for a short 2 game series with the Philadelphia Phillies. Tuesday’s probables are Roy Halladay and Corey Kluber. Cliff Lee and Trevor Bauer are scheduled to pitch on Wednesday.

Justin Masterson may not have had his best stuff, but it was good enough to keep the Chicago White Sox reeling, as the Indians came from behind to record a 3-2 win at U.S. Cellular Field. It was a season high 3rd straight win for Tribe, and the White Sox have now dropped 4 straight, scoring a total of 7 runs in those 4 games.

Mastesron (4-1,1.85 ERA) struggled with his control early one, but was able to go 7 inning, giving up the 2 earned runs on 4 hits. He struck out 5 and walked 4. He also hit a batter. Dylan Axelrod started for Chicago, and pitched well. He went 6 innings, giving up 1 run on 3 hits. He had 4 K’s, and while he did not walk a batter, the Indians were about to work some counts, and forced him to make 109 pitches.

The Tribe got on the board first in the 2nd inning. Jason Giambi reached on a one out single to shallow left. He would score on a Lonnie Chisenhall double, that was really a bloop single, but took a funny hop in front of the left fielder, allowing Giambi to score and give the Indians a 1-0 lead. 

That lead would be short-lived. Connor Gillaspie tied with a home run to right. Gillaspie is now 7-for-13 vs. Indians pitching so far this season. Sox would tack on another run in the 4th when Alexei Ramirez scored on Hector Gimenez’s double.

Chicago would threaten again in the bottom of the 7th. Masterson hit Gimenez and then walked Jordan Danks. Santana then made a beautiful throw to pick off the runner at 2nd, then Masterson got Alejandro De Aza to ground into an inning ending double play.

While the Tribe bats were quiet most of the night, that sequence seemed to pick them up in the top of the 8th. Drew Stubbs reached on an infield single. Michael Brantley followed with a walk. Chicago reliever Matt Thorton (0-1, $.476) to pickoff Stubbs at 2nd, but threw the ball into center field, allowing both runners to move up a base. Asdrubal then drove home the winning runs with a single to center. The RBI were Cabby’s first since the 2nd game of the season.

Vinny Pestano and Chris Perez then came in a did what do as they picked up their 4th hold and 3rd save respectively. The Indians improved to 8-10, while Chicago dropped to 7-12.

The Central Division rivals will meet tomorrow. Zach McAllister (1-2 3.12) goes for the Tribe. He will face Jose Quintana (1-0 2.55).

Player of the Game: Justin Masterson (7.0 IP, 2 ER, 5K, Win)

New York Yankees (Nova 0-1, 7.71) vs. Cleveland Indians (Kluber 0-0 0.00)Progessive Field, Cleveland OH 7:05 PM

Corey Kulber will make his season debut for the Indians tonight, in game 3 of a 4 game series with the New York Yankees. He made 12 starts last season, going 2-5, with a 5.14 ERA. He was mostly unimpressive, but did show flashes of being above average. The best thing I can say about him is that he is not Brett Myers. He will be the 7th different starting pitcher the Tribe has used in their first nine games. In case you were wondering, this is not a good thing.

Ivan Nova will get the start for the Bronx Bombers. The 26-year-old is the latest in the long line of Yankee phenom pitchers who never seem to live up to the billing. Last season he went 12-8 with a 5.02 ERA. He was roughed up by the Tigers in his first start of the season, surrendering 4 runs in 4 2/3 inning in an 8-3 loss.

The patchwork Yankee lineup has been teeing off on Tribe pitching. The aptly named, for this series anyway, Bronx Bombers have scored 25 runs, hit 8 home runs and are hitting .373 through the first 2 games of the series. Robinson Cano has been scorching hot. he is 7-for-10 with 3 HRs and 7 RBI. Travis Hafner has chipped in with a home run and 4 RBI against his former club.

Getting overshadowed by the train wreck that is the Indians pitching staff has been, is the inconsistent lineup. In 3 of their last 5 games they been shot out twice and scored just once last night. The source of the of the problem can be traced to Jason Kipnis and Nick Swisher, the  #3 and #4 hitters respectively. That a hitting a combined .193 with 0 HRs and 3 RBI. Asdrubal Cabrera is off to a slow start as well, hitting only .133.

The good news is that the Indians offense that we expected finally showed up. The bad news is that The Blue Jays offense finally showed up well, and theirs is probably a little bit better.

The Tribe struck first in the top of the 1^st. Jason Kipnis smoked a 2-out double. Nick Swisher followed with a double for his first RBI as an Indian. The lead would be short lived as Toronto roared back in the bottom half of the inning. Brett Myers gave up on a 2-run home run to Jose Baustista. This would be a recurring theme for Myers as he would give up a total of 4 in his 5 plus inning of work.

The Jays would add to their lead in the Bottom of the 2^nd on J.P Arencibia’s solo shot. But in the 4^th inning the Indians would get in on the home run derby as Carlos Santana and Mark Reynolds hit back to back solo home runs to tie the game at 3.

Edwin Encarnacion got in on the action with a 3-run home run in the bottom of the 5th to stake the Jays to a 6-3 lead. But, in another recurring theme of the night, the Tribe would answer back in the top of the 6^th. Swisher would lead off with a walk and Michael Brantley was hit by a pitch. Carlos Santana would follow and continue his hot start by lacing a ground rule double down the left field line, scoring Swisher. Lonnie Chisenhall would find the gap with a double that scored Brantley and Santana and knot the game at 6.

Tito Francona decided to send of Myers for the bottom of the 6^th, and the move immediately backfired as Arencibia would hit his 2^nd home run of the game.  Cody Allen came in to relieve and picked up with were Meyers left off, giving up a home run to Colby Rasmus. The Jays would add another run when Emilio Bonafacio scored on a Mark Reynolds error.

The Indians would climb back with single runs in the 7^th and 8^th innings to cut the lead to 9-8, but would get no closer. The Jays added an insurance run in the bottom of the 8^th to make the score 10-8, and that would be the final.

While the Indians could not get the sweep, there were still plenty of good to take from the opening series. They were able to win games when the heart of the order was, for the most part silent.  Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez look to be on track to bounce back from a poor 2012 after their first starts of the season.  The outfield may be better defensively than advertised. The back end of the bullpen looks like they will be picking up where they left off last season. All of these are positive signs if the Tribe wants to play meaningful baseball this fall.

Player of the Game: C Carlos Santana: 3-5, 2B, HR, 2 R, 2 RBI.

Welcome to Cleveland, Mark Reynolds! The Designated Hitter collected his first hit as an Indian, and boy was it huge. With the game tied at 2-2 in the top of the 11^th inning, Reynolds absolutely crushed a pitch from Sergio Santos to left-center field to give the Tribe a 3-2 extra innings win over the Blue Jays in Toronto to improve to 2-0 on the young season.

Another new Indian had a big influence on the game, but it is probably not who you think. New Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway noticed a start/stop motion in Ubaldo Jimenez’s delivery. Instead of rebuilding the delivery, which rarely, if ever, works on the Major League level, Callaway had Jimenez speed up the tempo of his delivery. The change seemed to work. Jimenez had a few bouts of wildness, otherwise looked very smooth in his season debut against the Blue Jays in Toronto.

Jimenez went 6 innings, giving up 1 run on 3 hits. He had 2 walks and 6 strikeouts.  The lone run came on a 3^rd inning home run by Macier Izturis. Jimenez responded by striking out Emilio Bonifacio and Jose Reyes, squashing any hope of a potential Blue Jays rally. Jimenez threw 103 pitches, with 64 of those strikes.  His delivery looked very smooth and he didn’t seem to labor like he had in his prior 1 ½ seasons with the Tribe.

The Tribe got on the board in the top of the 3^{rd .} Michael Bourn lead off the inning with a bloop double down the left field line. He advanced to 3^rd on Asdrubal Cabrera’s line out sac fly.  He would score on a Michael Brantley single through the hole at short.

The game would remained tied at 1 until the top of the 8^th inning. Nick Swisher drew his second walk of the game, and Brantley followed that with his 4^th hit of the game.  Carlos Santana hit a fielder’s choice to Izturis at third base, who force Swisher, but Izturis’ throw to first was wild which allowed Brantley to score and stake the Tribe to a 2-1 lead.

For the second time in as many games this season Tito Francona turned the 8^th and 9^th innings over to Vinny Pestano and Chris Perez. Pestano repeated his Opening Day perfrormance with a 1-2-3 8^th inning. Perez repeated his 2012 Opening Day performance by giving up an game tying home run to Jose Bautista.

After Reynolds put the Indians up, Joe Smith was summoned to close out the game in the bottom of the 11^th.  He retired Melky Cabrera, Bautista, and Edwin Encarnacion in order to earn his first Major League save.  Matt Albers picked up the win.

For the second game in a row, the Tribe got good starting pitching, timely hitting, and great defense while taking advantage of some Blue Jays defensive miscues. These are the types of games that they did not win last year and exactly the kind of game they need to win if they expect to content late into this season.

Player of the Game: LF Michael Brantley, 4-5, R, RBI.