The Indians need a return to form by Sowers, who as a rookie in 2006 was 7-4 with a 3.57 ERA in the second half of the season. He hasn't come close to pitching to that level in the two years since then, although Sunday's outing may have been an indication he has turned the corner.

Sowers says he thinks his early success was more a product of opposing hitters having no scouting report on him, and most of them seeing him for the first time.

Sowers' struggles since then would seem to indicate that once the league's hitters became more familiar with Sowers' repertoire they began to hit him more. It's taken a while, but Sowers has now made some adjustments in response to that and he's having more success.

TWINS 4, INDIANS 2: LHP Jeremy Sowers had his best outing of the season Sunday, but the Indians' offense came up short again. Sowers retired the first 15 batters he faced in the game and pitched eight innings overall, holding the Twins to two runs on three hits. The Indians' only runs came on a pair of sacrifice flies, by C Sal Fasano in the second inning and by OF David Dellucci in the eighth.

INSIDE EDGE: The Indians do not currently have a closer, which makes the acquisition of RHP Jon Meloan from the Dodgers in the Casey Blake trade very interesting. Although Meloan was being used as a starter this year, he has had tremendous success at the minor league level as a reliever, and Indians GM Mark Shapiro said that is how the club intends to use him. It would not be a surprise to see Meloan called up from Class AAA Buffalo at some point in the second half of the season and given some save situations at the major league level in order to gauge his potential as a closer.