The Indians lost again Sunday, but Jeremy Sowers continued the quiet resurrection of his season with his best outing of the year by far. Sowers didn't factor in the decision but retired the first 15 batters he faced and worked eight innings overall, allowing two runs on three hits.
With a record of 1-5 this year, Sowers has struggled though most of his starts, but the last three have been better, culminated by Sunday's start in which he pitched well enough to win. 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.
