Zeroes

The irony is...
In order to have a ghost of a chance to re-sign Kevin Millwood this off-season, the Indians are going to have to make significant improvements to their offense and prove to Millwood that 2006 won't be another double-digit loss season with one of the best ERAs in the league, as 2005 has become.
But in order to make those improvements, the Indians are probably going to have to spend themselves out of a shot at Millwood.
Millwood dropped his 10th game of the year Wednesday night at Jacobs Field as the Indians were shut out by the Rangers 3-0. You might justifyably think this was about the 20th time the Indians have been shut out this year, but it was actually just the ninth. Millwood has been the hapless victim in four of those blankings.
He's lost two other games by 2-1 scores.
Millwood sports a very nice 3.11 ERA and a day-old-chicken-salad 6-10 record. You'd excuse him if he goes to sleep at night and dreams about pitching for the Yankees or Red Sox.
Wednesday night, Millwood was outdueled by Chris Young of the Texas Rangers.
Young is the same height as Randy Johnson (6'-10"), but the similarities end there. Young is a righty with an average fastball settling around 91-92 mph. He has just one other major-league pitch, a change-up. He had a 9-7 record with a ERA well over 4.00 heading into last night's start.
But he used his fastball/change-up combo to flat-out dominate the Indians lineup, allowing two hits in eight innings.
To listen to Tribe manager Eric Wedge describe it to reporters after the game, Young was an unsolvable riddle. His height confounded Cleveland's lineup, The Plain Dealer reported Wedge as saying. He had some kind of a hitch in his delivery that made the ball especially hard for hitters to pick up.
But if Young's height is a legitamite excuse, how do you explain the runs the Indians have scored off the two other 6'-10" pitchers they have faced this year -- Johnson and Kansas City's Andy Sisco?
Instead of pawning it off on being dominated by a pitcher who had just one win in his last eight starts prior to last night, let's be real about this. Wednesday's loss sounds suspiciously like the attention-deficit disorder that has plagued Cleveland's lineup all year, especially when Millwood is on the mound.
Locked in one night, putting great at-bats together. Mentally absent the next, swinging early and often.
This Cleveland offense, through financial necessity, is designed to need discipline to survive. There are no musclehead ball-clubbers in this lineup (besides maybe Travis Hafner).
If Tribe hitters go up to plate hacking away randomly, nights like Wednesday will happen. And continue to happen. This offense isn't talented enough to get lucky on most nights by simply slashing the bat through the hitting zone. What the Indians' offense lacks in physical ability, it has to make up for with mental approach.
It was already going to be a hard sell trying to convince Millwood to stay in Cleveland when deeper-pocketed teams come knocking in November. The offense, and its inability to remain focused, might be sealing the deal.