Chris Perez providing some relief in a long season

For nearly two months - and for the rest of the season - the big-picture story for the Cleveland Indians has been the development of their young players, at both the major and minor league levels.

Relief pitcher Chris Perez brought a promising profile with him when he came to the Indians from the St. Louis Cardinals on June 27, in exchange for versatile veteran Mark DeRosa. After a couple shaky outings just after the deal, Perez has shown the potential to be a bullpen mainstay, and maybe eventually, a closer.

Anthony Castrovince writes about Perez for MLB.com:

Perez took a 15 1/3 scoreless-innings streak into the three-game series with the Royals that continues Tuesday night. It was the longest such streak by a Tribe reliever since Rafael Betancourt tossed 19 scoreless in the midst of his dominant 2007 season.

"[The streak] has definitely helped a lot," said Perez, who had given up five hits and four walks with 19 strikeouts during the stretch.

It's helped because, in Perez's words, he was "one foot out the door" after two disastrous outings against the White Sox shortly after joining his new club.



(cleveland.com)