Let's See What We Can Do

Well after a split with Minnesota and taking 2 of 3 from Chicago the Tribe sits atop the AL Central by 1 1/2 games. The struggles of the Tigers and the Twins have had just as much bearing on that as the Indians themselves, but regardless, they remain in first. That fact will be tested over the next two weeks.

With the red hot Yankees visiting The Jake for 3 followed by the Tigers for 2, The Indians have been given yet another opportunity to put some distance between them and both the Tigers and the Wild Card field. They follow that up with a visit to Tampa Bay before heading to Detroit to take on the Tigers again. A critical two weeks to say the least.

The offense will have to come out of its funk to compete with the Yankees who seem to be scoring 7 or 8 runs every night. They will be without Travis Hafner who is on the mend after tweaking his knee sliding into second base versus the White Sox. Can someone other than Victor Martinez stimulate this offense? Can Paul Byrd and Jake Westbrook continue to pitch effectively, if not brilliantly, to keep the Indians in every game? Will it all finally click on all cylinders for the Indians?

The next two weeks will tell us a lot. Let's hope what it tells us evokes happiness and not bewilderment.

Wasted Efforts

With the Tigers losers of 9 of their last 10, the Indians once again failed to increase their 1/2 game lead in the division and continue to let the Twins creep closer and closer, making it a 3 team race. A week and a half ago the Twins were 9 1/2 games out of first place in the AL Central. After their 1-0 win over the Tribe today they stand 4 1/2 games out. They've cut 5 games off the lead in a F#$%ING WEEK AND A HALF.

That's what happens when you lose 3/4 to Boston, 2/3 to Minnesota, 2/3 to Texas and 2/3 to Minnesota. One more game remains with the Twins before the Indians visit the hot White Sox before coming home to host the Yankees. Something has to change or the season is going to end and end fast.

The sad thing is that the starting pitching seems to have come around as Jake Westbrook has been somewhat back to normal in his past couple starts, Paul Byrd continues to be palatable and young Aaron Laffey did alright in him MLB debut yesterday. Pitching is what gets you to the playoffs and gets you through the playoffs but if you can't score any runs it doesn't matter.

After stranding 10 runners against the powerful Matt Garza Saturday the Tribe hitter produced pop up after pop up against the intimidating Scott Baker today. Sickening. The Indians have such a huge talent advantage over the Twins but the size of their hearts is noticeably smaller. Uncle Eric can swap the line-up around all he wants but in NO ONE can get a F#$%ING HIT when it matters then Mike Rouse could play every day.

It's infuriating to watch these guys over the past 2-3 weeks. They just can't put it together and don't look interested at all. They continue to sleepwalk through the most important stretch of the season and if they don't wake up soon it will be over before they can do anything about it.