Fallout

The first four-game sweep for the White Sox in Cleveland since 1963 created a ton of fallout as the Royals arrive in town tonight for the start of another four-game series. Some of the blame for this weekend rests with the quirks of the schedule. Some rests with the Indians. Some of it rests with the White Sox being blatantly better.
I can't distill this into a nice, smooth column, so I'm just going to throw it all against the wall and see what sticks. Kind of like the Indians this weekend.

1. The White Sox are not a better team than Cleveland talentwise, but they are a better team. They were able to come in here and use their pitching to impose their will on the Indians. And when Chicago had the Indians down, they knocked them out. That's a killer instinct, and I gained a whole new respect for what I think the White Sox can do in October if they get a lead. The Indians, by contrast, showed just how fragile their collective psyche is. It doesn't take much to break the Tribe mentally. To me, that's a case of Ozzie Guillen vs. Eric Wedge.

2. Maybe the all-star break was a bad thing. Or maybe it wouldn't have made a difference. I thought, after losing three of four to the Yankees, taking a three-day break would be a nice mental health holiday for the team. Maybe it just made them rusty or sluggish, because I haven't seen the Indians be simply dominated in a series this season like they were this weekend.

3. While Chicago did dominate the Indians in every phase of the game, I will give the Indians this: you need to be lucky sometimes. The Indians hit their share of balls hard this weekend, and just about every one of them was drawn to a White Sox fielder like iron shavings to a magnet.

4. The White Sox led in 35 of 36 innings this series, and were tied only once after a scoreless first inning on Saturday. The only thing more amazing than that statistic is Chicago's record against the AL Central, now 30-5.

5. The division race is over. No more talk about catching Chicago, which is now 15 games up on the Indians. The chances of winning the division before this series were slim and none. Right now, slim has left the building and is on a flight to Rio. The Twins are the only team now standing between Chicago and the Indians' record 30-game margin of victory in 1995.

6. Per Zach's comment to my post below, I can see Wedge not wanting to be too aggressive on the bases. Let's face it, this series (with Sunday as a possible exception), the Indians had to treat baserunners like gold. They didn't get many of them. And, sooner or later, you're going to need a hit to drive the runners in. That didn't happen this weekend.

7. The good news? The Indians are still in the wild-card chase. The bad news? Six of their final 13 games are against the White Sox.

8. If the Indians are looking for relief just because the last-place Royals are coming to town, don't think that relief will come as easily as popping a Rolaids tablet into your mouth. The Royals are managed by Buddy Bell, who, as you might know, began the season as Cleveland's bench coach. The Royals are still bad, but have played respectable 20-22 ball since Bell took over. And who wouldn't want to have your opponent's former bench coach in your dugout? Bell can give his pitchers and hitters expert insight on handling the Indians. Whether the Royals players can carry out Bell's advice is another matter, but they will be well-prepared for this series.

9. This series against Kansas City is the hour of reckoning for the Indians. If Cleveland's team morale is so thoroughly shot that the Royals come in here and take three out of four, it might be time to start shopping Kevin Millwood, Bob Wickman and Ronnie Belliard for prospects. The silver lining to that cloud is, after what I saw of the White Sox pitching this weekend, teams like Boston, the Angels and Yankees would be wise to fortify their pitching before the trade deadline. The Indians could get a few really nice Class AA or Class AAA prospects from a team or two desperate to add good arms.

10. Of course, option No.1 would still be for the Indians to remain in close wild-card contention and be able to add a bat without blowing up the roster.