The anti-Josh Towers

Looking back, I think the Indians would actually prefer enduring Josh Towers and his mouth than what the Tigers' Mike Maroth actually brought to the mound Wednesday night.
Towers coughs up a couple home runs, loses, and then insults the source of his misery, Aaron Boone and Casey Blake.
Maroth stays quiet and pitches. Against the Indians, he stays quiet and dominates.
Maroth is doing what Tiger pitchers of the '90s only dreamed of. He owns the Indians, and has since last season. In 2004 and 2005, he is a combined 6-0 with a 2.27 ERA.
Five of those wins have come at Jacobs Field. Maroth trails only Pedro Martinez (6-0) for the most wins by a visiting pitcher at Jacobs Field without a loss.
And if you were wondering, yes, Maroth is a soft-tossing lefty.
Win No. 6 against the Tribe since 2004 came last night, when Maroth pitched seven innings, allowing his only runs on a two-RBI single by Victor Martinez in the first inning. He dueled 13-game winner Cliff Lee to a draw until Lee exited the game after six innings.
The overworked Tiger bullpen outperformed the Indian bullpen, still the best in the American League, to get the win. Rafael Betancourt took the loss when he gave up a tiebreaking homer to Ivan Rodriguez in the eighth.
A 6-0 road trip through Kansas City and Detroit last month let the Indians make some headway in the Central Division, where they have been below .500 all year. But losses like Wednesday's still make me a bit nervous about the Indians' chances of staying in playoff contention until the end of the season.
At best, the Indians can only seem to tread water against divisional opponents, against whom they are now 24-28. Treading water isn't going to cut it in a hotly-contested wild card race in which the Indians will need to win 90 to 92 games, minimum, to have a shot at the playoffs. That means they need between 16 and 18 wins in September. (The Indians are currently 74-59.)
Only two series, a total of six games, remain against non-divisional teams: the red-hot Athletics, and the surprisingly competitive Devil Rays. Everything else is within the division from here on out.
A road series against the Twins, a team fighting for their playoff lives, begins Friday.