Monday, September 26, 2005

One last off day

Big smile, Tribe fans. This is it. The last day of calm before the mad dash begins.
The Indians air-mailed a game to Kansas City in Sunday's series finale, blowing a 3-0 lead even before Grady Sizemore had a chance to lose a fly ball in the Sun.
But, honestly, how many times in a row can you expect to beat one team, no matter how bad they are? Pretty soon, the law of averages is going to get you.
Having said that, the law of averages is on Cleveland's side heading into Tuesday's series against Tampa Bay. The Devil Rays still hold a 4-3 edge in the season series, and the Indians need some payback for last month's sweep.
The Indians get six games at home to finish the season. That's the good news. The bad news is, the other three teams the Indians are currently tussling with for two playoff spots (the White Sox, Red Sox and Yankees) all play cupcakes until Friday.
While the Indians are trying to avenge their humilation from last month against Tampa Bay, the Red Sox will face the Blue Jays, the Yankees will play Baltimore, and the White Sox will play the Tigers.
The end result will likely be the current status quo kept until the weekend. We will probably have to wait until the final weekend, which will pit the Yankees against the Red Sox and the Indians against the White Sox, to see everything ironed out. Of course, if the White Sox still have a two-to-three game edge in the division by that point, they will have the title all but locked up.
At the end of the season, the Indians' best chance to make the playoffs will probably still be the wild card. I am hypothesizing a minimum of four wins needed over the final homestand of the regular season to give the Indians a realistic shot.

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