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Tribe sweeps Texas, moves within one game of the wild card

Quite the weekend for the Cleveland Indians, who finished off the Texas Rangers on Sunday for a three-game sweep of the series.

It was the Tribe’s first three-game sweep at home against the Rangers since 1980 – so long ago that current Indians broadcaster Rick Manning was on the Tribe roster that year. (Manning hit .234 for the Indians that year, appearing in 140 games for a Tribe team that was 79-81, good for sixth place in the A.L. East, in case you were wondering).

The Indians did not pick up any ground on Detroit over the weekend, thanks to the fact that the Phillies stink, but they did pick up two games in the wild card standings and now sit just one game back of Baltimore for the second wild card spot.

Not a bad place to be heading into the final week of July.

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Are the Indians nearing a tipping point on the season?

The Cleveland Indians head into an off day on Thursday at what could be a tipping point for their season in teams of staying relevant in Cleveland.

With training camp opening for the Cleveland Browns on Thursday, the Tribe could be in trouble of losing their spot as the current focal point among fans.

The Tribe finished off a disappointing road trip on Wednesday on a high note, beating Seattle by the score of 10-1. The Indians went just 2-4 on the six-game trip to open the second-half of the season and head home knowing they will be no worse than 3.5 games behind Detroit when they wake up in the morning. That is certainly not an insurmountable number by any means.

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Tribe should be cautious as trade deadline nears

With the non-waiver trade deadline a little more than a week away, Cleveland Indians general manager Chris Antonetti has a big decision to make.

Should he be a buyer to help the Tribe stay in the race with Detroit in the AL Central Division and, if so, at what price?

Despite losing three of their first four games coming out of the All-Star break, the Indians went into Tuesday night’s game in Seattle just 2.5 games behind the Tigers. The Indians were 5.5 games back of Detroit a little more than a month ago and fought their way back into the race. While we don’t want to see them fall that many games back again, obviously, with the way this team has streaked (both good and bad) this season it’s not unreasonable to think that they can bounce back in the standings again.

But even if the Tribe gets hot over the next 10 days and forces Antonetti’s hand in making a trade, what are the realistic options and how much should Antonetti – and fans – expect to see from this particular Tribe team if it somehow finds its way into the playoffs come October?

We try to figure things out at The Cleveland Fan.

How is the Tribe in first place?

The Cleveland Indians hit the halfway mark of the 2013 Major League season over the weekend and, thanks to their first four-game sweep of the White Sox in Chicago since 1948 and Detroit’s loss on Monday afternoon, will head to Kansas City in first place in the American League Central Division.

The sweep gave the Tribe a winning record in the month of June (15-13) for the first time since 2007. (We’ll let you decide if you want to place any significance on the years 1948 and 2007.)

The Indians lead Detroit by a half-game despite allowing 43 more runs than the Tigers (while scoring the same amount), despite having their bullpen give up essentially the same amount of runs (4.4 per nine innings) as Detroit’s sub-par bullpen (4.3), and despite blowing more saves (13 to nine) than the Tigers.

How the heck is the Tribe in first place now that the calendar has turned to July?

We start looking for answers at The Cleveland Fan.

(Photo by The Associated Press)

Tribe doubles its pleasure in sweep of White Sox

Still trying to process how the Cleveland Indians were able to sweep the Chicago White Sox on Friday night in the longest nine-inning doubleheader in Major League Baseball history.

When the Tribe fell behind 5-0 in the first inning of the opener as starting pitcher Trevor Bauer decided that pitching exclusively from the stretch (without telling anyone prior to the game) was the way to go, it seemed like it was going to be a long night for the Indians.

But somehow the Tribe rallied back with 14 consecutive runs and took the opener, then followed that up with a five-run ninth inning of the nightcap (with Nick Swisher delivering the go-ahead home run; more on him in a moment) to pull off the sweep and pull within two games of Detroit in the American League Central Division.

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