At the time of this writing, is is September 8 and the Cleveland Indians have a comfy 6 game lead in the AL Central over second place Detroit. With just 23 games remaining in the regular season, the Tribe can play worse than .500 ball the rest of the way (11-12) and end up with 92 wins. For the Tigers to beat that mark by a single game, assuming the Tribe can go 11-12 the rest of the way, they would need to finish out the season with an 18-5 record. The division isn't clinched, but it's starting to look really, really good for the Indians. And now, onto the news!
Astros 7, Indians 10
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A botched call by the normally solid Jim Joyce and Lando's 30th trip to Cloud City helped to overcome a shaky outing by Trevor Bauer to get the Indians their 81st win on the season. Francisco Lindor and Abraham Almonte also had big days at the plate while Cody Allen and Andrew Miller each had a pair of strikeouts. On a semi-related note, with just one more win between now and the end of the season, the Cleveland Indians will officially have four consecutive winning seasons since Tito was brought on board in 2013. Fun times in Cleveland again.
Indians news
The Cleveland Indians organization helped out a local youth league on Thursday when their complex was broken into earlier in the week. The article also says that one of the Tribe's mascots showed up for the donation presentation; for the sake of the children, I sincerely hope that it was Mustard and it wasn't Slider.
The remaining games in the regular season for Cleveland will be played against other AL Central teams. While the magic number is shrinking, the Indians still need to take care of business within the AL Central in order to punch their ticket to the ALDS.
Around the League
- The New York Mets, for reasons unbeknownst to most, have signed former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow to a minor league contract. They claim that the decision was "strictly driven by baseball"; I have my doubts.
- Stephen Strasburg had an MRI on his elbow, and the results show that his UCL is intact. That being said, he's been diagnosed with a strained flexor mass and currently has no timetable to return.
- Justin Verlander has pitched through a lot of pain over the past few years, but it finally seems like he is back to vintage Verlander. Unfortunately, time is running out for his club in 2016.
- Hector Olivera will serve 10 days in jail after being found guilty on an assault charge.