The Dog Days of Summer May Be Here

I love of the Cleveland Indians. As it says in my bio, they have been a big part of my life since before I was born. I am one of the rare Cleveland fans whose order of rooting goes Indians/Cavaliers/Browns. The Browns winning a Superbowl would bring me a lot of joy. The Cavaliers winning an NBA championship would have me celebrating in the streets. The Indians winning the World Series? That would move me to tears.

That beings said, we are approaching the last quarter of the MLB season and the Cleveland Indians seem to be what they’ve been all season, a .500 team. That’s not bad, but it’s not good either. It’s mediocre. And now, with the NFL and college football seasons just around the corner, and the Cavaliers looking like they will be one of the best teams in the NBA, the casual fan may begin tuning the Indians out. While that may not seem like a big deal when looking at their attendance numbers (Seriously folks, why complain about them getting rid of seats that no one ever uses?), the Tribe has drawn impressive TV numbers all season, and in the highly unlikely event this team defies the odds and makes a run towards the playoffs, they may do it with nobody watching.

Tonight’s loss to the Cincinnati Reds in the final game of the Ohio Cup didn’t help the Indians’ chances of make a playoff push. The Reds scored early and held the lead throughout the game. Center fielder Billy Hamilton singled to start the bottom half of the first inning. Hamilton then showed off his amazing speed by going from first to third base on an infield single by right fielder Jay Bruce. A throwing error by Carlos Santana on the same play allowed Hamilton to score and Bruce to move to third base. Left fielder (and former Indian) Ryan Ludwick then singled to left to score Bruce and the Reds had a 2-0 lead after one inning.

Cincinnati kept it up in the second when starting pitcher Homer Bailey singled and then scored on  a deep triple to center by Hamilton. The damage would have been worse if Hamilton hadn’t stumbled coming around third. He was then caught in a rundown to end the inning. The Reds tacked on another run in the sixth inning when second baseman Kris Negron singled home first baseman Todd Frazier to give the Reds a 4-0 lead which they held for the rest of the game, bringing the Ohio Cup back to Cincinnati for the first time since 2010.

The Indians offense had a rough night as they only managed five hits and one walk against eleven strikeouts. Starting pitcher T.J. House was decent in allowing eight hits and three runs in six innings of work, but with an offense like that the starting pitcher has almost no chance to win. The Tribe now heads to the Big Apple for a three game series against the New York Yankees. Hopefully the fans will continue to support this team in their battle to escape mediocrity.