Like all loyal Tribe fans, I hate it when the Indians’ post-season dreams are over and we’re only in the single digits of August. Seems like now we can only take pleasure in watching our youngsters develop and rooting for the Tribe to play occasional spoiler against other teams we don’t want to see in the playoffs (fill in your own nemesis here).

Today’s pitching match-up looks close on paper. Both starters have .500 records with Ervin Santana at 2-2 for the season and Trevor Bauer evened up at 8-8. Bauer’s ERA stands at 3.98 with Santana exhibiting comparative dyslexia after the decimal point with a 3.89 ERA.

In the Tribe’s starting batter order, only Michael Brantley is showing a truly good BA at .304. Everyone else is looking up at .300 — with 6 of the starters looking WAY up with averages below .250. With yesterday’s heart-breaking loss after clawing out of a hole in a slug fest, the Indians hit a season low by slipping to 10 games under .500. It feels much too early to break out the Cleveland sports fan’s most-used phrase — “Wait ’til next year.”

For today, however, here are the starting line-ups:

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