When I can’t sleep, I think about baseball. (Okay, first I check to make sure my child and my husband and my 17-year-old dog are still breathing, then I think about baseball. I’m not completely obsessive.) Here’s the thought that’s keeping me awake tonight:
The last few games make me think that the Indians have turned a corner. I’m starting to believe they can win the division. Back in that amazing April, I thought they could, but realistically, we all knew they couldn’t keep up that pace. Very few teams can. Then came June and July, where they slumped, played crappy baseball, and couldn’t seem to hit the side of Progressive Field with a bat, much less a baseball. Now they’re starting to hit again. And the great thing is, everybody is starting to hit. And if a guy has a bad night, the other guys are picking him up. For instance, on Friday night, Carlos Santana went 2-4 with an RBI, tonight he went 0-4. No worries; Cabrera, Fukudome, and LaPorta picked him up. Jason Kipnis has been an offensive machine but was given a well-deserved night off today. Jason Donald came in and did his job, going 2-4 (with a triple). They’re putting together meaningful hits and starting to score a few runs. The operative word here is “few.” My grandfather always said that a couple is always two and “a few” means three.
The big thing that’s worrying me is that the Indians have scored precisely 3 runs in five of their last six games. Three runs are enough to beat Detroit and Minnesota two out of three times, but they weren’t enough to beat Texas or Boston. When they stepped it up offensively against the Red Sox and the Rangers, they won. When we scored three runs, we lost. I think we’re a better team than the Tigers. We’re 6-3 against them this season. There’s no reason we can’t go 6-3 in our remaining nine games with them this season. And despite the White Sox being the Indians’ kryptonite this year, they’ve played sub-.500 ball most of the season. We can beat that.
Three may be a magic number, but if you want to win in October, you have to dream bigger than that. I’m going to try and go back to sleep and dream of the Indians in the playoffs.
uggggh…..huff dealing and a long rain delay comes in…..
They went to a rain delay before it started raining over here on the east side of town, and it’s slowly letting up. Hopefully it’ll blow over downtown soon so they can get the rest of the game in. I am disappointed for Huff. He really seems like he has the stuff to play at this level and he won’t get a chance to show it today.