If there was ever such a thing as bi-polarity for Indians fans, then I’m a Case-One example of it. This was one of those weeks (my birthday week, no less!) where I’m pretty much down in the dumps. Frustrated. Moping. Woe is us. Luckily for me, I think we’re all sitting here bummed out over a rather crappy week, so I’ll share my misery, my cleansing of the soul, if you will, with all of you.

“If you don’t mind, I’ll just lay down on this couch over here…”

There is no need for a point-by-point breakdown this week. It’s all about the endless precipitation that followed us to Boston after the plodding two-game sweep by Detroit. Boston is where little to nothing goes right, and leaves us being scared and needing dogs.

For starters, those walkoffs against Seattle sure seem like eons ago now, don’t they? And even the Seattle series should’ve sent our collective Spidey-Senses tingling: The Bullpen Mafia isn’t exactly striking fear into opponents these days. We thought it would be the backbone (it hasn’t been) and we thought the offense would be the problem (it hasn’t been). Just another example that it’s hard to have absolutes from season to season.

The weather was a (literally) dark and ominous sign of what was to happen over the next few days and we all were too naive to see it. Mother Nature has a funny sense of humor in her foreshadowing of things. We should’ve clued in that we were in for a bumpy six days, with the exception of Thursday night.

Just when we started convincing ourselves that the Indians were ready to take off and leave Detroit in the dust we thought we were getting a handle on how things were going at the virtual quarter-pole, the rains fell. They fell almost as if to teach the Indians and us fans lessons that: Ubaldo Jimenez is a one-step-forward-three-steps-back guy at this point. Unfortunately, that’s probably not going to change. Similarly, Scott Kazmir is a five-and-fly-if-it’s-a-good-day stopgap. And the final lesson being that the Indians are most likely still at least a year away, and whatever momentum they are building up is likely not meant for this period of time.

Hope I’m wrong. Thank goodness for the expanded Wild Card.

But wait, there’s more.

I thought the whole karmic justice thing for Oakland’s homer robbery was over and done with after Chris Perez gave up the two solo homers that set off the ridiculous Twittershutdownpolooza and aftermath. Boy, was I ever wrong.

If the mystery surrounding Vinny Pestano’s decreased velocity and control issues weren’t unnerving enough, what happened to Perez yesterday could be a crippling blow to the team’s contention hopes. If someone were to tell me that someone (Manny Acta?) had voodoo dolls of their respective likenesses, and they (he?) were jabbing them with an infinite number of needles, it probably wouldn’t take much convincing to get me to believe it.

No one will ever breathe easy on a daily basis with Perez on the mound, but it takes a guy with a certain kind of temperament to handle the ninth inning, and if the Indians lose both Pestano and Perez for an extended period of time, and the Indians are relegated to closer-by-committee…

Well, I’ll be blunt: Regardless of Tito’s falling on the sword of defense for his player, we saw that Joe Smith is not be the guy to go to in a tough spot. And I hope they don’t succumb to the temptation of racing Cody Allen out, even though I think he has leapfrogged Pestano in the closer-in-waiting discussion, I just don’t think he’s ready for the back-end yet. He needs time to grow into it. I remember Fernando Cabrera. Do you? Heck, even Roberto Hernandez (I like to call him “Fausterto Carnandez”), our old buddy, got thrust into the closer spot and promptly got crushed on consecutive nights. In Boston, no less. Let these instances be extremely cautious reminders that you can’t just put a guy with “stuff” in there and have a guy automatically succeed. Sit on that, “closers are meaningless” people.

So, now it feels like the Indians are standing on decidedly shaky ground, despite being only 1.5 games back of the Tigers. And the quicker we can get away from Boston, the Tribe’s Eighth Circle of Hell, the better. Nothing ends well for them in Fenway.

It’s not time to panic, and even though I’m full of doom and gloom here, there’s still a ton of games to play. But you might want to keep an umbrella handy, anyway. The potential for stormy days are still ahead.

Oh, look! Choo! This is the greatest day ever!

 

 

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