Pies All Around on a Lazy Sunday

The Faustastic One took his name out of the “Dark Horse Candidate” column in the ledger for the Cy Young and had it marked (in pen) in the “Frontrunner” column, as he lowered his ERA to an AL-leading 3.07, so let’s take stock of how things have exploded for the Tribe in the last month:

Standings on August 14th
Detroit 66-53
Cleveland 65-54 (1 GB)
Minnesota 59-60 (7 GB)

Standings on September 16th
Cleveland 87-61
Detroit 82-67 (5.5 GB)
Minnesota 72-76 (15 GB)

The Tribe, after losing their 4th straight against Detroit at home (after being swept by the Spankees) on August 14th, has simply run away with the AL Central by going 21-8 since that game. With 19 of those 29 games being played on the road, the Indians are taking on all comers and disposing of them quickly and methodically.

It should come as no surprise that the Indians find themselves on the hot streak as the starting pitching has remained consistently dominant, the bullpen has slotted very nicely to pick up the final two (or three) innings when needed, and the offense has shown that it can win with the long ball or with small ball.

While it’s easy to look too far ahead, the Indians have to continue to take care of the business that they control, particularly with the Motor City Kitties (just 2 ½ back in the Wild Card and certainly playing for something) coming to the Jake tomorrow.

And, with that, a Lazy Sunday:
Terry Pluto takes a nice trip around the bases on some Tribe topics, including a bit about the young confectionary LHP in the system, Laffey Taffey and Sweet and Sowers.

Also, in case you missed it, Pluto had a great article on Tribe attendance and fan interest, including a quote from some guy named Mark Cousineau from South Euclid, who claims to have been to 10-12 games this year, obviously thinking that sitting through the snow on Opening Day somehow counted for multiple games.

It’s been said before, but more Terry and less Shaw and Livy make my weekend better. The Sunday paper had NO sign of The Brothers Grimm (outside of their Browns’ picks), and that is far from a bad thing. Now, if we could only get Branson Wright off my front porch…

Down I-77, Patrick McManamon has picked up where Pluto left off, today commenting on the effort by the Tribe to re-capture the magic at the Jake that was so prevalent during the run in the 1990’s.
In case you missed the memo, the Indians have asked fans to deck themselves out in red for the final home games and the playoffs to create (presumably) some sort of Red Sea at the Jake. They’ve also started the sale of red shirts that read “It’s Tribe Time Now”, playing off of the WTAM intro song that has replaced the ever-popular “We’re Talkin’ Baseball…Talkin’ Tribe”.

Elsewhere, the sordid saga of Cliff Lee continues as he remains a man without a permanent home, seemingly passed by in the rotation by the first “wave” of arms and unsure of where he stands in the organization going forward.

A great piece from the terrific DFP writer Jon Paul Morosi on Sizemore vs. Granderson, two unbelievable baseball players who promise to be mainstays in the AL Central for the foreseeable future, much to the chagrin of the folks in KC, Minneapolis, and Chicago.

Finally, a nice blurb about the Tribe from FOXSports.com’s Chad Finn.

Enjoy the beautiful Sunday afternoon that epitomizes Fall on the North Coast.
Wait, Tribe AND the Browns at 1 PM?
Fire up the DVR, “It’s Couch Time Now”!