Tribe Watch (Week 8)

Record: 29-15

Standing: First in AL Central

This was certainly a week that featured a lot of highs and low. On the high side, we swept both the Royals and Reds. The Royals series featured a lot of offense, but doing that against the Royals has been commonplace for a while now. Sweeping the Reds was huge because they are a playoff contender too. The first two games were close ones that showed the Indians 'never-say-die' attitude. Today's game was an awesome blowout that put a great exclamation point on this series. As for the lows, we looked absolutely awful losing both games of the two-game series against Chicago. Normally I wouldn't get too worked up over losing two games, but I absolutely loathe the White Sox and hate whenever we lose to them. But for now, they've at the bottom of the division, so I'll try not to worry about them too much. The other low came from the mounting injuries the team has suffered. Grady Sizemore, Travis Hafner and rookie pitcher Alex White all went on the DL. Thus far they haven't been too critical since the offense has remained hot and Mitch Talbot is expected to come off the DL to replace White. All in all, I'd say this was a positive week. We're now at the quarter point of the season and things continue to look good. We have no signs of this being a fluke or hot start and we also hold the biggest lead within our division (up on Detroit by 7.5 games currently). Let's hope that continues to hold. But things won't get any easier this week as the resurgent Boston Red Sox come into town tomorrow for a three game series and then we head down to the ugliest stadium in the major leagues, Tropicana Field, to play the AL East leading Tampa Bay Rays. As usual, I'll be watching and I hope all of you will too. Go Tribe!