Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Tribe Watch (Week 14)

Record: 45-38

Standing: First in AL Central

I'm a day late because of the holiday, but I'm glad I held off considering our nice win today. But before we get to that, let's talk about the prior week, which saw us salvaging that rough 9 game interleague road trip by taking 2 out of 3 from both Arizona and Cincinnati. That allowed us to finish the trip 4-5 overall. Considering we lost Choo and could only get Hafner 1 at bat a game, I'd say that's pretty good. The end of interleague play also marked the actual halfway point of the season. While no season is one midway through, the fact that we are in first place at this time is still very impressive. We certainly cannot rest on our laurels, however. If we're to win this division and make a run in the playoffs, we're going to have to continue playing strong and get production out of all of our key players. With interleague play over with, we can turn our attention back to the American league. That began tonight with a win over the Yankees. We have two more games with them followed by a four game set against the Blue Jays. Getting that first win tonight against New York is huge and hopefully sets up for us winning the series. As for Toronto, their offense is decent but their pitching isn't. The fact that we're playing them at home bodes well for us. After the Blue Jays comes the All Star break. If we do well this week, it sets things up nicely for us as the rest of the July schedule isn't too difficult. If we can again create some distance between us and the rest of the division, it will help us tremendously as we towards the end of the season. Just like the temperature, the division race is heating up and I'm looking forward to seeing every minute of it, as I'm sure the rest of you are as well. And as we do, we'll all be cheering - Go Tribe!

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