Tribe Watch '13 (Week 18)

Record: 62 - 49

Standing: 2nd in AL Central (3 games behind Detroit)

As I type, the Indians are in the middle of the first of four HUGE games against division rival, the Detroit Tigers. But before we talk about that series, let's discuss how we got here since this is my first opportunity to discuss the Tribe since before the All Star Break. The Indians had me worried when they got off to a shaky start to begin the second half of the season. Unimpressive outings against Minnesota and Seattle had me concerned that we were in line for yet another second half collapse. Since, then however, the team has played much better. They looked red hot during a homestand that saw the team sweep both the Texas Rangers and the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox series was particularly fun since it involved a couple of walk-off wins (one of which I had the good fortune of seeing in person). This past weekend the team went down to Miami and managed to take two out of three from a Marlins team that is better than what their record suggest thanks to a good crop of young pitchers. All in all, the team is finding ways to win even when they aren't playing their best. The frustrating thing about this recent run is that the Tigers, currently in first in the AL Central, and the Royals, currently third, have played just as well so there really has been no change to the standings. The one positive about our recent good play is that we have managed to move up into sole possession of the second wild card spot. If the season were to end today, we would be in the playoffs. All of that brings us to the start of this series with Detroit. It is a four game series that could shake up the division depending on how many games we win. This is the last time the Tigers will be playing in Cleveland this season so we'll want to have as good of a showing as possible. After Detroit leaves, the Angels come into town for a weekend series. Anaheim had high hopes coming into the season but have struggled all year. Still they are not a team to take lightly and we'll need to avoid having any sort of hangover effect after the Detroit series. This a VERY big week for the Indians and I hope everyone comes out to support this team. Win or lose I'm going to be loving every minute of it. Go Tribe!