For one moment I thought the Indians had a chance. If they could keep up the winning then they could have a little more than microscopic chance of making the playoffs.
Two weeks ago they took two out of three from both the Twins and Chi Sox. Except for the first game against the Twins, on August 4, in which they gave up 10 runs, the pitching was rather solid. Even Fausto Carmona had another good start, giving up one run in six innings in a 2-1 win over the Twins. They started off the next series against the Rangers taking the first game 5-0 with a great outing by Aaron Laffey who went 6.2 innings with no earned runs.
But in the next game Carmona had another great start giving up two runs in six innings, but got no help from the offense, losing 5-0. Then they lost the next game 4-1, where the offense went away quietly again. Their only run was on a 1st inning sacrifice fly by Shin-Soo Choo. And then on the next night, August 14, they were destroyed by the Twins 11-0.
That means that after winning two series, going 4-2 in those games, they lost three of four. It certainly could have gone much better. They then went on to win the last two games they played 7-3 and 7-4. This again highlights their inconsistency because they get shut out then come out and hit home runs like crazy.
The fact is they just don’t have the talent to consistently win games. Justin Masterson will hopefully become better after giving up six runs in the 11-0 loss in only 3.1 innings. When a team trades two All Stars and other role players it is obvious winning is not on their mind. They traded Ryan Garko and Ben Francisco and have Chris Gimenez and Trevor Crowe playing in their spots. That is the opposite of an upgrade. They are 11 games out of first place in the AL Central and with only 45 games left they are most certainly out of the hunt. Not they they already weren’t out of it after the first five games of the year.
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