Much to the dismay of Drew Carey, Martin Mull and Craig Ehlo, it doesn't look as though the Cleveland Indians' latest surge will land them in this year's Fall Classic. The Indians are 38-13 since July 31 and cut a 15-game division lead for the White Sox down to 1.5 games faster than John Garland's Cy Young hopes turned to \hopefully letting the bullpen nap until the fifth"" hopes. While it was a nice story, Cleveland's third loss in their last 20 games Sunday extended Chicago's lead to 2.5 games with only a week to play.
The Indians' fate is all but sealed. The White Sox have four games against Detroit, and will likely have to win just one of their final three games against the Indians to hold on for the division crown (Please excuse the upcoming rapid fire of descriptive clich??s. It had to be done...). And if you're going to call Cleveland home to the ""upstart"" Indians, then they are hosting the ""feisty"" Devil Rays who are particularly fond of playing ""spoiler"" and spreading their misery to others. (Thank you all for your cooperation. I don't like any of the terms above, but their succinct nature makes them useful in short, bold playoff predictions and/or justifications such as this.) Point is, the division is essentially out of reach, and they won't back into the playoff with a wild card spot, either.
The Indians held only a half-game lead on the Yankees and Red Sox for the AL wild card as of Sunday, and both AL East contenders are hitting their late-season stride. New York has enjoyed the surprisingly stellar pitching of Shawn Chacon and Aaron Small, while Boston is being carried by MVP-candidate David Ortiz, who continues to look like he belongs in the same-not the greatest ever in their sport, but perhaps the most clutch??-sentence as Jerry West and John Elway.
When the Yanks and Sox meet this weekend over tea to discuss who gets the White Sox and who has to play the Angels, they won't beat each other into the ground and let Cleveland sneak in. Not because it's one of those ""we say we hate them but we really just respect them"" things since, believe me, it's hate. Rather, because the Yankees and Red Sox want to see each other in the playoffs so that an eventual World Series title seems legit. You don't think Major League Baseball wants to see another Boston-New York ALCS? You can say you're sick of them both, but you'll still watch Ortiz vs. Rivera or Schilling vs. A-Rod.
Sorry, Cleveland-I know you wanted to shed the ""upstart"" label by at least making the playoffs, but looks like it just wasn't meant to be. Oh, and thanks for ""Major League.""
Enjoy those Browns.
Ben is a junior majoring in history. He can be reached for comment at
