Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Deep breaths. Repeat.

Deep breaths.

Chris Perez is NOT looking toward home plate after
a strikeout. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan via Plain Dealer)

That's what to do.

It's not that big a deal.

The Indians are playing out of their mind, winning 10 out of 11 games before tonight, and hey, it's August 5th and we are only three games out.

Well, were three games out. But with four games against the only team ahead of us, it's a good thing, right?  Never mind that the only team ahead of the Indians are the murderer's row lineup of the Detroit Tigers, the team that has Justin Verlander as their second best starter, and the team that has won 9 games in a row.

Never mind that the team behind the Indians are the Kansas City Royals, and they're not the likely double digits behind--they've won in the neighborhood of eighty straight games and again, it's August 5th.

Never mind that the Indians went to the ninth inning up 2-0 against the fearsome Tigers, and at least one foolish fan/blogger thought "wouldn't it be great to get yet another shutout this season, this time against the Tigers. Hey, wouldn't it say something to shut them out all four games??"

That foolish fan forgot that he was talking about the Tigers. And that our pitcher in the ninth inning can be, shall we say, a little adventurous.

Today's adventure was more like The Blair Witch Project, in that it sucked and left me nauseous.

Never mind that Alex Avila--the guy hitting .197 coming into today, was told to swing away with runners on first and second and no outs. And then he hits a three run home run.

Never mind all that. Deep breaths. There is real life in them here Indians. So they are four games out as they go to sleep tonight. They are tossing and turning because they're not two games out. But there are something like fifty games remaining. Four games is not a mountain too high to climb.

Never mind that damn lineup in Detroit. Next time, how about more than two runs. Did I mention that lineup?