Wednesday, September 5, 2007

BREAKING NEWS: Leyland Concedes the Division


So the Tribe won yet again this afternoon, moving 7 1/2 games ahead of the Tigers and before tonight's game with the White Sox, Tigers manager Jim Leyland essentially is handing the division to our beloved Cleveland Indians. Peep these quotes, courtesy of MLive.com beat reporter Danny Knobler:

"For the most part, being realistic, we're playing for the wild card," Leyland said. "I think we've still got a very good shot at the wild card, but I've been saying day after day after day that we had a good chance at the division, and we just don't win games. You don't win games, you lose your shot."

Knobler also reported Gary Sheffield will be back Thursday, but it could be too little too late in attempts to derail the Indian Express. Everything the Tribe needed happened within the first five batters. Grady Sizemore led off the game with a single. Asdrubal Cabrera was hit by a pitch. Travis Hafner continued his hot stretch by doubling home Grady. Victor Martinez doubled home AC and Victor and just like that it was 3-0. Oh, did I forget to mention all of this was off of Twins starter Scott Baker, who last time out took a perfect game into the ninth?

The Tribe did strand what seemed like 1000 runners today, but a three run ninth inning thanks to two our RBI singles by Jhonny Peralta and pinch hitter Kenny Lofton sealed the 6-2 win. Fausto Carmona went eight innings for his 15th win of the season. The quality start train just never seems to stop. Up next for the Tribe is a trip to the west coast to visit the AL West leading Angels. I refuse to write their full name. The negatives of this series is that two of the games start at 10:05, one at 9:05, and Sunday night's game is at 8:05. The odds of me seeing more than one full game in this series are slim and none, and to quote my father "slim just walked out the door."

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