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Thursday, June 15 | |||||
Injuries rob Indians of challenging for first | |||||
CLEVELAND -- Here's how bad the baseball season has gotten
in Cleveland: Indians fans will spend the weekend rooting for the
hated New York Yankees.
Not since they were the majors' biggest laughingstock, playing
in dreary, dingy Cleveland Stadium to sparse crowds and losing on a
regular, basis have the Indians been this far out of first place.
Normally, they'd be running away from the AL Central at this
point. Instead, the five-time defending division champs are 5½ games behind the blistering Chicago White Sox.
In second place. Hard to believe.
"Now we know how other teams feel," said catcher Sandy Alomar, one of the few Cleveland players who remembers the bad old' days.
"I've been here since 1990 and have never really been in a pennant
race."
Well, Cleveland, you're in one now.
Chicago, baseball's biggest surprise this season, completed a
three-game sweep in the rain Wednesday night. It was the club's
first sweep in Cleveland since the final series ever played at
Cleveland Stadium.
The White Sox, who opened a four-game series in New York on
Thursday night, outplayed the Indians in all three games.
When they needed a big hit, the Sox got one. Their starting
pitching was better. And they played with a spirit the Indians
haven't shown this season and rarely in the past few years.
"Now I think they know they can play with us," Indians
first-year manager Charlie Manuel said. "What we've got to do is
get better pitching and situation hitting."
Injuries have left Manuel's pitching staff in shambles. He had
to start rookies Paul Rigdon and Jim Brower in the bookend games of
the series, and during Wednesday's 11-4 loss to the Sox, Manuel
used seven pitchers -- six of whom started the year in the minors.
These days the most amazing thing about the Indians is when 24
hours pass without them making another roster move. Since May 18
they've placed seven players on the DL and have had three pitchers
undergo surgery.
"It's tough to put a stretch of wins together with all the
transactions," Alomar said. "But some of the young guys seem to
do a little better on the road, so we'll see this weekend."
The Indians, who have lost four straight, open a three-game
series in Detroit on Friday before playing four games next week in
Chicago.
How far back in the standings the Indians could be by then will
depend on how the Sox handle the pressure in Yankee Stadium and
whether the Indians can get a clutch hit.
Cleveland has stranded 43 runners in its last four games, and in
the first two games against Chicago Indians hitters were 2-for-18
with runners in scoring position.
The Sox went 7-for-11 with runners at second and third in the
first two innings Wednesday night.
Some help could be on the way. Manny Ramirez, on the DL since
May 30 with a strained left hamstring, will begin a rehab
assignment at Double-A Akron on Friday and should join the Indians in
Chicago on Monday.
"We miss Manny in the middle of our lineup," Manuel said.
"He's our big RBI guy."
But when Ramirez returns, what will the Indians do with Russell
Branyan? Since being promoted from Triple-A Buffalo, Branyan has
six homers in 22 at-bats.
"It's going to be tough to cut him," Manuel said. "When he
hits, he puts fear into people. It will be a big decision."
And one made tougher by a pennant race. |