The Cleveland Indians were mauled by the Detroit Tigers over the past three days. The Indians hopes of making it to the play-offs are disappearing rapidly. The Tribe needed to win games against Detroit in order to move up from their 6-1/2 game deficit. The Indians have proved to be a resilient team. The team has been subjected to injury after injury this year. The latest was losing Jack Hannahan with a strained calf muscle. Hannahan was one of the Tribes last hopes in producing enough offense to be competitive with the Detroit Tigers.
Today Justin Masterson pitched fairly well, the Indians jumped into a 2-0 lead in the second inning it looked as though maybe this would be the day the Indians win one against those hungry Tigers. It would take Detroit until the fourth inning to match the two runs the Indians had. The the Indians were quick to strike right back scoring 2 more runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth. The Tribe would again be on top of the Tigers 4-2 after the fourth. Masterson would continue to pitch well blanking those Tigers for the fifth and the sixth innings.
Then it happened, in the top of the seventh inning the Tigers would score five runs to take the lead for the first time today. The Cleveland Indians weren't going to go down today without a fight, the Tribe scored two more runs in the bottom of the seventh making it a one run game. The Tribe trialed by one and the Cleveland bullpen would do their best to keep the Tigers there. The eighth would go scoreless for both teams. The Cleveland fans were thinking, could the Indians produce one more walk off win to overcome these Tigers today?
It just wasn't going to happen, the Detroit Tigers came to the top of the ninth thinking it would be nice to put more runs on the board against this Indians team, then they did. The Tigers scored an insurance run in the top of the ninth making it 8-6 in favor of the Tigers. The Indians still had one more at bat left in this miserableness. The Indians would go down in order in the ninth as the Tribes hopes of reaching any kind of fall play nearly comes to an end today.
Sure there is a slim chance the Indians could go on a major win streak and the Tigers could falter, the way the Tigers are playing in their last two series it doesn't look likely though. The Indians are 9-1/2 games back of the Detroit Tigers and one game behind the Chicago White Sox who the Indians will play tomorrow. This is the furthest back the Indians have been all season long. It is highly unlikely the Indians will be able to climb out of the hole the team has found them selves in.
If there is a bright side, Shelly Duncan did hit tow home runs off Verlander today. Duncan is sure coming alive as of late. Just too bad it is to little to late. We really should take our hats off to the Tribe this year. The team just could sustain all the Injuries and continue to win.