World Series or Bust Begins This Afternoon for the Indians
Okay, the playoffs have finally arrived and it’s time to get serious. 162 games is a damn long time, so I like to liven it up a little bit with some shit talk here and there. But that is over, plus there’s no longer an Astros fan in the office to go back and forth with. Therefore, I am focused on MY team and MY team only.
Everyone knows the Tribe play in the weakest division in baseball, and they still only won 91 games. That’s good enough for last place of the remaining teams in the American League, but they won their division so they are the 3 seed. But regardless of their good but not great record, the Indians need to reach the World Series in order to call this season a success. In fact, I would say that they actually need to win the World Series. And the reason for that all began just around two years ago…
That hurt. Blowing a 3-1 lead, especially with Game 7 at home. Especially after tying it up in the bottom of the 8th. Especially with the rain delay. But the saving grace of it all was that we didn’t expect to be there. It was a wild ride, and ending it in Game 7 of the World Series was sour but looking back the season was sweet. The following year’s ending though was not sweet at all…
2017 was an incredible time to be an Indians fan. We had a 22 game winning streak, the 2nd longest in baseball history. We rolled into the postseason as the odds on favorites to win it all, and we backed it up in games 1 and 2 vs. the Yankees in the ALDS. From there, we dropped 3 in a row, including an elimination game in Cleveland where we fell behind in the 1st inning and never really made too interesting. And just like that, the season of dreams was over in the blink of an eye.
I know we’re the 3 seed this year, and I know the American League is absolutely loaded. I mean, the Yankees and Red Sox both won 100+ games, and the best team in baseball may be the Indians first round opponent, the defending World Champion Astros. None of that can be used an excuse now though. It has to be World Series or Bust for the Tribe. We’ve won the division three years in a row. We’ve been knocking on the door of a championship so much that another empty year will become tiresome. And probably more important than both of those, the Indians window may be growing smaller and the organization has committed to being in Win Now mode.
When Chris Antonetti and the Indians decided to give up Francisco Mejia, the #5 prospect in all of baseball, to bolster their struggling bullpen, they mortgaged their future in favor of going for it this year. Brad Hand is under locks until a team option in 2021, but the Indians other top bullpen pitchers are free agents at the end of this year. Both Andrew Miller and Cody Allen can walk after the season ends, which would mean huge holes to fill on the back end.
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The good news is that although they are the 3 seed and only won 91 games in the Central, the Indians have what it takes to win it all this year. Vegas may disagree, setting their odds nearly 3x more (+950) than that of the Astros (+325) and the Red Sox (+340). But the Indians lineup and pitching rotation is as good as any in the league. In fact, there is a case to be made that they actually have baseball’s best of both. Starting with our hitting, every single player in our lineup either is an All-Star or has been an All-Star at some point in their career.
There really isn’t anyone you can pitch around in this Indians lineup, because the next man up is just as dangerous. If the Tribe find themselves in a slugfest, they have the weapons necessary to outscore their opponent. If they find themselves in a pitchers duel, well, there’s not a staff in baseball that can bring out the arms that Cleveland can. Outrageous statement? Not at all. The 2018 Astros have a really good staff. The 2018 Red Sox have a couple good arms too. But let’s not just limit ourselves to 2018 when discussing how good the Indians have been. Their starting pitching this year has done something that no other staff has done in the history of baseball.
200 strikeouts by 4 different pitchers is remarkable, but just as I said earlier about our lackluster record and division, it doesn’t matter now. Do the Indians starting pitchers have great statistics? Yes. Does that matter to Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and Dallas Kuechel in the 1st three games of the ALDS? Not at all. The Indians could do anything from win the whole damn thing to getting swept by the defending champions.
The Indians have to take at least one of two this weekend in Houston. Hopefully Ohians can tune in to see the games, too. The MLB decided to start today’s game at 2:05 while the majority of middle class America (Cleveland) still has 3 hours of work left. Tomorrow’s 4:35 game will be on at the same damn time as the Ohio State game. Major League Baseball cares about two teams and two teams only, the Yankees and the Red Sox. It’s a shame that the Indians and the Astros fans have to suffer because of it, but we’re used to it. Keep our head down and keep playing hard. Cleveland Against the World. There’s only 1 thing left to do now…