Going through this, here's something that I've kind of found really funny, especially with the Browns first game on Thursday night and the preseason starting for football.

When this Indians season started, there was little care, perhaps even some disdain towards the team. Yeah they were active in the offseason and whatever, but there were a lot of fans dis-interested and still in that "prove it to me first" mentality. But now with the recent surge, a lot have come back and even the ones who were still around were getting excited. Heck, I'm excited, how could you not be the way the team has been playing?

But, a large portion of people getting excited were jumping from "well whatever, another year another losing season for the Tribe" to playoffs, to World Series. Maybe not saying World Series, but reading comments after his series ended in a total failure, there are people who were saying "The Indians can't hang with the big boys" as if they were expected to all a long. 

This team was not very good last year. They were very flawed. They had talent and drive that showed at times, but largely a team that needed fixed in many areas. They got fixed in many areas, but they're still very much a work in progress. They went from a non-contender to a hopeful contender and are still there.

They need more pieces to compete with a team like Detroit, who just has more talent right now. It isn't unreasonable to expect competitiveness, which they were in each of these games except the last one, but it is a little unreasonable to expect a four game sweep and utter domination of the rest of the schedule en route to the World Series.

Which I think a lot of fans were hanging their hats on, and that's a shame, because it feels as if this sweep has almost diminished what is happening in Cleveland with this baseball team.

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This is not about wins and losses. People keep saying this is a big series and I think people get lost in their response. Obviously, Francona and the players are going to say "every game is a big series" and "there's more games after to play as well" as your typical cliche responses.

This series is big, but it has nothing to do with the record. Yeah if the Indians lose three of four, it hurts. If they win three of four, it helps, but it's only a few games, there's still more work to do.

But that is exactly why the records, the wins and losses, do not matter when it comes to this series. This is so much more than wins and losses. This is momentum, this is confidence, this is a battle for having a mental edge from August 9th on. You win this series, you shift momentum in your favor. You win this series, you put a ton of eggs in the confidence basket moving forward. You win this series and you have that edge over the other team going forward with just one series left. You set the tone for that series too.

That all being said, this was a horrible turn for momentum's sake. But the good news is that there are three games left. So don't go anywhere.

TIGERS - 4 | INDIANS - 2

W: Al Alburquerque (2-2)

L: Chris Perez (4-2)

S: Joaquin Benoit (13)

[BOXSCORE]

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The non-waiver trade deadline has come and gone and Indians General Manager Chris Antonetti was only able to make one minor move, acquiring Marc Rzepczynski from the St. Louis Cardinals. The Indians had some holes, but the exorbitant asking prices at the trade deadline were prohibitive, so Antonetti took a gamble on a left handed reliever nicknamed “Scrabble”. For what it’s worth, the tiles required to make up his name, Rzepczynski, combine to be worth 40 points. Of course, there is only one Z tile in Scrabble, but it would seem obvious why the nickname fits. In any event, like most of Chris Antonetti’s recent deals, this one is not short-sighted, nor is it costly. Because of Antonetti’s recent track record with deals of this type, we should give him the benefit of the doubt.

The Indians wanted a second matchup lefty in their bullpen. The asking price for San Francisco’s Javier Lopez was reportedly Danny Salazar, one of the top prospects in the Indians’ system. Frankly, that was a ridiculous price. Lopez is only signed for two months and reportedly wishes to play closer to his native Virginia in the future. While Cleveland is certainly closer than San Francisco, it would seem that Lopez would look for a multi-year deal in free agency in one of the league’s East Divisions. Another candidate, Joe Thatcher, was traded to Arizona for cost-controlled starting pitcher Ian Kennedy, a middle of the rotation guy with a couple of years left on his contract. Scott Downs, an impending free agent, was traded from the LA Angels of Anaheim to Atlanta for peanuts. No other lefties were traded before Wednesday’s deadline, including guys like Travis Blackley (HOU), Wesley Wright (HOU), James Russell (CHC), Mike Gonzalez (MIL), and Oliver Perez (SEA).

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Several things can happen at this point. The Indians can sweep the Detroit Tigers and take over first place in the AL Central division. That is highly unlikely. The Tigers can sweep the Indians and put the Indians seven games out. That too would seem unlikely the way the Indians are playing. Each team has to win a game in this series.

They could win three of the four and still drive the Indians back, or the Indians could win three of four and pull within a game of first place. Or the teams can split and we are back where we started with just a few more games left before the two teams.

I was driving in from Mentor yesterday and on Route 271 there was an electronic billboard. Battle for the Central Divsion, Monday-Thursday. The old English D and the new Block C. This is for real people. Before we can get into that, we have some weekend business to attend to.

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