“(Sam McDowell) was a helluva pitcher. The best left-hander I ever caught.” – Cleveland Indians catcher Joe Azcue, whose big-league career spanned from 1960 through 1972.

“It’s no fun throwing fastballs to guys who can’t hit them. The real challenge is getting them out on stuff they can hit.” – Sam McDowell, Indians starting pitcher through the 1960s.

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Coming off a come from behind, 4-3 victory over the Royals, the Indians have gone 5-2 in their past 7 games, which means their twenty-game, 4-16 debacle is finally over. Some credit has to be given to Terry Francona and his players for weathering the storm, but there has to be just as much concern.

Yes, those twenty games were against the likes of the Tigers, Red Sox, Reds, Rays, Yankees, and Rangers.

Yes, four of those six teams were in the playoffs last year, and all of them are playing above the .500 mark this season.

Yes, the fact that the Indians won 18 of 22 games before that stretch helped them to manage a 22-20 record from the second game of their double-header on April 28th through June 10th. And yes, that’s a record that could be reasonably expected from this club over a tough 42 game span.

But can a team that expects to be taken seriously as a contender, to be part of the discussion come post-season, lose four out of every five games for almost a month and recover to make the playoffs?

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The Indians surged back into second place in the A.L. Central with a thrilling 4-3 victory over Kansas City, driving the Royals back below .500 where they belong, and rising to .500 themsleves, where … well, they probably belong.  In today’s B-List, Buff marvels at our pitching staff’s collective ability to throw baseballs in almost any direction but at their targets, gleefully recaps the three-run 8^th, and remembers a time when Cody Allen’s play on Eric Hosmer’s grounder seemed commonplace.

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Here's an observation for you. The Royals needed one thing last year. Pitching. If they had it, there's no telling what the AL Central might have looked like.

What's the one thing they have this year? Pitching. Like, loads of it. So where is the offense? Their offense wasn't one of the best, but it was young and figured to be trending upwards towards being really darn good. Yeahhh about that. It's still kind of in the middle, not quite what it was last year. So essentially, this is a balanced out Kansas City Royals team. But really, they are at the same level they were last year in terms of production. It's just where that production comes from.

ROYALS - 3 | INDIANS - 4

W: Cody Allen (2-0)

L: Kelvin Herrera (3-5)

S: Vinnie Pestano (2)

[BOXSCORE]

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