The Indians are giving a whole new meaning to the phrase "Keep on Keeping on" with their latest win. Beauty of all this, is that a win is a win, that is a win. 

You can get out-hit 17-12. You can blow a save. You can have your starter not get out of the fifth inning. You can have your top two hitters in the order go a combined 2-for-12 with six strikeouts and no runs scored and a caught stealing.

But you can do all that and still win a game and if you do win that game, none of that really matters in the end.

And the Indians did all of that in this game, but still won.

They won with grit and determination. It is almost as if they are running on spit and shoelaces. I don't know what that means, but it sounds gritty and as if it was strung together, but effective and that it gets the job done.

The Indians are the McGyver of baseball wins right now.

Spit and shoelaces.

INDIANS - 9 | TWINS - 8 (F/12)

W: Chris Perez (5-2)

L: Ryan Pressly (3-3)

S: Joe Smith (2)

[BOXSCORE]

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Just more proof that Andrew Albers deserved a lot of credit for what happened on Monday. The Indians came back out on Tuesday and were able to get some things going. 

Those games happen, those performances are sometimes ones you just can't anticipate nor stop. There was a little uneasiness with the loss because it knocked the Indians down to third thanks to a Royals win.

But fear not, for the Indians get back in the win column, Kansas City finds out what it is like to face Jose Fernandez, and the Indians are back into second and even gaining a little bit on the Tigers after their loss. Not to mention, they're not too far out of the wild card race, with a big series coming up against one of the leaders.

Gear up for an early start today and then what will be a little bit lengthy period of no Tribe baseball.

INDIANS - 5 | TWINS - 2

W: Zach McAllister (5-7)

L: Samuel Deduno (7-6)

S: Chris Perez (19)

[BOXSCORE]

You kind of needed to see Zach McAllister turn it around. Not just for his sake, but for the good of the rotation as well. They've been scuffling a bit and a nice outing from someone like McAllister was going to be key, especially if the Indians wanted to be in this one and not kill their bullpen with certain guys not being available.

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So…that was an interesting week. The Indians came into August within shouting distance of 1^st place in the AL Central with a big series against the division-leading Tigers looming. Trailing the Kitties by 3 games headed into the 4-game series, even as poor a mathematician as myself could connect the dots and see the significance of the Indians protecting their home turf and at least winning the series against the Tigers. As we all know, game one started off well enough until Chris Perez picked a poor time to have his first bad outing in quite a while, giving up 4 runs in a 4-2 loss. Perez hadn’t allowed a crooked number on the scoreboard since his disastrous blown save in Boston back on May 26, (and as we know he landed on the DL after that outing). Worse even than losing that game to the Tigers, starter Corey Kluber wound up with an injury of his own, spraining his finger and going on the shelf for at least the next 4 weeks. The Indians then proceeded to drop the final three games in the series, and then Friday night’s game against the Angels for good measure. A three game deficit in the division suddenly turned into a 7.5 game chasm, and control of the 2^nd wild card spot ceded way to a 3.5 game hole. After Friday, the Indians found themselves just a half game above the streaking Royals for 2^nd place in the Central Division. What a difference a week makes.

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The psyche of the Cleveland sports fan is built on skepticism. If it’s going good, when is the bottom going to fall out? If it’s going bad, when does it hit rock bottom? The Indians did very little to address fan skepticism this past week, getting swept by the superior Detroit Tigers. The series began with an outstanding performance from Corey Kluber and ended with a position player pitching the ninth inning. In between, Kluber was placed on the DL for four-to-six weeks, the Indians lost a game in 14 innings, and managed to score three runs off of Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer. All of this while Progressive Field became Comerica Park South and a preseason performance from the Browns has turned them back into the apple of the Cleveland sports eye.

It was a terrible showing at a terrible time for the Indians. Over 162 games, hoping to win the AL Central Division crown over the Tigers was probably a pipe dream. Personally, I believe they’re the best team in baseball now that their bullpen issues are sorted out, Victor Martinez is rounding back into form, and Jose Iglesias is actually an upgrade to Jhonny Peralta. The rotation is ridiculously good and Miguel Cabrera is, arguably, the best hitter on the planet. There’s no shame in losing to the Tigers, although there is a lot of frustration, and deservedly so.

The Indians are on the cusp of being able to play with the Tigers, despite their 3-13 record against them this season. Of the losses, two are in extra innings, one is a blown save, and five were started by either Carlos Carrasco or Ubaldo Jimenez. Unfortunately, as my father has always told me, “Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades”.

Now that the dust has settled, we’re left to look at the wild card, which is probably what we’ve been looking at all along. The Indians are 59-41 against everybody not wearing Detroit or Tigers on their jerseys, so there’s some reason to hope that relevancy in September is still a possibility. This past week certainly hurt the Indians’ chances, but the season is far from a complete loss.

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