Don't Count the Cleveland Indians out Just Yet
With just nine games remaining in the Major League Baseball season, the Cleveland Indians find themselves in a position eerily similar to 2013.
After a 13-inning victory over the lowly Houston Astros on Thursday night, the Tribe will head to Minnesota for a three-game set with the Minnesota Twins before playing host to the Kansas City Royals and Tampa Bay Rays to end the season.
Nine games. Four out of the postseason.
Can the Tribe remake the magic of 2013 on their way to another playoff appearance? (Yes, the Wild Card Game is a playoff game, Kenny Lofton.)
While we may be witnessing a classic case of “too little, too late” by the Tribe, another unthinkable run is not out of the realm of possibility.
To sneak into the postseason, the Indians will have to jump two of the three teams currently ahead of them in the standings: the Kansas City Royals (+4.5), Oakland Athletics (+4.0) and Seattle Mariners (+3.0).
The following slides show the final three opponents for each team in the AL Wild Card hunt and include end-of-season record projections.
Seattle Mariners
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The Mariners seem to have hit a wall at the wrong time, winning just four of their last 10 games.
And it does not get any easier.
The Mariners will earn a lot of miles for their offseason vacations in the final week of the season, as Seattle will make the trek to Houston and Toronto before returning home to host the scorching-hot Los Angeles Angels.
While the competition itself is less than stellar, the travel schedule leaves much to be desired for a team fighting for a shot at the postseason. None of the remaining three teams have much left to play for, but every team this time of year prides itself on ending another team's season early.
Cleveland will have to play three games better than the Mariners down the stretch to jump them in the standings. Given the grueling schedule ahead of Seattle, the Tribe would appear to be in the perfect position to do just that.
Seattle has played just above .500 baseball (18-14) against its final two divisional opponents of the season and travels to Toronto for the first time this season. The Mariners do have a squadron of strong pitchers they will trot out to the mound in the final week, but how much will their wild travel schedule impact performance?
We will find out...5,648 miles later.
Projection: 4-6 (Finish 86-76)
Oakland Athletics
2 of 4
Despite the plethora of midseason pitching acquisitions, the Athletics find themselves in the perfect position to complete an unfortunately epic ending to their season.
But luck is on their side.
Fortunately for the A’s, Oakland matches up against the softest schedule of those involved in the AL Wild Card hunt.
Following a three-game set with the lowly Philadelphia Phillies, Oakland will welcome the AL West-winning Angels to town Monday. While the A’s have not fared particularly well against the Angels since the All-Star break, Oakland gets a nice reprieve to end the season, traveling to take on the inexplicably bad Texas Rangers in Arlington in a four-game set.
Things could still go wrong for Billy Beane’s club, however. After suffering through bullpen problems throughout much of the year, anything could happen in Texas. Elvis Andrus aims to play the role of "dream-crasher" down the stretch, and Oakland was already tortured by the Rangers to the tune of a 19-6 run differential and a three-game sweep.
The A’s are 11-25 over their last 36 games and have dropped a handful of games to the Astros, White Sox and Rangers.
Still, given the number of quality arms Oakland will put on the bump in the final week, it should be able to avoid embarrassment and earn a spot into the Wild Card Game.
Projection: 7-3 (Finish 90-72)
Kansas City Royals
3 of 4
The Indians find themselves 4.5 games behind their division foes, but fortunately for the Tribe, Kansas City is in for a brutal final 10 days of the season.
After a night off Thursday, the Royals play host to the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers. Making matters worse, Kansas City will face off against Justin Verlander for the series opener before turning its attention to Max Scherzer (Saturday) and Rick Porcello (Sunday).
Following that battle this weekend, Ned Yost and his team will travel to Tribe Town for another divisional three-game set. The Royals and Indians will finish their suspended game from Aug. 31—a game in which the Royals find themselves trailing by two heading into their last at-bats—and then go head-to-head in the Tribe’s final divisional series of the season.
Kansas City then finishes its season in the Windy City for a four-game set against the White Sox, whom the Royals have posted a 10-5 mark against this season.
Mathematically, the Tribe have to play four games better than Kansas City to steal a spot in the Wild Card Game. While that sounds like a lofty goal, the Indians have an opportunity to make their own fate if they can sweep the Royals in Cleveland, making up 3.5 games in three days.
It is not out of the question.
Projection: 3-8 (Finish 86-76)
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Final Projections
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Do not count the Indians out just yet. Unless, of course, that is what they want you to do.
While they have been knocked down a number of times this season (and some even gave up), Cleveland has shown the resiliency to respond when we least expect it. As The Plain Dealer’s Zack Meisel writes, “the Indians are that defiant spider that is somehow still breathing, despite being left for dead several times this season, the most recent after a three-game sweep in Detroit.”
They have posted some of the best pitching numbers in baseball and shown the ability to get hot at the plate on a whim.
Cleveland's schedule, fortunately, offers the team an opportunity to make its own fate in some respects. Sure, the Tribe need quite a bit of help. But so do the rest of the teams taking aim at a Game 163.
Cleveland must play near-perfect baseball to end the season. Series wins will not cut it, as series sweeps are the name of the game.
The magic number is 87.
Should Cleveland post 87 victories on the season and rattle of an 8-2 record to end the season, it will be looking at a second consecutive appearance in the postseason—and a second straight season of magic in Tito’s Tribe Town.
Is that too much to ask?
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