Cleveland Indians Will Make or Break Season with Boston Red Sox Series

Who would have ever thought that the Boston Red Sox would be more afraid of facing the little scrappy Cleveland Indians than they are of the big and mighty New York Yankees?

But such has been the case so far in the 2011 season, which has seen the young and frugal Indians ball club giving the seasoned and big-spending Red Sox all they can handle and more, taking five of seven meetings.

The fifth, coming Monday night, may have been the most impressive in that the Tribe was forced to come from behind and hold off the daunting Boston lineup in the process. Not to mention that the game was being played at Fenway Park, one of toughest road wins in Major League Baseball.

What Cleveland did have going for them, though, was John Lackey on the mound for Boston with Jason Kipnis and Asdrubal Cabrera at the plate.

The two and three hitters in the Tribe lineup only combined to go 6-for-10 with six runs, five RBI and three home runs.

We knew Cabrera was capable of that kind of hitting. But it was an impressive showing for the rookie second baseman, who needed a big game to validate his spot at the top of the order.

But the rise of Kipnis is merely an underlying subplot of the bigger story.

The Indians announced themselves as buyers at the trade deadline and gave the signal that they were gunning for the divisional crown and the playoffs.

Chris Antonetti rolled the dice on Ubaldo Jimenez and gave up the farm to do it (the Arizona Cardinals thought Cleveland gave up too much in that trade). He also picked up Kosuke Fukudome off the scrap heap in Chicago.

The Indians must believe that the stellar pitching staff will be enough to carry an anemic offense through August and September.

I'm not sure that it's possible.

But if the bats can hit as well as they did on Monday night in Boston than anything is possible. We're talking about a team that put up nine runs on the Red Sox! Yes, that's nine runs by your Cleveland Indians!

And three of those came in the eighth inning against Daniel Bar,d who hadn't given up a run in 26 consecutive innings.

This four game series against the American League leading Red Sox will either make or break the Indians' season.

They still sit two games back of Detroit in the AL Central race but the biggest fact goes much deeper.

If you follow the Indians with any regularity you know that after a very strong start the club has been less than impressive over the past month or so. They need a strong showing against a tough team to prove to the league and to themselves that they really are contenders.

Taking three of four in Boston would do just that. And another come-from-behind win can certainly be the catalyst.

On paper the Red Sox should waste the Tribe in this series. Just check the run differentials on the season. The Sox sit at plus-140 with the Indians at minus-9.

But sports aren't played on paper for a reason.

It would be great if we could get to see Jimenez in this series, but he's not scheduled to make his first start for the Tribe until Friday in Texas.

So here's the rundown for the pitching match-ups: David Huff vs Josh Beckett on Tuesday, Carlos Carrasco vs Tim Wakefield on Wednesday and Justin Masterson vs Erik Bedard on Thursday.

With those matchups the Tribe should come away with at least two mores wins in this series (don't count on much from the bats against Beckett, who's having a Cy Young-type season). If they expect to be contenders then this has to be the case.

We're rounding the turn in the playoff race and it's time to bear down and start racking up wins. You have to beat the best if you want to be the best.

You can follow me on Twitter @ClevelandFlack