Moon Over Parma: Those Indians Are White Hot

Has anyone noticed that the Cleveland Indians have won 10 in a row? And 16 of their past 19? Excitement is at a fever pitch along the Cuyahoga, where they're talking division title, ALCS, and World Series! (Checks AL Central standings. Carefully folds newspaper, slowly rises from desk and leaves room). Cleveland is 65-67, 10 1/2 games out of first with 29 to play. So, um, never mind. But take consolation, tribe fans, in that if you were in the NL West, you'd only be two games out of first. From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

On July 7, they traded CC Sabathia to Milwaukee. Then they lost three straight to the Tigers at Comerica to put the finishing touches on a 10-game losing streak that effectively ended their season. The Indians were 37-53, 16 games below .500, after that 10th loss on July 9. Today they are 65-67, the closest they've been to .500 since May 21 when they were 22-24. As for trading Sabathia, last year's Cy Young winner, the Indians are 28-16 since the deal.

So it could be argued that if they had only traded Sabathia sooner, the Indians would still be in contention. Fausto Carmona went six innings for the win and Kelly Shoppach and Shin-Soo Choo each had two-run homers as Cleveland beat Detroit 9-7 at Comercia. The franchise record for consecutive wins is 13, accomplished twice, the last time in 1951. So the current season is shot for the Indians. But then again ... four days ago, the Tribe Report was writing this:

But while we’re busy worrying about whether Ryan Garko has shown enough to either get back into the picture for 1B next year or bring something valuable in trade, or whether Anthony Reyes is good enough to be a No. 3 or No. 4 starter next year, we’re missing some of the best team baseball the Tribe has played since last October. So I just wanted to take a moment to look at the entire forest. The first half of this season was so miserable to watch, we owe it to ourselves to enjoy what we’ve been seeing lately, even if it comes under the category of cheap thrills.

That was four wins ago. Might this incredible comeback continue? And wasn't that the plot of Major League? A Terrific 10: Shoppach, Choo Fuel Another Big Night As Streaking Tribe Wins 10th Straight, 9-7 [Cleveland Plain Dealer]