Tribe Hoping Tigers are Just What the Doctor Ordered for Recent Woes

This is a big weekend for the Cleveland Indians. With a chance to face a team that they have had good luck with over the last couple of years, it may be just what the doctor ordered to cure all that ails the team’s struggles and depressed disposition.

The Indians (26-23), as you likely know by now, have lost eight straight contests during series with the Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins, and Chicago Cubs. Losses against a young Royals team was a bad look and the team missed some big opportunities to gain some ground in what once was a tightly contested American League Central during their series with the Twins. The Indians lost both games to the Cubs in walk-off fashion while showing some glimmers of hope that they would emerge from this losing skid before the end of the season. Those losses dropped them six games in back of the first place Chicago White Sox. Read More

Today in Tribe History: September 17, 1937

Cleveland starter Johnny Allen wins his 12th straight decision to open the season, improving to a perfect 12-0 behind a 4-1 victory in Boston over the Red Sox. Read More

Eight Ain’t Great as Baez Blooper Sinks Tribe in Extras; Cubs 3, Indians 2

The pesky Javier Baez played magician again as his bases loaded single to left off of Phil Maton gave the Chicago Cubs a 3-2 walk-off win in ten innings over the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night.

Some botched fundamentals kept the Indians off of the scoreboard in the top of the tenth, while everything fell into place for the Cubs in the home half. Ian Happ opened the inning at second as the designated runner and moved to third on a single to left-center by Kris Bryant. Anthony Rizzo was intentionally walked to set up the force at home. Maton struck out Willson Contreras on three straight and got Kyle Schwarber swinging for out number two. Maton got ahead of Baez on two fastballs, but his 0-2 curveball on the outside edge was yanked into shallow left field for the walk-off hit with Happ scoring the winning run. Read More

Today in Tribe History: September 16, 1987

Joe Carter becomes the Indians’ first member of the 30-homer, 30-stolen base club with his steal in Cleveland’s 5-3 loss to the Seattle Mariners. Read More

Cubs Walk Off Tribe on Back-to-Back Bean Balls; Cubs 6, Indians 5

When things are going bad, teams have a tendency of finding new ways to lose. That was exactly the case on Tuesday night in Chicago, where the visiting Clevelanders lost on a bases loaded hit by pitch in the bottom of the ninth to give the Cubs a 6-5 walk-off victory.

Trailing by a 5-3 count in the top of the ninth, the Indians pulled off a rally that felt improbable given the club’s play of late. Facing closer Jeremy Jeffress, Josh Naylor walked on five pitches. Delino DeShields, with three hits to his credit already on the night, grounded slowly to third to move the runner into scoring position. Jeffress fell behind Francisco Lindor 2-0 before the Tribe shortstop caught a sinker thigh-high and out over the plate. He lofted a fly ball the opposite way and just over the left field wall to tie the game at five. Mike Freeman followed with a walk before Jose Ramirez grounded into a double play. Read More

Cleveland Not Ready to Wave the White Flag Yet as Cubs Host Tribe

The pressure is on the Cleveland Indians to figure out all that plagues them presently and they will be tasked with doing so against a World Series contender in the Chicago Cubs in a pair of games at Wrigley Field this week.

The Indians (26-21) find themselves in a bad place at the moment. Despite the offense picking up some on Sunday, the team blew a decent early lead to drop a sixth straight ball game when they were swept by the Minnesota Twins. Coupled with a Chicago White Sox win on Monday over those same Twins, the Indians are five games out of first place in the American League Central and three games in back of Minnesota with 13 games to play in the 2020 slate. Read More

Today in Tribe History: September 15, 2002

Starting pitcher Cliff Lee makes his Major League debut, allowing just one run on two hits in five and one-third innings, but he earns the tough-luck loss as the Indians are shut out by the Minnesota Twins, 5-0. Read More

Monday Musings about the Tribe with Two Weeks Left to Go

Where, oh where, have the Cleveland Indians gone?

I’ll tell you where. To the very bottom of the American League playoff bracket. Oh, and by the way, things won’t get any easier for the Tribe this week when they face off with National League Cy Young candidate Yu Darvish on Tuesday and tough left-hander Jon Lester on Wednesday in a pair of games against one of the leading squads in the Senior Circuit in the Chicago Cubs.

It’s been a bad week for the Tribe, without a doubt. Defense faltered early in the week, the offense sputtered (but this isn’t necessarily a new thing this season), and the pitching staff made the weekend set with Minnesota look more like a special Twins edition of Home Run Derby. They did their part to waken the “Bomba Squad”. Read More

Today in Tribe History: September 14, 1997

The Indians come back from a 3-1 deficit with a seven-run eighth inning, capped by a bases loaded single from Sandy Alomar in an 8-3 win for Cleveland over the White Sox in Chicago to spoil the day that the club retired Carlton Fisk’s number 72. Read More

Twins Flex Muscles, Sweep Series with Tribe; Twins 7, Indians 5

The “Bomba Squad” was back at it again at Target Field on Sunday as the Minnesota bats drove three out of the park against starter Triston McKenzie to overcome an early three-run deficit and tacked on a fourth blast for good measure as the Twins swept the Cleveland Indians with a 7-5 final.

The Indians pitching staff has been so good for much of the season, but this weekend served as a sufficient reminder that the team was going to need some offense to make any real noise come playoff time. The bats woke up slowly on Saturday and had ample opportunity on Sunday to try to support the pitching staff, but a home run barrage from the Twins lineup for the third straight day proved to be too much for the Tribe offense to contend with as the team’s tailspin continued with a sixth straight defeat. Read More

Today in Tribe History: September 13, 1948

Indians pitcher Don Black suffers what would later be determined to be a cerebral hemorrhage while batting in Cleveland’s game against the St. Louis Browns during the heat of the club’s pennant race. Read More

Five Twins Homers Send Tribe to Fifth Straight Loss; Twins 8, Indians 4

The Indians dropped their fifth straight game as Cleveland pitching was tagged for five home runs by the Minnesota Twins in an 8-4 loss on Saturday night.

The Tribe showed a little more punch in their bats on Saturday than they had over much of the week, but the Twins bested that performance with five long balls to score all eight of their runs. Cleveland starter Zach Plesac was responsible for three of the homers, but pitched well around those mistakes. The Indians bats could not do enough, scratching out half of their runs in the second half of the game before the Twins’ “Bomba Squad” added big insurance off of Nick Wittgren. Read More