Cleveland dropped three of four against Boston this week and have fallen one game below the even-steven mark with three games left on the schedule.  The Tribe will need at least two-of-three to finish at .500, and a three game sweep would be even better. 

If you call the Twins, they’d be in complete agreement.  While the Twins lead the AL Central, it’s the White Sox that have the extra game and can pull even with Minnesota by winning the additional game.

The Indians were completely stymied by Boston pitcher Jon Lester.  He held the Indians to no hits what-so-ever through five, then gave up two hits and a run in the sixth before departing with a 5-1 lead.  Boston added a run in the seventh for the 6-1 win.

Boston jumped all over Jeremy Sowers in the first two innings. 

In the first, they scored three runs.  Jacoby Ellsbury and Jed Lowrie singled, and Dustin Pedroia sac-flied Ellsbury home for the first run and first out of the inning.  Sowers then proceeded to walk Kevin Youkilis and Jason Bay, loading up the bases.  Jason Varitek hit the second sac-fly of the inning for the second run of the inning, and Mark Kotsay drove home the third run with a double. 

In the second, Boston added a pair.  Ellsbury doubled, and Lowrie doubled Ellsbury home.  Pedroia flied out, but moved up Lowrie, and Youkilis singled home Lowrie.  That put Boston up 5-0 until the sixth.

The Indians scored on a Barfield double, a balk by Lester that moved Barfield to third, and a Jamey Carroll single.  Prior to Barfield’s double, the only way the Indians could get on base was walk or get hit by a pitch.

Youkilis hit a home-run in the bottom of the seventh off Tom Mastney, rounding out the scoring.

The two hits by the Indians in the sixth were it.  Masterson, Okajima, and Papelbon all no-hit the Indians after Lester. 

The Indians head to Chicago for the last series of the year.  Zach Jackson (1-3, 5.96 ERA) goes up against Javier Vasquez (12-15, 4.46 ERA).  Gametime is 7:05.

Lee went seven innings, allowing five runs on nine hits with eight strikeouts and three walks.  He raised his ERA to 2.54 in the loss.  He still leads all of Major League Baseball in ERA.  Brandon Webb of the Arizona Diamondbacks is tied with him for wins at 22.

Time Wakefield went six, allowing four runs on six hits, with six strikeouts and a walk.  He raised his record to 10-11 on the year.  He tied Roger Clemens for the most ten win seasons in Red Sox history at ten.

Boston rejoiced on the field after clinching the spot, breaking the Yankees post season string of fourteen straight visits October ball in the process.  They can still catch Tampa Bay for the division crown, sitting three games back with five to play.

That clears up one thing in the AL Central.  Either the Chicago White Sox or the Minnesota Twins will be going to the playoffs, but not both.  Chicago and the Twins are separated by 1.5 games in the Central, the White Sox on top, but they are in the midst of a three game series, with Minnesota winning the first game last night.

The Indians close out the season against the White Sox and could be potential spoilers in the AL Central.

The Red Sox got on the board first in the Cleveland matchup.  Kevin Youkilis hit a home run in the bottom of the fourth after David Ortiz doubled, giving Boston at 2-0 lead.

The Indians scored all four of their runs in the in top of the fifth, making the score 4-2 Indians and giving Lee a great opportunity at his 23^rd win.

After Kelly Shoppach was hit by a pitch, Franklin Gutierrez singled him over to second.  Barfield struck out for the first out of the inning, then Grady Sizemore stroked a single to right, scoring Shoppach and moving Gutierrez to third.  Jamey Carroll grounded out, but moved up both runners, scoring Gutierrez.  Shin-Soo Choo doubled to score Carroll, then scored himself on a Jhonny Peralta double.  Victor Martinez flied out, but it was 4-2 Tribe.

Lee surrendered three runs in the bottom half of the fifth.  After a Cash infield single, former Indian Cocoa Crisp grounded into a fielder’s choice, erasing Cash.  Jacoby Ellsbury doubled, scoring Crisp, then scored on a Pedroia double.  Youkilis was intentionally walked, but Jason Bay singled home Pedroia for what ended up to be the winning run in this one.

The Indians threatened in the top of the seventh, loading the bases on two singles with a walk sandwiched in between, before Martinez fouled out to end the Indians part of the inning.

The Indians loaded them up again in the top of the eighth, but Boston closer Jonathon Papelbon came on and with one pitch squelched any chance of a Cleveland comeback by getting Carroll to ground out with two outs. 

Jhonny Peralta and Josh Barfield each had two hits for the Indians.  Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis paced the way for Boston with two hits each as well. 

Wednesday’s game pits Fausto Carmona(8-7, 5.19 ERA) against recently traded Indian Paul Byrd(11-12, 4.53 ERA).  Carmona was suspended for six games on Monday for his role in the brawl with the Tigers, and it is unclear whether he will appeal and pitch, or will sit this one out.

The Indians scored first in the top of the second as Josh Beckett literally walked home a run.  Ben Francisco doubled to left with two out.  Ryan Garko and Kelly Shoppach were hit by pitches back-to-back, loading the bases, and Asdrubal Cabrera walked, scoring Francisco.

The Red Sox evened up the score in the bottom of the third.  Jacoby Ellsbury singled to center with one out.  After a Dustin Pedroia fly-out, David Ortiz walked, putting runners on first and second.  Kevin Youkilis doubled, scoring Ellsbury, but Jason Bay struck out ending the multi-run threat and keeping the game tied at 1-1.

The Indians got to Beckett in the fifth.  Asdrubal Cabrera singled to right to lead off the inning.  After a Grady Sizemore ground out that moved Cabrera to second, Jamey Carroll singled home Cabrera.  Carroll then pulled off a heads-up steal, swiping second on a Beckett breaking ball that went into the dirt and bounced about three feet away from catcher Jason Varitek. 

The steal paid off as Shin-Soo Choo singled and Carroll motored home.  Jhonny Peralta doubled Choo over to third, and once again aggressive base-running scored a run.  Travis Hafner grounded out to first base, but Choo was off on contact, making the double up at home impossible.  While the Tribe couldn’t score any more runs, they did take a 4-1 lead.

Boston cut the lead by one in the bottom half of the inning on a David Ortiz homerun.   The Tribe could have pitched around Ortiz with two out, but elected to go after him, and he made them pay.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Indians got help from a carom off the leg of the third base umpire, saving a run and actually resulting in a rundown between third and home, tagging out Jason Bay for the third out. 

Boston crawled to within a run in the bottom of the seventh.  Ellsbury started the inning off with an infield single.  Pedroia singled him over to second.  Ortiz gounded into a fielder’s choice, erasing Pedroia.  Rafael Betancourt came on in relief of Perez and gave up a double to Youkilis,   Jason Bay was given a free pass.  Lowrie struck out, and Kotsay flied out, preserving the Indians one run lead.

The Indians sent Jensen Lewis to the mound to close out the ninth.  Lewis had to go through the meat of the order for his twelfth save of the season.  He struck out Pedroia on three pitches, and got Ortiz to line out to right on one pitch.  Youkilis took Lewis’s 0-2 offering to right for a single.  Bay looked at the first ball of the night from Lewis, then ripped the second pitch into the left field corner for a two-out double.  Ben Francisco had a big problem coming up with the ball, but luckily Youkilis had no speed and was held at third.

Jed Lowrie went 0-2 against Lewis, then struck out to end the game, Lewis getting his twelfth save and the Indians won their seventh in a row. The Indians moved two games over .500

Tuesday pits Cliff Lee(22-2, 2.41 ERA) against Tim Wakefield(9-11, 4.18 ERA) in a 7:05 start.

Scott Lewis won his third straight decision for Cleveland, going five innings, giving up eight hits and three runs.  Dontrelle Willis registered the loss, going only two and a third innings and giving up six runs on five hits prior to his early departure.

The Indians roughed him up for three in the bottom of the first.  In reality he roughed up himself, loading the bases on three walks before surrendering a three run triple to Ryan Garko.  Garko had a night to remember, going 4-4 and accounting for five RBI’s in the process.

The Tigers got a run back in the top of the second.  They strung together a double by Edgar Renteria, a single by Ryan Raburn, and Renteria scoring on a double play ball grounder by Brandon Inge. 

They picked up a second run in the third. Placido Polanco singled, Magglio Ordonez walked, and Gary Sheffiled delivered the RBI single making it a 3-2 Indians lead.

The Indians tagged Willis for three in the bottom of the inning.  Victor Martinez opened the frame with a walk.  Garko singled Martinez over to second.  Both runners moved up on a Willis wild pitch, one of four he had on the night, and Andy Marte started the cash-in with an RBI single.  On a Renteria error, Garko also scored and Marte moved over to second.  He’d advance to third on a wild pitch, and score on an Asdrubal Cabrera single up the middle, making it 6-2 Indians.

The Indians tacked on a pair in the fourth, Garko once again in the mix.  Choo singled and moved to second on an error, Jhonny Peralta walked, Martinez double Choo home and left runners on second and third for Garko’s sacrifice fly that scored Peralta.

Detroit, fighting bad pitching and numerous errors, got a run back via the long ball by Renteria, cutting the lead to 8-3. 

The Indians got that run right back in the bottom half of the fifth on a pair of doubles by Cabrera and Francisco, Cabrera scoring.

In the bottom of the seventh, Garko added to his RBI total, doubling home Martinez after he’d singled.

The Tigers added two runs in the ninth of Juan Rincon.  Jeff Larish came on as a pinch hitter and doubled.  Granderson doubled him home, then scored himself on a Ordonez single.  Cabrera grounded out, ending the game at 10-5.

The Indians head to Boston for a four game set that starts Monday night.  Zack Jackson ( 0-3, 6.35 ERA) takes on Josh Beckett(12-9, 3.96 ERA).  Boston trails the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East by a game and a half.  Tampa Bay has clinched a playoff spot, but the division crown is still up for grabs between the two.

Saturday nights’ win against the Detroit Tigers culminated the climb back to .500.  Jeremy Sowers picked up the win, surrendering five hits and a run on Six innings of work.  He worked himself out of trouble early, and settled later for the victory.

Detroit opened the game with an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first.  Placido Polanco doubled with one out, and moved to third on a Sowers’ wild pitch.  Sowers got Magglio Ordonez to ground out, but that scored Polanco from third for the 1-0 lead.

The Indians answered in the bottom half of the first, as Jason Verlander started the game wild.  He hit Jamey Carroll, walked Shin-Soo Choo, and allowed the runners to move up on his wild pitch.  Jhonny Peralta grounded out, but scored Carroll, tying the game at 1.

The Indians took the lead in the bottom of the second.  Kelly Shoppach doubled, and moved to third on a Ryan Garko ground out.  After Franklin Gutierrez walked, Verlander was called for a balk, and Shoppach walked home.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Indians opened up a 4-1 lead, scoring a pair on three hits.  Garko and Sizemore singled, and Carroll walked, loading the bases for Choo.  He drove both Garko and Sizemore home on an infield single of all things. 

The Tigers narrowed the gap to 4-3 on a Curtis Granderson home run after Ryan on first.  Rafael Betancourt gave up the Ryan single, and Rafeal Perez gave up the homer.

The Indians upped the lead to 6-3 in the bottom half of the seventh, taking advantage once again of the walk.  Shoppach walked, Garko singled, and Cabrera singled, scoring both Shoppach and Garko and rounding out the scoring for the game.

Jenson Lewis registered his eleventh save of the year to close out the ninth.

The Indians last home game of the season is Sunday at 1:05.  Dontrelle Willis (0-1, 8.82 ERA) takes on Indians lefty Scott Lewis.

The Indians will be going for .500 Saturday, and distancing themselves from the Tigers for third place.

Choo put up the only run in the first with his 12 home run of the season.

In the top of the fourth, the Tigers took the lead. Curtis Granderson opened the inning with a lead-off double. After a Placido Polanco strikeout and a Maglio Ordonez groundout that moved Granderson to third, Miguel Cabrera powered a two-run home run to right field, his 35th of the year, and first of his multi-homer night, giving the Tigers a 2-1 lead.

The Indians tied up the game on a Grady Sizemore’s 33rd home run of the season.

Cabrera opened the lead back up to 4-2 with his 36th homer and second two run shot of the night, just after Ordonez singled to right. Fausto Carmona hit Gary Sheffield with a pitch, getting just one out in the seventh, ending his night at six and a third.

Edward Mujica came on in relief, getting the last two outs of the seventh.

In the top of the eighth, Ramon Santiago opened the inning with a triple, and scored one batter later when Dusty Ryan delivered a sacrifice fly. 5-2 Tigers.

Indians faithful put on their rally caps in the bottom of the eighth and it worked. With two outs, Sizemore doubled, Ben Francisco walked, and Choo hit his 13th homer of the season a long way, tying the game at 5 all.

Rafael Betancourt came on in the ninth, got a pair of outs, and yielded to Rafael Perez for a strikeout of Joyce to end the Tigers half of the inning.

The Indians Kelly Shoippach was hit by a pitch, and Barfield came on as a pinch runner. Travis Hafner struck out, and Ryan Garko, pinch hitting for Aubrey, singled, moving Barfield to third. That set the table for Jamey Carroll’s game winning single, scoring Barfield and propelling the Indians to within one game of .500, a place they haven’t been since May 24th.

Saturday nights 7:05 start time pits Justin Verlander (10-16, 4.78 ERA) against Jeremy Sowers (3-8, 5.70 ERA).

After a two-plus hour rain delay, the Indians and the Royals played two, the Royals winning both halves of the double-header and thwarting the Tribe crawling back to .500.  It seems like every time the Indians catch wind of .500, they go on a mini-losing streak.

Fausto Carmona lost in the first game 8-3, giving up seven earned runs in six and a third.  Zack Greinke went pretty much the same distance, going six, but did not come back out for the seventh, the difference in the game.

Four of Carmona’s earned runs came in that particular inning.  Until that point, the Tribe was only down 4-3.

In the second loss, Brian Bullington was roughed up, going 4.and two thirds and allowing six runs on eight hits over his time on the mound.  The Indians lost 8-4.  Robinson Tejeda earned the win for the Royals, pitching five innings and allowing only one run during his tenure.  Joakim Soria picked up a save in a wild ninth, with both teams scoring a pair before the game ended.

The Royals had sixteen hits in the second game, the Indians only had eight.  All told, the Royals tallied 31 total hits in both games.

Mark Teahen was the star for the Royals, picking up five hits total, including a pair of home runs in the second affair. 

Grady Sizemore had two hits in the first game and another pair in the second game for the Indians. 

The Tribe has one more against the pesky Royals, hoping for a split with a 1:05 victory.  Jeremy Sowers (3-8,5.60 ERA) pitches against Brian Bannister (7-15, 5.81 ERA).

With most probably two more starts at most the rest of the year, Lee continues to impress on his quest for an Indians player to repeat as the AL Cy Young award winner(C.C. Sabathia won the award last year).  What a fantastic year!

Friday’s game against Kansas City wasn’t the prototypical lockdown game we’ve seen from Lee, the Indians winning 12-5.  He appeared to tire in the eighth, allowing three of his four earned runs in that inning.  Jensen Lewis was actually on the mound for one of Lee’s earned runs, but it was a sac-fly score and not a hit that allowed in the fourth earned run of Lee’s night.  Prior to the ninth though, it was typical Cliff Lee pitching, really a sight to behold.

The Indians started the scoring in this one, getting a run in the bottom of the first on a Jamey Carroll single, a Gil Meche wild pitch, and a Shin-Soo Choo single that brought home Carroll from second.

The Royals got the run back in the top of the second, tying the game after Miguel Olivo was safe at first on an error, and came around to score later in the inning when Esteban German and Mark Teahen singled him in. 

The Indians went back on top in the bottom of the second with one swing of the bat.  Kelly Shoppach hit one over the left field wall on an 0-1 count making it a 2-1 Indians lead.

The Indians opened the game up with a four run fifth. Grady Sizemore singled with one out, and Carroll and Choo, the instigators in the first inning, both registered hits – Carroll a double, and Choo a single; Choo’s single scoring Sizemore. 

Jhonny Peralta struck out for out number two, but Ben Francisco pummeled a double to left, scoring Carroll.  Shoppach’s single capped the four run outburst, plating both Carroll and Francisco and making it 6-1 Indians.

Jose Guillen turned out to be Lee’s Achilles heel.  In the fifth and the ninth he homered off Lee, accounting for two of the five runs the Royals scored.  The hit in the fifth made it a 6-2 game.

In the sixth, Sizemore delivered a two run RBI, doubling with Franklin Gutierrez and Asdrubal Cabrera on the base paths.  Gutierrez and Cabrera were both on base via the walk when Sizemore’s double scorched into center.

 Sizemore ended up the third run of the inning, after a Carroll groundout moved him to third, and a Peralta sac-fly brought him in.

The hit-fest continued in the seventh.  Gutierrez doubled, and Cabrera hit a two run homerun. 

Choo delivered a homerun in the bottom of the eighth, giving the Indians a 14-2 lead.

In the ninth, Lee gave up an immediate home run to Guillen, his second and twentieth of the year. 

Lee then gave up an infield single to Ka’aihue, got Olivo on a popup, gave up a single to German and a double Teahen that scored Ka’aihue.

That brought out Jensen Lewis in relief of Lee.  Lewis got the last two outs via the fly ball, but on the first, German scored.  The final score was 12-5.

The Indians had 15 hits, the Royals 11.  There were five home runs total in the contest, with the Royals’ Jose Guillen accounting for both on the Royals side.

Guillen, German, and Teahen all had two hits apiece for the Royals.  Sizemore and Choo had three hits apiece for the Indians. 

Play resumes in Kansas City on Saturday.  Royals righty Zack Greinke (10-10, 3.70 ERA) goes up against Indians righty Fausto Carmona (8-6, 4.88 ERA).  Gametime is 1:05 and the action can be heard on XM channel 181.

Jeremy Sowers put together a string of ten straight batters twice and picked up the win, going eight strong innings, giving up four hits, a walk, one earned run, and recording seven strikeouts in victory.

While the Indians scored six, it wasn’t in their normal breakout style.  They pecked away, putting up one in every inning but the second, sixth, and ninth.  None of the runs came via the long ball. 

In the first, Grady Sizemore got the Indians rolling by taking a walk and swiping second, his 37^th stolen base on the season.  With two out, Jhonny Peralta singled, scoring Sizemore.  Travis Hafner registered his first hit during his first at bat, singling Peralta to second, but the Indians could do no more damage, even though they loaded the bases on a Kelly Shoppach walk.  Michael Aubrey flied out to end the inning.

In the fifth, Aubrey came through.  With two out and Peralta and Hafner on first and second, Aubrey singled to center, scoring Peralta.

The Indians would manufacture a run in the fourth as well.  Asdrubal Cabrera walked, then ended up scoring on a David Dellucci triple.

The Orioles scored their only run of the game in the bottom of the fourth.  Nick Markakis walked.  Aubrey Huff doubled, and Ramon Hernandez grounded out, scoring Markakis.

The Indians continued their one-run wonder innings in the fifth, seventh, and eighth.  In the fifth, doubles by Shoppach and Marte resulted in a run.  The seventh it was Shoppach again crossing the plate, this time via a walk, an Aubrey single, a Marte single, and a Cabrera sacrifice fly.   

In the eighth, Shoppach was on the other end of the run, driving in Franklin Gutierrez with a double, after he singled to right and Hafner was intentionally walked, putting runners on first and second. 

All in all, a very good night by Shoppach.  He ended the day two for three, scored a pair, and drove in one. 

Baltimore used six pitchers in this one.  Starter Radhames Liz took the loss, going 4.2 while surrendering eight hits and four runs. 

All told, the Indians tallied 12 hits.  Marte got two of the hits, raising his batting average to .207 on the year. 

The Orioles and Indians go at it two more times in this four game set.  Wednesday night marks Scott Lewis MLB debut.  He’ll go against Chris Waters.  Game time is 7:05. 

Assuming the addition of Lewis to the starting rotation of the Tribe means they’ll go six for the rest of the season, Cliff Lee would not get enough starts to reach 25 wins.

The stat line read 11 hits apiece for both teams, but the game wasn’t anywhere as close as the hit totals might suggest.

The Indians have been the recipients of some great starting pitching all year, so they were due to get slammed from by somebody.  Fausto Carmona gave up seven runs on six hits, lasting 5.1 innings and surrendering one of the four Baltimore home runs.  As bad as his stat line looked, he really didn’t pitch that badly until the sixth.

The Indians held the lead early, scoring one run in the second on a Shin-Soo Choo double, a Ryan Garko walk, and an Asdrubal Cabrera double that scored Choo.

Baltimore answered the run in the bottom half of the inning, stringing together a pair of singles by Huff and Ramon Hernandez that put Huff on third.  Luke Scott hit into a fielder’s choice, but it plated Huff making it a 1-1 affair.

The Indians went back on top in the fourth.  Choo once again started things off, singling.  Garko singled as well.  With runners on first and second, Cabrera singled Choo home and Garko to third.  Franklin Gutierrez hit a sacrifice fly that scored Garko, and the Indians were up 3-1. 

Then the home runs started.  Scott hit his 22^nd of the year, narrowing the Indians lead to 3-2.

In the bottom of the sixth, Baltimore broke the game wide open, putting up a seven spot, the highlight being Aubrey’s grand slam. 

Carmona got himself into trouble with the walk, issuing a free pass to Hernandez and Kevin Millar with a Scott single sandwiched in between.  Salazar came on as a pinch hitter and singled home Hernandez and Scott.  Carmona issued his third free ride of the inning to Roberts, and he was gone.

Rincon relieved, and gave up a single to Adam Jones, scoring Millar.  With the bases still loaded, Huff hit his grand slam, capping the seven run inning and making it a 9-3 Orioles lead.

The home-run derby reconvened in the bottom of the eighth.  With Brendon Donelly on the hill, he gave up a pair of walks to Juan Castro and Brian Roberts, then dished up a home run ball to Adam Jones on his first offering.  After a Huff single, Hernandez went yard, making it 14-3 Baltimore, and that would be the way it ended.

Huff led the way for Baltimore, going 3-5 with 4 RBI.  That put him over the 100 mark for the year at 102.  Jones also went 3-5 with 4 RBI for Baltimore. Cabrera paced the Tribe with a 3-3 night and two RBI’s, his 31^st and 32^nd of the season.

The two teams meet again Tuesday at 7:05.  Jeremy Sowers (2-8, 5.97 ERA) versus Radhames Liz(5-4, 7.92 ERA).