The much maligned city of Cleveland, Ohio is on quite a roll of late. In addition to the Cleveland Browns trading away their most productive offensive player and naming their 3rd string quarterback as the starter — which naturally has resulted in a two-game winning streak — the Cleveland Indians have ripped off 10 in a row and have clinched a playoff spot…
Sort of.
The Tribe “claimed an American League wild card spot” with a win over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, but based on the new wild card format, the Indians still have to defeat the winner of tonight’s Texas Rangers/Tampa Bay Rays game in order to actually get into the tournament. Yet if you were to watch the Indians postgame party, you’d think they actually ended the city’s 49-year championship drought.
The spraying of champagne after each phase of the playoffs is an accept practice in baseball (for some strange reason), and perhaps the Indians aren’t the first team to do this since the new format. Nevertheless, this is taking premature celebrations to ridiculous levels.
If the Indians lose Wednesday, it’s all over! The season, the championship dreams, everything! Gone!
AL Manager of the Year frontrunner Terry Francona will surely have the Tribe ready for the one-game playoff (and the Indians definitely have the arms to make some significant noise in the postseason; the question is, do they have the sticks?), and teams that get hot at the end of the season are always dangerous. But at what point should a team not rush to pat themselves on the back? Cleveland seems to have solved their closer situation, but only by moving their former ace starter to that spot.
Sidebar: It woulda be nice to have for them to have Justin Masterson on the hill Wednesday night.
The Indians’ turnaround from a 90+ loss team to a 90+ win team in one season is remarkable, but Texas & Tampa also both won 90+ games. Both squads would jump at the chance to make an Indians team team that hasn’t made the playoffs…the real playoffs…since 2007, look absolutely foolish.