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Tribe slashes magic number to 3, can clinch at home this weekend
By Sheldon Ocker
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Thursday, Sep 20, 2007
CLEVELAND: Who knew the Indians were closing in on the American League Central Division championship?
Apparently neither the players nor manager Eric Wedge. Until they completed a three-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers with a 4-2 win Wednesday afternoon at Jacobs Field, none of the participants was willing to whisper a word about the postseason.
Either they hadn't heard about the playoffs, or they were afraid to ruin the karma that brought them this far.
However, here are the undeniable facts, based on solid fourth-grade arithmetic:
The Tribe leads the division race by 71/2 games over the Tigers with 10 to play.
The magic number is three. That is, any combination of three Indians wins or Tiger losses gives the title to the Tribe.
Put another way, if the Tribe were to win only two of its last 10 games, the Tigers would have to win all nine of theirs to tie. Moreover, Detroit is in free fall for the right to become the wild-card entry.
After refusing to address the probability of landing a playoff spot, Wedge was willing to answer a question about clinching the division title over the week end, before the Tribe hits the road for the final seven games of the regular season.
''When you have the opportunity to do something like that, you'd like to do it at home,'' he said.
Closer Joe Borowski, who earned his league-leading 42nd save, went even further, saying: ''It's a human tendency to do that (think about being close), but you have to keep it in perspective. We still have to take care of business. Maybe we can do it over the weekend.''
Sweeping a series is not a commonplace occurrence, especially against a quality opponent such as Detroit.
But all year, the Tribe has had the Tigers chasing their tails. In 2006, the Indians lost the season series to the Tigers 13-6; this year, they won it 12-6.
''Sweeping Detroit was more than we could have wished for,'' Borowski said. ''But we can't take it easy, because you never know what might happen.''
Like in 2005, when the Indians were a game away from clinching a wild-card berth and fell apart the last week of the season.
''We definitely have thought about that,'' said C.C. Sabathia, who gave up two runs and five hits in seven innings for the win. ''Most of those guys are still here. We all went through that together, and I think that stuck with a lot of people.''
Sabathia (18-7, 3.19 ERA) pitched himself into trouble in the third inning, allowing two runs and three hits, but righted himself, retiring 12 of the last 13 batters he faced.
In his past 10 starts, Sabathia is 5-1 with a 2.34 ERA, but that hardly tells the story. In three of the four no-decisions, he gave up two runs apiece.
Sabathia will have, at most, two more starts in the regular season. The next is Tuesday in Seattle. He is scheduled to pitch the final game of the season in Kansas City, so conceivably he could win 20 games.
But that is unlikely to happen because if the Tribe clinches the division title before his final appearance, Wedge almost certainly will pull him back, giving Sabathia the opportunity to start two games in the AL Division Series.
On the other hand, it's possible that Fausto Carmona (who also could pitch twice in the Division Series) will start the postseason opener, enabling Sabathia to make that last regular-season start, work the second game of the playoffs and still pitch twice.
The Indians came from behind in each game against the Tigers: 5-1 on Monday night, 4-1 on Tuesday night and 2-0 on Wednesday.
The home run ball played a big part in the sweep because the Tribe was outhit 31-22 in the series (and was outhit in each game). However, the Indians out-homered the Tigers 8-1.
Wednesday's homer was contributed by Casey Blake, who got the Indians on the board by going deep to lead off the third inning against Nate Robertson (8-12, 4.94 ERA).
In the fifth, RBI doubles by Franklin Gutierrez and Jason Michaels, plus a run-scoring single by Asdrubal Cabrera, finished the job.
''I was thinking before the series how nice a sweep would be,'' Blake said. ''But I would have been happy just to win the series. Sweeping is a little bonus. It makes things easier.''
The Indians remain in the running for the best record in the AL, along with the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels. In addition to holding home-field advantage for the entire postseason, the No. 1 seed can pick whether to begin its Division Series on Oct. 3 or Oct. 4.
''That seemed like a far-fetched thing for us to think about in the middle of the season,'' Borowski said. ''Boston was running away with it. But if we got that spot, C.C. and Fausto could start four of the five games.''
And maybe they wouldn't have to, but that's getting way ahead of the plotline.
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com.
CLEVELAND: Who knew the Indians were closing in on the American League Central Division championship?
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