Tribe-ulations

The Cleveland Indians, who have now lost five consecutive times since I called them the best team in the AL Central, played a game last night that was an exact microcosm of their season.

Which is to say they lost.
In excrutiating fashion.
A game they should have won.
Relinquished by the bullpen after solid starting pitching.
With absolutely no offense from a power-packed lineup.
Except for Grady Sizemore, who smacked two homers, a single and walk in five plate appreances, stole a base and scored four of the team's five runs.
Which helped C.C. Sabathia, who got off to a brutal start but then righted himself and was strong for the remainder of his eight innings.

The 10th inning triumph by the White Sox drops the last place Tribe 11 games under .500 and 12.5 games out of first place. It came the day after the shell of Travis Hafner, who's batting .217 with four home runs, took a trip to the DL with a quasi-operational right shoulder.

So please, ignore my previous exhortations about Cleveland keeping Sabathia and getting second base and bullpen help. Feel free to discuss whom the Indians will trade Sabathia to, because unless they turn the ship around in dramatic fashion in the next two weeks, they will have to concede the season.

Yum...crow.