After a great series win by the Tribe over Detroit, the Indians are now just 3 games back, although still in third place, behind the Tigers and White Sox who are both tied for first. As the Tigers go on to face the Blue Jays, the Indians will be heading to Minnesota to take on the worst team in the American League. This looks like a positive time for the Tribe to make up some more ground as the Indians will face the Royals after the Twins. Cleveland has to be looking to win four or five of the next six games to keep with the Tigers when they travel to Detroit on August 3rd.

The Twins have already given up this season, but certainly will not just lay down for the Indians when they enter Target Field. Minnesota did just get swept by Chicago and have given up at least 5 runs in each of their last five games. This should bode well for the Indians new found offense that they discovered in the 7th inning of the final game against Detroit. While he didn't have a lot of hits, Travis Hafner made his count as he went 3-10 with 11 total bases (two home runs and a triple). Carlos Santana seems to be heating up as well bringing some much needed power to the middle of the lineup. With the big bats heading back to normal and the addition of Brent Lillibridge, how could they lose?

July 27th, 8:10 PM EDT: Josh Tomlin, RHP, 5-7, 5.34 ERA vs Scott Diamond, LHP, 8-4, 3.16 ERA

Josh Tomlin will be pitching for his life as the Indians series win over the Tigers keeps them in contention. If Tomlin struggles he will likely be the next one out of the rotation if the Indians promote a player from Columbus or make a trade for Zach Greinke (Josh Johnson is out there too). His last time out wasn't bad (2 earned runs over 6 innings), but he did allow eight hits and his season numbers are less than desirable. If he can't beat the worst offensive team in the Majors, he can't be trusted to beat anyone.

The Indians have already faced Diamond once this year and the results were less than stellar. The Twins won that game as Diamond threw 7 innings against a Tribe team that looked like they had never seen a human being throw a ball with their other arm. They did manage to get a couple of unearned runs across, but it wasn't enough as Diamond took home the win. Since then the Indians have learned to hit lefties and have even won a game or two against south paws. It will be interesting to see them take their revised strategy (more Lou Marson and Jose Lopez, less Casey Kotchman and Jack Hannahan) against an old opponent.

July 28th, 7:10 PM EDT: Justin Masterson, RHP, 7-8, 4.12 ERA vs Sam Deduno, RHP, 1-0, 3.94 ERA

Masterson had another good outing in his last start, holding the Orioles to a single earned run in 8 innings. That means he has allowed one or fewer earned runs in 6 of his last 9 starts. Of course his tendency to alternate between great and terrible starts has also continued through his last 6 games, meaning he is lined up for a bad one. Hopefully he can take advantage of the situation and win the middle game for the Tribe as it should be the easiest of the three.

Deduno is an older fella who will be making his debut against the Tribe in this series. The 29 year old has pitched a total of nine games since he made his debut with Colorado in 2010. This is his first year attempting to be a starter and it is still too early to tell how well that is going. In his first game he was one out shy of matching his entire career innings pitched to that point and has only thrown twice since then, against Baltimore and Kansas City. He did win his last game against the Royals, his first career win.

July 29th, 2:10 PM EDT: Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 8-9, 4.97 ERA vs Francisco Liriano, LHP, 3-10, 5.31 ERA

For those of you who think talking about the Indians trading for Josh Johnson is far fetched, you must have a short memory. This time last year there was one pitcher that everyone wanted. It looked like he was going to be signed by Detroit, but somehow he will be starting this game for the Cleveland Indians. The team that every one says never make any big moves. The results of the trade are unimportant when considering the context of the trade itself. 

Jimenez pitched the opener against Detroit and threw his third scoreless outing of the year. He is completely unpredictable at this point, but as with the other starters, will be facing a AAAA team offensively (outside of Mauer and Morneau) so it will be a good game for him to keep things going.

If only Roberto Hernandez could be back in time to make this start against Liriano. The two pitchers are very much alike, both started as very promising talents, throwing out of the bullpen in the late 2000's and were quickly made into solid starters. After one great season by each, they fell victim to problems that kept them out of the Majors. Liriano had shoulder surgery and missed all of 2007 while Carmona (at the time) had a mental breakdown and missed parts of 2008 and 2009. Liriano is still pitching for the Twins, although nowhere near his old level and Fausto, now Roberto will be back with the Indians soon. Luckily the Indians play the Twins two more times this year after Hernandez will be back so we may get to see these two former phenoms match up again.

Player of the Game

Carlos Santana hit a solo home run to begin the comeback in the 7th inning and added a double later in the game. For this, he wins his 8th Player of the Game of the year with a score of 3.58. Each pitcher had a score over 1.50 in this game and Shin-Soo Choo, Asdrubal Cabrera, Jason Kipnis and Travis Hafner all had good games as well.

Feathers Up

Zach McAllister continues to impress as he threw his tenth consecutive decent start in a row. Tonight he matched up well against Justin Verlander although he was hurt early by a Jose Lopez error.

The Indians offense sparked in the 7th inning as each important player came through when he needed to. Travis Hafner and Carlos Santana hit solo home runs to start the inning and tie the game. Jose Lopez, Shin-Soo Choo, Asdrubal Cabrera and Jason Kipnis all followed with singles to score a total of four runs in the inning to give the Indians a two run lead over Justin Verlander and the Tigers.

Brent Lillibridge made his Indians debut and started off what will most certainly be known as the Lillibridge era of Cleveland baseball. This can be differentiated from the Aaron Cunningham era as Lillibridge was brought in as a late inning defensive replacement in left field and struck out with a runner in scoring position in his only at bat.

If there ever was a 'Feathers Up' its that the Tigers are completely clueless against the combination of Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez. The rest of the league is as well, but the Tigers have gotten more chances than anyone, so they should probably figure it out first. The reason the Tigers face the pair so much is the fact that the Indians have gone into the 8th with the lead in 6 of the 9 games the two teams have played this year and have won seven of the nine.

Justin Verlander is no David Price.

Rehab Update: Roberto Hernandez nee Fausto Carmona threw in single A Lake County tonight and pitched 5 innings, allowing only a single earned run. He allowed a two run home run that was unearned because of previous errors, but struck out 4 and walked none in what was a great effort for a single A pitcher. He will look to continue this success at more advanced levels as he continues to serve his suspension until August 11th.

Feathers Down

Joe Smith earned a win for his second game in a row, stealing an important money stat from the starting pitchers (Ubaldo Jimenez and Zach McAllister) and wasting it on himself. Both starters deserved the win demonstrating a flaw in the win stat more than anything that Joe Smith did himself.

The Indians are terrible at run downs. Today it took five throws to catch Austin Jackson in the fourth inning as he tried to extend a single into a double. This is the second time this has happened this series, and while it hasn't hurt the Tribe yet, it could. Run the baserunner almost to the base and then throw. There should be a maximum of three throws in a good run down.

Play of the Game

Asdrubal Cabrera hit a line drive single to right field to knock in the go ahead run on a two strike two out pitch from Verlander.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 5 - Detroit Tigers 3

Roster Update: As predicted, Brent Lillibridge has taken Aaron Cunningham's place on the Indians 25 man roster. This continues with the Indians strategy of releasing a player every time they knock in the winning run in a game.

Player of the Game

Casey Kotchman hit a two run home run to score the first runs of the game for the Tribe. His final score was 4.38 and he was aided in winning today by the fact that five Indians had negative games. They were lead by Asdrubal Cabrera with a score of -3.28 mostly accrued from two unearned runs and two errors.

Feathers Up

After a slight verbal altercation with Miguel Cabrera yesterday, Asdrubal Cabrera pushed the other Cabrera to the ground after tagging him out at second. This is exactly the type of aggression that the Indians need to show. Way to get after him little guy.

Casey Kotchman hit his 10th home run of the season to score Johnny Damon and put the Indians on the board. This makes him the 4th Indian to make it to double digits. The Indians now have 11 players with 4 or more home runs. Just for comparison, the Tigers currently have 5 players with 10 or more home runs and just 8 with more than four. Of course they also have Miguel Cabrera who has hit 24 compared to the Indians leader the other Cabrera (as well as Shin-Soo Choo) with a dozen.

Cody Allen, whose run to the Major Leagues can only be described as meteoric, pitched his third straight quality relief appearance tonight. This was his best game so far as he threw an inning and a third, striking out two. He is yet to allow a run as an Indian.

Tony Sipp threw his third straight positive game as well and has had good outings in 9 of his last 11 attempts. He seems to be back on track after an absolutely horrendous start to the season.

Going into this series if there was one game to lose it was this one. The matchup wasn't favorable and the Indians don't need to sweep to stay in the mix of things, just win the series. They will get another chance to do just that against last year's AL MVP, Justin Verlander.

Milestone Alert: When Johnny Damon flew out to deep center in his second at bat he passed Rusty Staub for 34th in at bats all time in MLB history.

Feathers Down

And then that happened. Asdrubal Cabrera had his second two error inning of the season as he overthrew Casey Kotchman to allow Omar Infante to reach base and compounded the situation with a terrible throw to second trying to get Infante out on the next play. The two errors lead to two unearned Tigers runs.

For some unknown reason, Derek Lowe pitched through the sixth inning. Every time Lowe starts he proves that he can barely make it through 5 innings, let alone six, but for some reason Manny Acta keeps pushing him. This time Lowe wasn't as bad as he could have been as he only gave up single runs in each of the fifth and sixth innings, but it could have very easily been worse. Lowe needs to be removed from the starting rotation and placed in the bullpen or off the roster as soon as possible, even if it means the return of Jeanmar Gomez, David Huff or Kevin Slowey.

Play of the Game

Travis Hafner took a called strike three to end the 6th inning with a runner at third base. I don't know what he was thinking, but he has to know that it is up to him to knock in that run in that situation and he can't take close pitches.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 - Detroit Tigers 5

Player of the Game

Ubaldo Jimenez pitched 6 innings of shut out baseball against the Tigers tonight. Someone must have told him how important this series is. He gave up 7 hits, all singles, with a majority of them to lead off innings. There were a few scoring threats by the Tigers, but Jimenez kept his cool and got the outs he needed. His scored of 4.76 gives him 5 Player of the Game awards this year.

Feathers Up

Get 'em on, get 'em over, get 'em in. Rick Manning said this at least 5 times in the bottom of the 2nd inning when the Indians scored the first run of the game. Carlos Santana got on via double. Travis Hafner then got him over with a long fly out to center. Lastly, Johnny Damon got him in with an RBI single.

The Indians scored their second run in the 4th inning by stringing together 3 hits in a row: a double by Jason Kipnis, an infield single by Michael Brantley, and an RBI single by Santana. The offense proved tonight that they don't need power to score runs, they just need to get hits in the right situations.

The Tribe offense picked things up after the Tigers came back to tie the game in the 7th inning. Speed Demon, Travis Hafner, led off the inning with a triple. Aaron Cunningham would suicide squeeze Lou Marson (who ran for Hafner) in to score, and Cunningham advanced to 2nd base on an error.

The whole team contributed in today's win. Hitting in pitching were in sync, and the Indians are back over the .500 mark with a 49-48 record. 

Feathers Down

"Jack looks at Johnny, Johnny looks at Jack..." That's what happened in the 6th inning with what should have been the 2nd out. Brennan Boesch hit a very catchable pop up near foul territory down the left field line. Lack of communication by Jack Hannahan and Johnny Damon caused the ball to drop, and Boesch was credited with a single. Luckily, Ubaldo Jimenez was able to get out of the inning unharmed, but he threw 9 extra pitches, including a wild pitch, that could have been avoided.

The Tigers tied the game up in the 7th inning after Joe Smith gave up a walk and then a 2-run homer to Miguel Cabrera. This prevented Ubaldo Jimenez from getting the much deserved win.

Play of the Game

Aaron Cunningham's squeeze bunt brings the winning run across the plate.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 - Detroit Tigers 2

In what was exactly the move Indians fans have been looking for throughout the past few years, the Indians have traded Jose De La Torre (a 26 year old relief pitcher in AA) to the Boston Red Sox for Brent Lillibridge (a 28 year old glorified pinch runner). 

First, what the Indians are losing. De La Torre started in Columbus this season after being brought over from the Mets during the off season. He was moderately successful, pitching in 7 games, striking out 16 in 10 innings and giving up four runs, but was demoted and has spent most of the season with Akron. With the Aeros he pitched well, going 7-1 from the bullpen with an ERA of 2.80 in 27 games (1 start). While he was playing well in AA, the fact that he is already 26 places him 2-4 years older than most of his competition. He was unlikely to ever make the Cleveland Indians Major League roster.

In return, Brent Lillibridge will be immediately placed on the 25 man and has already replaced Lonnie Chisenhall on the 40 man roster as Chisenhall has been moved to the 60 Day DL. This is his second trade of the year as he went to the Red Sox from the White Sox in the Kevin Youkilis trade. Of course the Indians would have preferred Kevin Youkilis. This year Lillibridge is batting .165, which means he will fit in very well with the other Indians left fielders, Aaron Cunningham (.175), Johnny Damon (.233) and Shelley Duncan (.225). He will most likely take the place of one of these players on the roster, which is too bad because then the Indians won't be able to brag about having four left fielders on the roster who are all batting under .250. At least we won't have to watch Cunningham look like a fool at the plate anymore. Now we can watch Lillibridge.

Overall I give this trade an A+, because they got a Major League outfielder for a minor league relief pitcher that will most certainly never pan out. A real positive to this trade, Lillibridge should be a boost defensively as he has only made one career error in 107 games in the outfield. He is also capable of playing first, second, third and shortstop, although he is not quite as proficient at those positions.

Indians set up man Vinnie Pestano said after yesterday's win over Baltimore, "By the way biggest series of the year starts tomorrow. Want this place shakin the next three days." He is close to write as the next 12 games is going to make or break this Indians season. I hate to put an ultimatum forward this early in the season, but I can at least say this much. If the Indians don't at least split the two series against Detroit and between the next 12 games gain at least one game on the Tigers, their chances of winning the Central Division will be greatly diminished.

That run starts today as the Tigers are coming into town to face the Tribe after the Indians barely staved off a sweep from the Baltimore Orioles. The Tigers themselves are on a hot streak (8-2 in their last ten) and the Indians will need to step up, especially offensively in order to beat them. While some players are getting back on track (Shin-Soo Choo and Johnny Damon) others have fallen off (Travis Hafner and Jason Kipnis). The Indians will need every player in the top of the lineup hitting at their best to score off the Tigers hard throwing starters and efficient bullpen. They will also need to keep up with the run scoring machine that is Detroit's offense.

Roster Update: Rafael Perez, LHP, is due back in Cleveland at some point during this series and the Indians definitely need him. Look for recent call-up Cody Allen or Jeremy Accardo to be sent back to Columbus to complete the move. Another option would be to finally end the Aaron Cunningham experiment as he has been completely useless during his time with the Tribe.

July 24th, 7:05 PM EDT: Doug Fister, RHP, 4-6, 4.04 ERA vs Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 8-9, 5.24 ERA

Fister is coming off two fantastic starts that have lowered his ERA .70 points. Of course these came after three terrible starts that pushed it up there in the first place as he had an ERA of 2.72 just a month ago. His lone start against the Tribe this year came in a Tigers loss. Fister allowed two runs and the bullpen allowed two more as that was all the Indians needed to secure victory. Remember that two series the Indians have played against Detroit, a sweep in late May and a series win in early June, came when the Tigers were a terrible third place team, not like now when they are a juggernaut first place team that has the exact same players (for the most part) that they have had for the entire season.

Drew Pomeranz got roughed up his last two times out, but before that had only given up 7 earned runs in his last 6 starts. Oops, wrong alternate future. Ubaldo Jimenez has given up 13 runs in his past two starts, covering just 8 innings pitched. As you can expect, he lost both games and continues on his trend of getting a decision in every start, good or bad (he only has two this year without either a win or loss). At least with him you know the outcome of the game as soon as he leaves. The Indians bullpen in wins (Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez) is so strong that there is no doubt of victory if he can leave the game with a lead, but more often than not, he has left the game with a deficit, usually at some point between the 5th and 6th innings.

July 25th, 7:05 PM EDT: Max Scherzer, RHP, 9-5, 4.61 ERA vs Derek Lowe, RHP, 8-8, 5.04 ERA

Scherzer is a hard thrower and although he has been inconsistent at times, looks to be on the right track this year. His last truly bad game came against the Indians on June 6th and he has been stellar since then, pitching at least through the fifth in every game and never allowing more than four runs in a game. Most of Scherzer's issues occurred early in the season when he went 1-3 over his first five games with a 7.77 ERA. Since then he has went 8-2 and is pitching like the pitcher Detroit thought they were getting when they traded Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson for him and Austin Jackson.

Derek Lowe continues his push towards forced retirement as he struggled yet again in his last start. He has went from being the Indians best pitcher, from the start of the season until May 26th, to being their absolute worst. His last start set a new low for him (it was hard, but he was up to the challenge) as he threw into the fourth and allowed 9 earned runs. Whenever the Indians decide to make a move for a new pitcher, whether it be via trade, from AAA (most likely Corey Kluber, Chris Seddon or Jeanmar Gomez) or Fausto Carmona returning as Roberto Hernandez, Lowe needs to be the one to go.

July 26th, 7:05 PM EDT: Justin Verlander, RHP, 11-5, 2.42 ERA vs Zach McAllister, RHP, RHP, 4-2, 3.21 ERA

Verlander is currently in a tight race for his second consecutive AL Cy Young award, competing with the likes of Jered Weaver, David Price and Chris Sale. He is within the top four in all the triple crown stats(wins, strike outs and ERA) and could very well compete for that rarity again this season. Verlander has pitched 28 games against the Indians, the most against any team, and if you took those 28 games as one season he would be laughed at as a Cy Young candidate. Since his debut, Verlander has gone 13-12 with a 4.70 ERA against the Tribe. He has also hit 16 Indians and thrown 15 wild pitches against Cleveland when he doesn't even have double digits against any other team in either stat. Indians hitters have also walked ten more times than any other team, showing a relaxation of control when Verlander faces the Indians. This season they have played one game against each other, which was won by Cleveland although they only scored two runs off Justin. This game is nowhere near unwinnable and is essential to the Tribe's postseason hopes.

McAllister will do his job on the mound when Verlander is sitting and he has been the epitome of consistency this year. Zach is yet to have a bad start and he continued his streak of excellence his last time out, even though he lost the game. He has faced the Tigers twice in his career, giving up a total of 2 earned runs in 11.1 innings. He has only walked one batter in those games and struck out seven. The Indians know they can depend on McAllister even while every other member of the starting rotation struggles.

Player of the Game

Justin Masterson played the ace card again tonight as he dominated the Orioles from start to finish (or at least until there was one out in the 8th). Masterson won his 6th Player of the Game out of his last 9 starts and has scored negative points in each of those three starts he hasn't won it. Tonight he earned 7.07 points, a fair average for him, with 6 strike outs and one run allowed in those 7.1 innings pitched. It is his team leading 10th award of the season. Shin-Soo Choo also deserves recognition for his score of 5.38 derived from a 2 run home run and a single.

Feathers Up

Justin Masterson owns Chris Davis. Today he struck him out 3 times, with Davis never really having a chance against him. In his career Davis has 10 plate appearances against Masterson and has struck out 5 times. Since the Indians are done with the Orioles for 2012, Davis will have to live with this one for a long time without getting another chance.

The Indians got back even at .500 after losing four in a row, but the damage has already been done. Detroit has won 8 of their last 10 and is currently 4 games above the Tribe after being in third place just last week. By August 5th the Indians will have played 6 more games against the Motor City Kitties and will likely know their fate in the Central Division.

Rehab Update: Rafael Perez pitched two innings in Akron today as he is pretty much ready to return to the team. So far he has allowed no runs on 3 hits in 5 innings for Akron and Columbus. The Indians wanted to see him throw multiple innings in a game (which he did today) so he is expected to return sometime this week. I would much rather write about what is happening in the Majors than the minors, but with three semi-important players currently playing outside of Cleveland (Perez, Grady Sizemore and Roberto Hernandez) you can expect a lot more of these updates in the near future. This update was courtesy of @AkronAeros on twitter, the greatest of all the Indians minor league twitter accounts.

Feathers Down

The Tigers bolstered their starting rotation today, the weakest part of their first place team. The Indians need a starting pitcher even more and have a deeper minor league system than Detroit, but have been unable to pick up a single player to aid them in the 2012 playoff hunt. At this point any player in AAA should be considered expendable as all the pieces for the Indians near future are already on the roster.

The 1-8 effort of the Indians 5 and 6 hitters in the lineup goes a long way to describe why the Indians were only able to score 3 runs tonight and just 9 in their last 5 games. Carlos Santana and Travis Hafner are specifically supposed to be run producers and although they have had quite a few opportunities but have been completely unable to come through. Luckily Shin-Soo Choo was able to get 2 RBI on a home run from the leadoff spot to keep the Tribe ahead.

Play of the Game

Justin Masterson recieved the benefit of a possible blown call at first as Matt Weiters looked like he beat Masterson to the base on a double play ball that was called in the Indians favor. The play ended the 6th inning and kept a 1-0 Indians lead intact.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 - Baltimore Orioles 1

It has been a long and bumpy road for Fausto Carmona. Once upon a time he was 4th in the voting for the American League Cy Young. Before that he illegally changed his name and age to make himself more likely to be signed by a Major League team. After many struggles in the majors (and minors) and a short prison sentence ended with community service, Carmona is back, this time using his real name of Roberto Hernandez. Now, three years older than previously though, Hernandez will be looking to make a comeback and the question remains, can he still pitch? 

The Indians have had no short list of troubles with their starting rotation and will gladly welcome anyone who could throw 6 innings per game and keep an ERA under 4.00. Whether Hernandez can do that or not is extremely doubtful. After his struggles and return to the minors in both 2008 and 2009, Carmona had a pretty good 2010. Good enough to be an All-Star at least. He regressed in 2011, putting up what could have been considered his worst season in his career as he lost 15 games and posted a 5.25 ERA over 32 starts. Roberto hasn't faced Major League hitting since the end of that season and will not get a chance to face a true big league team until his return on August 11th. 

Until then Roberto Hernandez will be undergoing his 3 week suspension that is well deserved and well needed. It will give him time to pitch against professional baseball players in game situations instead of the batting practice he was throwing in the Indians Dominican Republic training facility. The Indians front office wants to keep a close eye on him, so he will likely start for Lake County and move up through the system as he makes 4 to 5 starts in the Indians minor league system. He should have to make at least one start at AA and two at AAA before he is deemed ready.

Once his suspension is served and his sinker is sinking there will certainly be a spot in the rotation for him. If the Indians think with their heads rather than their wallets he will replace Derek Lowe in the rotation rather than the expected Josh Tomlin. Lowe has gotten worse from start to start and is obviously out of gas after an extremely lengthy career. The best move for the Tribe would be to make him a long man out of the bullpen to replace one of the inconsistant pitchers there, preferably Jeremy Accardo. This would also give the Indians another option if the Roberto Hernandez experiment fails miserably. Rather than releasing Lowe or sending Tomlin to the minors, they would have his replacement ready to go immediately. 

This is all still three weeks away so a lot could still change. One thing I know for sure is that I don't want to hear a single person say that this is like the Indians making a big trade to get another starting pitcher. It is nothing like that and they should still be aggressive in the trade market trying to get another pitcher and another right handed hitter. If the Indians traded for a pitcher of Hernandez's caliber the front office would be booed out of Cleveland so they shouldn't try to make this a bigger deal than it is.

Welcome back Fausto. We love you, we really do.

The pitcher formerly known as Fausto Carmona joined the club today and had a press conference this morning. He currently is serving a 3 week suspension issued by Major League Baseball. Look to Burning River Baseball later in the day for more information about Carmona.

Player of the Game

Carlos Santana provided much of the Indians offense today. He had 3 hits, including a single, double, and 9th inning home run. His score of 5.37 gives Santana his 7th Player of the Game this year.

Feathers Up

Josh Tomlin was very hittable today, but he kept the game manageable. He gave up 8 hits in 6 innings, 7 which were singles. He had great control and did not walk a single batter. Though he received the loss, Tomlin pitched a solid game and deserves some positive praise for his outing.

It sure is nice when the Indians put some hits together to score some runs, but did they really have to wait until the 9th inning? The 9th inning saw a single by Michael Brantley, a 2-run homer by Carlos Santana, a double by Shelley Duncan, and an RBI single by Travis Hafner. The rally was ended when Johnny Damon flew out and Asdrubal Cabrera struck out to end the game.

Jim Thome did not hit a home run today.

Feathers Down

The first 2 relievers today gave up runs, making an Indians win even more unlikely as the game progressed. Esmil Rogers, who has been a solid reliever since the Tribe acquired him, gave up a run in the 7th inning. Jeremy Accardo came on in the 8th inning and gave up a solo home run. With the Tribe rally in the 9th inning, these runs proved to be costly.

The Indians are now below the .500 mark for the first time since April. Detroit won today, and they have sole possession of first place. The Indians need to start winning as the red-hot Tigers come into town on Tuesday.

Play of the Game

Asdrubal Cabrera makes a nice play in the 1st to get Tomlin out of the inning.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 - Baltimore Orioles 4

Visa Update: Fausto Carmona has been granted his return to the United States and will be in Cleveland tomorrow for a press conference. Carmona was suspended for 3 weeks starting today for lying about his name actually being Fausto Carmona. Roberto Hernandez Heredia (back of jersey will say Hernandez 55) will be allowed to rehab in the Indians minor league system while suspended and will be able to return to the Tribe on August 11th.

Roster Update: The Indians signed reliever J.C. Romero to a minor league contract and sent him to AAA Columbus in an effort to make the Clippers more like the Twins teams of the mid 2000's.

Player of the Game

Shin-Soo Choo wins tonight's Player of the Game on the strength of his solo home run, the only run scored by the Indians during the game. It was his 11th on the season and gave him a Player of the Game score of 2.90, just edging out tonight's starter Zach McAllister who earned a 2.33. McAllister has had 9 straight positive games this year, the longest stretch of any Indian player this year.

Feathers Up

Zach McAllister had much better command over his non fastball pitches than in any other game this season as he dominated the Orioles over 6 innings. Of course he pitched into the 8th inning, so that kind of marred his night.

Both teams played spectacular defense in tonight's match up, backing two solid pitching performances. Especially impressive was each team's third baseman as there were a few tough plays at the hot corner for both sides. The best play of the night has to go to this one, however, a web gem of a catch by Nick Markakis.

Feathers Down

Jim Thome hit a home run last night, but it wasn't mentioned, because it wasn't important to the final score. Tonight's home run was. Thome hit a two run home run (career 611, 7th All time) in the 7th inning for the O's, giving them a one run lead, their first of the night.

You don't win many games when only scoring a single run and you don't win many series when scoring a total three runs during the first two games. This offense isn't reminiscent of the Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez years (two players the Indians could have had this year on multiple occasions and still could), but it isn't this bad either. It seems very improbable that this many good players (Carlos Santana, Jason Kipnis, Travis Hafner and Asdrubal Cabrera) could all be struggling at the same time. Any way you put it, the Indians will not go to the playoffs by playing .500 ball and they are currently sitting there while Detroit has taken advantage of the White Sox struggles and has moved into first place.

Play of the Game

Shin-Soo Choo lead off the game with this solo home run, his 5th to lead off a game this year.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 1 - Baltimore Orioles 4