The Indians and Tigers each lost their last series while the White Sox won, making the top of the AL Central look like this:

The Indians are in no danger of falling into third at this point, but need to end this current losing skid (2-7 in their last 9 games) if they want to regain control of the Central. The good news is their last winning streak came against the Tigers (a three game sweep). The bad news, the Tigers are throwing out two left handed pitchers of their three starters this series. The Indians have epically struggled against left handers this season (expect a more in depth article later today), especially young ones and they will face two in Smyly and Crosby.

The real good news going into this series is that Carlos Santana should be back for tomorrow's (6/5) game. He is going to DH in Lake County today and if everything goes well could be activated for the opener. The Indians should announce a corresponding roster move later today or tomorrow. It will likely see either Luke Carlin or Juan Diaz being sent back down to AAA (or AA). Since coming back from injury Lou Marson has played better than he's ever played before, almost like his career depended on it (and it did), so he will most certainly remain as the back-up.

Finally, the Major League draft starts tonight and the Indians have the 15th pick in the first round. They will likely choose a college pitcher to replace all the other college pitchers they have drafted in recent years, then traded away.

June 5th, 7:05 PM EST: Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 5-4, 5.79 ERA vs Drew Smyly, LHP, 2-1, 3.46 ERA

The thing the Indians traded all their draft picks for will be starting this game after getting destroyed his last time out. An interesting point here is that Ubaldo has only allowed more than 4 runs in a game three times and each time he allowed 7 runs against some kind of Sox (twice against White, once against Red). He did beat the Tigers the last time he faced them, going 6 innings and only allowing 3 runs also known as a miracle in Cleveland. Incredibly, Jimenez has a decision in every start this season except his first. When he starts, the game is over by the time he leaves it. It is extremely important for the Indians that he put up a good showing in game one to try to regain some ground against the Tigers.

The Indians have yet to face Drew Smyly and he is putting in a Rookie of the Year type performance so far this year. This could end badly for the Tribe. If it is any consolation at all, Smyly is yet to pitch through the 7th, so the Indians should get a couple innings against the Tiger bullpen after Smyly shuts them out for the first half of the game. Seriously, this one doesn't look good.

June 6th, 7:05 PM: Jeanmar Gomez, RHP, 3-4, 4.42 ERA vs Max Scherzer, RHP, 5-3, 5.55 ERA

Gomez's last two starts (against Kansas City and Chicago) were his worst two combined starts of the season, but they followed his best start and the Indians only win against the Marlins this year. Jeanmar is yet to face the Tigers this year and in his career he has pitched 20+ innings against them with an ERA of over 7.00. He will have to turn things around as this game is the Indians best chance for a win in this series.

Scherzer has not faced the Indians to this point in the season, but has faced them many times over the past few years. He currently has a career ERA against the Tribe of about 5.00. Adding to that the return of Santana and the first right hander that the will play against in four days, the Indians should have no trouble scoring runs in this game.

June 7th, 1:05 PM: Derek Lowe, RHP, 7-3, 3.06 ERA vs Casey Crosby, LHP, 0-1, 16.20 ERA

As predicted, Derek Lowe destroyed the Twins and wouldn't have allowed a single earned run if the game was scored properly. It will be interesting to see what the old man can do this time out as he has yet to face the Tigers this year.

Hopefully Matt LaPorta will stay on the roster for this game, even though Johnny Damon is scheduled to return on the 5th. Nobody hits AAA pitchers like Matt LaPorta. Over his minor league career, Matt hit .311/.400/.569 in 159 games at the AAA level and this season had already hit 14 home runs, 8 doubles and knocked in 32. Crosby is recent enough out of the minors that LaPorta may be able to hit him still. He just made his Major League debut against the Yankees and was rocked to the tune of 6 runs in 3.1 innings.

Wow, that was a mess. The Indians starting pitching staff continues to struggle as the Tribe just lost a three game series to the Kansas City Royals. Now, we at Burning River Baseball aren't like the rest of the media who think that the Royals are terrible just because Mike Moustakas hasn't become a household name yet, but the Indians should still have won the series.

The Indians also found out during the last series that Travis Hafner will be out until mid-July as will Grady Sizemore. Hafner had surgery today (5/31) to repair his right meniscus, while Sizemore has yet to begin what will surely be a lengthy rehab process. The Indians will go ahead with Lonnie Chisenhall and Jose Lopez splitting time at third and DH. The Indians should be getting some good news off the DL soon as well as Carlos Santana has been cleared to run and is eligible to come off the DL this weekend. With his return the Indians should be able to either place Lou Marson on the DL for the needlework in his face or send him down to Columbus. Keeping Marson and sending Luke Carlin back to AAA would be a huge mistake.

With the Indians firmly entrenched in second place, 1.5 games behind the White Sox and 4 ahead of the Tigers, I think we all need a little positivity to get us back on track. For that reason the rest of this preview will be written with as much homerism as if I worked for WGN.

June 1st 7:05 PM: Carl Pavano, RHP, 2-4, 5.46 ERA vs Derek Lowe, RHP, 6-3, 3.25 ERA

The Indians scored 4 runs against their old teammate Carl Pavano the last time out. Look for them to double it this time while playing in the friendly confines of Progressive Field. Look for Derek Lowe to get back on track against the second worse offense in the league as he will surely get his 7th win of the season.

June 2nd 7:15 PM: P.J. Walters, RHP, P, 2-1, 2.96 ERA vs Josh Tomlin, RHP, 2-2, 4.99 ERA

The Indians have never faced Walters before and since he is a right handed pitcher, they should have no problem. Carlos Santana will be eligible to come of the disabled list by this game and will probably play and hit about three home runs. Tomlin will be making his second start back from the DL and everyone knows that the second start back is the good one. The Indians should take this game easily.

June 3rd 3:05 PM: Scott Diamond, LHP, 3-1, 2.27 ERA vs Justin Masterson, RHP, 2-4, 5.14 ERA

Scott Diamond is a lefty so the Indians best bet will be to take a lot of pitches and foul off the strikes to get his pitch count to 100 before the 5th. Then they can take apart the Twins bullpen so Justin Masterson can get that third win that he so rightfully deserves.

There you have it. Indians sweep and since the White Sox are going to get swept by the Mariners this weekend as well, the Tribe should be back in first by Monday. This is all incredibly stupid, I don't know how Hawk does it.

There's no place like home for the holiday. After getting pounded on the road for three in Chicago, the Indians will return home to face the dilapidated Royals on Memorial Day. The Indians have won four of six against Kansas City so far this year and will look to continue on at that pace. With the sweep by the White Sox the Tribe have fallen to a half game lead over those same Sox. Chicago will be playing against the second best team in the American League (Tampa Bay) so the Indians have a good chance to make up at least a game during this series.

After going through the first month and a half with only minor injuries (Grady Sizemore, Jack Hannahan, Josh Tomlin), the final game against Detroit was a disaster. Travis Hafner is still day-to-day after missing the entire series in Chicago as is Asdrubal Cabrera. If that's not bad enough, Carlos Santana remains on the disabled list and his replacement, Lou Marson, was hit in the face with a baseball yesterday. Luckily, Lou Marson's face is made of concrete so he shouldn't miss any more time. In all the moves to create depth after the injuries, Rafael Perez was placed on the 60 day DL, keeping him out until the middle of June.

*Roster Update: Jack Hannahan has been placed on the 15 day DL with a strained hamstring and Lonnie Chisenhall has been brought up in his place (best injury call up ever). To make room for Josh Tomlin on the roster, Jairo Asencio has been designated for assignment. He is out of options and will be exposed to waivers. If he clears waivers he can be sent to Columbus. If he doesn't the Indians have 10 days to trade or release him or to bring him back to the MLB team.

May 28th, 4:05 EST: Nathan Adcock, RHP, 0-2, 2.33 ERA vs Josh Tomlin, RHP, 1-2, 4.67 ERA

One player is returning from injury after all the pain that happened in Chicago. Josh Tomlin will be coming off the 15 day DL to take the place of Zach McAllister in the rotation. McAllister pitched well with the team during this time around, but he doesn't have the consistency or the ability to completely dominate that Josh Tomlin brings to every game yet. He will certainly play a part in the future of this team, probably again later this season when Derek Lowe's arm falls off or when some other less likely injury scenario occurs.

The Indians haven't faced Adcock this season as he will be making his second start of the year. They did face him last season, twice in relief as he came in for long relief in two Indians routs. He pitched well in both games, especially considering the Indians won the two games with a combined score of 26-3. Adcock only gave up a single earned run in 4.2 innings pitched over the two games.

May 29th, 7:05 EST: Will Smith, LHP, 0-1, 13.50 ERA vs Justin Masterson, RHP, 2-3, 4.62 ERA

The Indians will face the rapper turned actor turned white left handed pitcher and look to turn around their recent failures against lefties making their debut against the team. If only they had Carlos Santana available, the Tribe Called Tribe would certainly be able to win this battle of the bands.

Justin Masterson just pitched his best game of the season for his second win o the year and Travis Hafner and Asdrubal Cabrera are scheduled to return during this game against a young pitcher with an ERA over 10.00. This game should be a laugher for the Tribe, but you never know. Be prepared for another low scoring game as the Indians hitters attempt to make Will Smith look like Justin Verlander.

May 30th, 12:05 PM: Bruce Chen, RHP, 3-5, 4.81 ERA vs Jeanmar Gomez, RHP, 3-3, 3.94 ERA

Bruce Chen certainly has a history against the Indians as he has played with Kansas City since 2009. The lefty made his Major League debut in 1998, puting him about 10 years behind Jamie Moyer and yet still one of the longest tenured players in the Major Leagues. He is yet to play against the Indians this season.

Ever since his suspension, Jeanmar has thrown into the 6th inning in every single start. He was pitching very well, in fact, until the last game against the White Sox pushed his ERA from 3.19 to 4.94. Before that he had two consecutive games with no earned runs allowed. The only two games this season that Gomez has allowed more than 3 runs in a single game have both came against the White Sox, so hopefully that is all behind him now and the Indians can work their rotation to keep him out of any more games on the South Side.

The Tribe swept away Detroit placing them in first place for the near future. If the Indians can continue to win series, especially in the Central Division, they will have no problem keeping their position for the rest of the season. With the sweep the Tigers are now firmly in third and the new second place team is the Chicago White Sox, who the Indians will play in Chicago next.

This will be the 4th series between these two teams already this season the most the Indians have faced any team thus far (they have played Seattle twice and will play the Royals for the third time next series). This time around the pitching will match-up a little different than the last few times as John Danks, who has pitched against Justin Masterson in each series so far, has been recently placed on the disabled list. In his place will be Jose Quintana, a call up from AAA Charlotte.

Indian killers Paul Konerko and A.J. Pierzynski are coming into this series super hot as they each have hit multiple home runs in the last week and Konerko is batting .615 over his last 4 games (over his last 25 games he is hitting a paltry .419).

May 25th, 8:10 PM EST, Jeanmar Gomez, RHP, 3-2, 3.19 ERA vs Jose Quintana, RHP, 1-3, 2.77 ERA (AAA)

Jose Quintana will be making his first Major League start and his second appearance in this series opener against Jeanmar Gomez. Quintana's only MLB experience to this point came in a single game in the May 7th game against the Indians when he pitched 5.2 innings in relief and didn't allow a single run. Gomez was destroyed later in that same series by the White Sox to the tune of 8 earned runs. 

May 26th, 4:10 PM EST, Derek Lowe, RHP, 6-2, 2.15 ERA vs Jake Peavy, RHP, 5-1, 2.39 ERA

A blast from the past, this pitching match-up could belong in the NL West in 2008. Back then Lowe was pitching well for the Dodgers and Peavy was unhittable for the Padres. Since then they both have gone through their rough patches, but have seen a resurgence in 2012. The last time out Jake Peavy only allowed a single run against Cleveland as the White Sox earned a split of the 4 game series. In Lowe's last three starts he is 2-1 with an ERA of 1.71. This looks to be a pitching match-up of epic proportions that will make the game between Justin Verlander and Justin Masterson look like a barn burner.

May 27th, 2:10 PM EST, Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 5-3, 5.02 ERA vs Gavin Floyd, RHP, 3-5, 4.66 ERA

Jimenez has had two decent starts in a row giving him 3 quality starts in his last two games. This looks like some progress and is enough to place him firmly as the sixth best starting pitcher in the Indians rotation. He has only faced the Sox once this season and did not fair very well. He will look to turn things around in this key AL Central game.

Gavin Floyd has been on the White Sox roster all season and is yet to pitch against the Cleveland Indians. This madness needs to end now and it will as Floyd will start the final game of this three game series. While he has been strong all season, going into the 6th in every game this year, he just had his worst game of the season against the cellar dwelling Minnesota Twins. Floyd was unable to get out of the 4th as he allowed a season high 9 earned runs.

With the way the White Sox go back and forth on everything and their tendency to give up at the first sign of difficulty, an Indians sweep could lead to Chicago trading their entire roster away. The Indians need to try to sweep as it is the best way to never see Paul Konerko again. In related news, Chris Sale is currently a starter again.

The Indians remain in first place despite losing the last series to the Miami Marlins. With a three game lead over the Tigers, even with a sweep the Tribe will be tied for first as long as Chicago doesn't sweep the Twins. Of course the Indians will be looking to sweep as well over Tigers as that would put them up 6 games late in May. After the Detroit series the Indians will play the White Sox themselves, so this week will go a long way to determine the top of the Central Division.

The Tigers are currently struggling offensively, although you couldn't tell so from their record. Brennan Boesch, Alex Avila and Ryan Rayburn are all starters who are playing far below where the Tigers would like them to be. Last season Boesch and Avila had breakout years, especially Avila as he stole the starting catcher role from Victor Martinez and pushed him into being their designated hitter. Avila went to the All-Star game that year, but is far from All-Star quality right now as he is batting .221/.299/.381. Multi-millionaires Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder are carrying this team offensively now with a lot of help from young outfielders, Austin Jackson and Andy Dirks. Jackson has been especially productive this season as he looks to make the Tigers forget all about Curtis Granderson (they already have). Jackson has missed the last four games, but should be available for the start of the series in Cleveland.

May 22nd, 7:05 EST: Rick Porcello, RHP, 3-3, 5.12 ERA vs Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 4-3, 5.09 ERA

When you're doing a real statistical analysis, you generally throw out the top and bottom outliers as they aren't truly reresentitive of the whole. Doing this for Rick Porcello makes sense as the 8 runs he allowed in one inning against Texas should not have any bearing when evaluating his talent. If you take out that game and the next (his best game of the season against Chicago) he then has a 4.14 ERA which is closer to his career average of 4.59. Against the Indians he is even better as he has gone 5-1 in 12 starts with a 3.86 ERA.

Two quality starts in his last two games give Ubaldo Jimenez four total for 2012. Of course the Indians didn't trade their best two minor league pitching prospects for quality starts. They expected dominance, but you have to work one step at a time. Not surprisingly, 3 of Ubaldo's 4 wins have come in games where he had a quality start and he will look to add another on Tuesday against the Tigers.

May 23rd, 7:05 EST: Doug Fister, RHP, 0-2, 1.59 ERA vs Zach McAllister, RHP, 1-1, 4.34 ERA

Fister's ERA numbers are slightly overrated as he has only pitched in 22 innings this season. Fister pitched on April 7th, then spent entire month on the disabled list. Since his return he has started three times and pitched through the 6th each time. He has only given up 4 total runs, but the three games were against Oakland, Seattle and Minnesota, two of the three worst teams in the AL and the Oakland A's.

Zach McAllister seems to be finding his way back to normalcy as he allowed a season low 3 hits against the Seattle Mariners in an Indians win his last time out. Although he walked 5, control hadn't been an issue for him until that point. He currently has a strike out to walk ratio of 19 to 6 so he should have little trouble with the free swinging Tigers as far as that goes. He has also allowed only a single home run so far this season, a trend he will need to continue against the powerful Tigers if he expects to compete.

May 24th, 12:05 EST: Justin Verlander, 5-1, 2.14 ERA vs Justin Masterson, RHP, 1-3, 5.04 ERA

Verlander almost threw a no-hitter during his last start and is a threat to do so every time out on the mound. Justin Masterson will have to keep improving on his recent success to stay toe-to-toe with Justin Verlander in the battle of the Central Division Justins. This game was originally not going to be televisied, but due to the interesting match-up, what could very well be the top two teams in the Central fighting for first with their aces on the mound, STO decided to pick it up. Turn it on and enjoy some early ace baseball. Or even better, go to the game so Chris Perez doesn't get mad at you.

The Indians just completed a quick 2 game sweep of the Minnesota Twins. Many positive things came out of this series: starting pitching was strong, the offense started producing runs, they hit a 4 home runs in 2 games, and Johnny Damon is no longer in the lead off role. Next, the Indians return home for another 2 game series, this time against the Seattle Mariners, who are currently in 3rd place in the AL West, and 8 games behind the Texas Rangers.

This is the second series against the Mariners this season. The Indians took the first series from them, 2-1. With consistent pitching and solid offense, the Indians should sweep this series as well. The Indians are currently 2 games ahead of the second place Tigers, which guarantees them first place standings at the end of this series.

May 16th 7:05 EST: Felix Hernandez, RHP, 3-2, 2.29 ERA vs Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 3-3, 5.18 ERA

The last time the Indians faced the King (4/19), he pitched 8 shut out innings and left for the 9th where the Seattle closer blew the game. This was one of the rare time where the Indians strategy of striking out constantly to increase a starters pitch count actually worked. Twelve Indians struck out, but it forced Hernandez to throw 126 pitches, a number that Eric Wedge was not comfortable with. The Indians abillity to work the count is one of their greatest strong points and they will need to be very selective against Hernandez.

The reason the Indians were able to come back in that game was because Josh Tomlin kept the Mariners to a single run. After his time out against Boston, I'm not sure that Ubaldo has it in him to do that. There are a couple of ways to look at the series in Boston. One of those is that Boston is a high level team that has been playing very poorly so far and they finally got it together when the Tribe came to town. It still doesn't fit exactly with his dominance of an even better offensive team in the Texas Rangers, but it can go a little to explain how he gave up 7 runs in 4 innings.

May 17th 12:05 EST: Hector Noesi, RHP, 2-4, 6.32 ERA vs Zach McAllister, RHP, 1-1, 4.15 ERA

Noesi is a rookie for Seattle and has yet to pitch against the Indians. He has struggled some this year, specifically against the Rangers and White Sox where he was unable to go more than 3 innings, but has also shown moments of greatness. In two games, against the Twins and the A's, he allowed one run in 7 innings and had an 8 inning shutout. Those four games can probably be considered outliers in a short career so far. More likely he will be like his other three starts where he has allowed between 4 and 6 runs in 5 to 7 innings.

McAllister has pitched well in each of his two starts, especially considering that he pitched the last one on less than a days notice. This will be the first of his three starts this year that has been scheduled in advance, so he should be able to be a little more prepared for the hitters he is going to face. Of course the hitters for Seattle are nowhere near those of Chicago or Boston, so he should get some help there too.

Let's ignore that ever happened. And on to the Twins.

Mon 5/14, 8:10 EST: Jeanmar Gomez, RHP, 2-2, 4.66 ERA vs Carl Pavano, RHP, 2-3, 5.02 ERA

This short two game series against the worst team in the AL Central should be just what the Indians need. The best part is that the team as little time in the terrible state that is Minnesota as possible as they will be playing the second game at 12:10 local time. Carl Pavano was once a good pitcher, especially during his time with the Florida Marlins (2002-2004) where he was a World Series champion and All-Star. After the Yankees ruined his career, he pitched for a half season with the Indians and was traded to the Twins for Yohan Pino. After pitching well in AAA in 2009, Pino struggled in 2010 and was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays where he has been demoted to AA and is struggling through his 7th professional season in Minor League Baseball. The point of this story is to say that the Indians got the better part of this trade as they no longer have to put Pavano on the mound and get to face him a couple times a season.

Tue 5/15, 1:10 EST: Derek Lowe, RHP, 5-1, 2.47 ERA vs Jason Marquis, RHP, 2-2, 6.26 ERA

Derek Lowe is still the rock in the Indians rotation and the only starting pitcher that is pitching above the level he should be. He should be able to continue this trend against the light hitting Twins. Minnesota will be especially light hitting during this series as their only power hitter, Justin Morneau, is on the disabled list. Taking his place at first will be Chris Parmelee (.188/.253/.257) and catcher Joe Mauer. Ryan Doumit or Drew Butera will be behind the plate if Mauer plays first. Doumit is actually one of the Twins better players at the moment as only him and Josh Willingham have more than a single home run on the season. 

Another former Indian on the Twins is Jamey Carroll, who is listed as their starting third baseman. This Twins team is very bad. Anything less than a two game sweep should be looked at as an absolute failure by the Tribe during this series.

The Tribe floundered in games 3 and 4 against Chicago after sweeping the double header to end up with a split of the four game series. Up next is another 4 gamer, one that was actually on the schedule when the season started. The Indians will take their Central Division leading 17-13 record into Boston where the Red Sox have struggled as of late losing 4 of their last 14. The Red Sox as a whole are not playing very well and are stuck in the cellar of the AL East while Tampa Bay rules and the Baltimore is seeing a resurgence. This is at least slightly reminiscent of 2011 when the Red Sox came into Cleveland yet to win a game and were sent on their way after a sweep. That season Boston finished one game out of the playoffs, but with the increase in competition across the American League, it will be much harder to mount such a comeback this season.

May 10th, 7:10 EST: Derek Lowe, RHP, 4-1, 2.39 ERA vs Josh Beckett 2-3, 4.45 ERA

Derek Lowe was a pivotal member of the 2004 Boston Red Sox World Series team. It was his last year with the team and he was no ace, but he did manage to win the deciding game in every round of the playoffs for them. He has still been the most consistent pitcher on the Indians this year (I'll keep writing that every week until it's not true anymore) and will look to maintain his success against his old team. There will be only four players from that 2004 Red Sox team on either roster in this weeks series. One was a young rookie by the name of Kevin Youkilis another the aged veteran (and even older now) David Ortiz. On the other side of the field, the 2004 starting centerfielder, Johnny Damon will be playing for the Indians and of course Lowe himself.

A note on Kevin Youkilis: The Indian killer will not be playing in this series as he is currently on the 15 day disabled list with a bad back and won't be eligible to come off until after the series. Youkilis has struggled this season, but there is nothing better to bring him out of it than a four game series against the Tribe.

Lowe's opponent was still in Florida when the Red Sox won their first championship in about a century, but he won his own a year before with the Marlins. Beckett has been a hard one to judge as he goes from being unhittable to getting destroyed on a regular basis. He has dealt with a lot of injuries over time, but since he has joined the Red Sox he was terrible (2006), great (2007), terrible (2008), great (2009), terrible (2010), great (2011) and is on his way to being a batting practice pitcher again in 2012. He has not been going deep into games (averages slightly over 5 IP per game) and has allowed over a home run per outing, including 5 against Detroit to open the season.

May 11th, 7:10 EST: Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 3-2, 4.04 ERA vs Clay Buchholz, RHP, 3-1, 9.09 ERA

Ubaldo made some major changes in his mechanics during his last outing and was able to find a couple more MPH which in turn allowed him to miss some more bats as he struck out 6 and didn't allow any runs through seven innings. Should he be able to keep his arm in line, he should see success in Boston. The Hardball Times did a great review of his mechanics after the game with Texas that can be found here. Everyone should definitely check it out.

Clay Buchholz (the hardest name to spell in baseball), is the owner of the worst qualified ERA in the AL. He has earned this title by allowing at least 5 runs in each of the 7 games he has started this year. His last time out was special because it was his shortest start of the season at 3.2 innings, showing that his leash may be tightening. 

May 12th, 7:10 EST: Josh Tomlin, RHP, 4-2, 4.67 ERA vs Felix Doubront, LHP, 2-1, 5.29 ERA

Tomlin had his best game of the season in his last start as he finally got past his career high of 7 strikeouts and set a new high of 8. Tomlin has walked about one batter per game and has only allowed three home runs this year, a vast improvement over last season. He should fare well against the patient Red Sox lineup as he has shown great control this season. They can take all the pitches they want, Tomlin will not walk people.

Doubront was moved from the bullpen into the starting rotation before the season started and has had mixed results. Three of his first four games were pretty good, but he gave up 5 runs in each of his last two. His ERA has increased in every game but one this season and the Indians will look to continue this trend. It may be tough, however as the Tribe struggle most with left handed pitching, especially ones they haven't seen before.

May 13th, 1:35 EST: Justin Masterson, RHP, 1-2, 5.89 ERA vs Daniel Bard, RHP, 2-4, 4.83

The Indians ace had a good game out last time, but was doomed by bad run support early kept him to a no decision. He has managed to rattle off three good starts in a row, even though his strikeout numbers are not there yet. 

Milestone Alert: Justin Masterson will hit the 500 innings pitched mark with the Tribe during his next start with anything more than 4 innings. This may not seem like much of a milestone, but only 82 pitchers have thrown 500 innings for the Indians. With even an average season this year, Masterson will move into 65th all time. He is still a far way off from Bob Feller's 3,827 IP, but he is already a significant pitcher in Indians history.

Bard is another reliever turned starter for 2012 as the Red Sox have decided to go with a youth movement rather than their overpriced free agents. Daisuke Matsuzaka is on the disabled list, but former staters Rich Hill and Vincente Padilla are being used in the bullpen. In fact, other than Beckett, the Red Sox rotation looks fairly home grown as they be getting away from their days of trying to outbuy the Yankees. Of course they also could have just spent all their money on Adrien Gonzalez's $21 million salary. Some things will never change.

To be the best, you have to beat the best. This means that the Indians are officially the best team in the American League coming out of a series win against the Texas Rangers. The Tribe have won three series in a row against the Rangers, White Sox and Angels and go into the next series with the White Sox looking to maintain their division lead (1.5 games over Detroit).

This will be the third time already this season that these two teams have gotten together, so there is already a lot of familiarity. There will be a couple new faces this time around however as each team will add a new starting pitcher to the roster for the double header. In other White Sox news, the front office decided they no longer like winning, so they have pushed Chris Sale back into the bullpen, effective for game one of this series. He had some minor elbow issues and rather than wait it out, give him more time off between starts or put him on a pitch count that they would limit him to one inning a game.

May 7th, 1:05 EST: Philip Humber, RHP, 1-1. 4.62 ERA vs Zach McAllister, RHP, 3-1, 2.83 ERA (AAA stats)

Phil Humber went six innings against the Tribe last week and allowed three runs in a game the Indians eventually won. It was literally his last start so everyone should remember it fairly well still. You read what I wrote about him the last time if you care so much about Humby. 

Everyone should remember Zach McAllister as the star rookie from 2011 who filled in time-after-time as pitchers hit the DL. He has been solid so far this year at AAA Columbus going 35 innings and only allowing 11 runs. Even more impressive for him are the 32 strike outs. His numbers shouldn't carry all that much weight, however, as he is basically a Major League player playing in AAA, much like the rest of the Clippers team. McAllister will likely be the first pitcher to get called up anytime a situation like this happens again this year. 

May 7th, 7:05 EST: Eric Stults, LHP, 1-1, 2.20 ERA (AAA stats) vs Josh Tomlin, RHP, 1-2, 5.27 ERA

Game two of the double header (making up for the postponed game on 4/10) will feature the White Sox throwing out a new starting pitcher. Stults played some for the Rockies in 2011 and came to the White Sox via free agency. He has thrown 28.1 innings for AAA Charlotte, striking out 26 and only allowing 7 runs. It will be his first game against the Indians.

Tomlin will be making his 6th start of the season and it comes after his second best outing so far this year. Against the White Sox he was able to go 6 innings  and only allow three runs (he and Humber had almost identical performances in the same game). Tomlin needs to continue to work on increasing his innings this time out. He isn't throwing too many pitches (he is averaging less than 90 pitches per game), but is placing himself into situations that Manny Acta doesn't believe he can get out of. Even though Josh has only walked 5 batters all season, he has allowed 31 hits that have completely negated the positives earned by his control. He is on the right path though and with the defense playing at a whole new level during the last season, he should find some success in this game.

May 8th, 7:05 EST: John Danks, LHP, 2-4, 6.51 ERA vs Justin Masterson, RHP, 1-2, 5.20 ERA

Again? Really? Danks got his first win of the season pitching against Justin Masterson during the first White Sox/Indians series and Masterson got his first win during the second matchup. This game will feature the third time each team's ace will face the other. Round three, begin.

May 9th, 7:05 EST: Jake Peavy, RHP, 3-1, 1.99 ERA vs Jeanmar Gomez, RHP, 2-1, 2.84 ERA

Finally some new blood. The Indians have yet to face the former NL Cy Young Award winner in 2012 and the righty seems to be having a bit of a rennasaince. After a few off seasons with Chicago, Peavy has managed to keep his ERA under 4.50 for the first six starts of the season. He had an ERA below 3.00 in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008 so everyone knows what he is capable of. If he does mount a superb comeback year, it may give hope to the Indians own Ubaldo Jimenez for 2014.

Jeanmar Gomez is something special and he showed it last time out, going 7 innings against the best offense in the American League and winning. He maintains an ERA below 3.00 and a WHIP below 1.00 for the time being as he shows what Josh Tomlin could be doing if he had a little better luck.

The Indians series win against the White Sox in Chicago ensured their continued hold over first place in the AL Central. The Tribe are currently 1.5 games ahead of Detroit and 2 games above the Chi Sox. Cleveland will need that two game lead as they head into a series with the team with the second best record in the Majors, the Texas Rangers. The Indians have struggled mightily with the Rangers over the last few years, losing 9 of their 10 matchups in 2011 and four of six in 2010. They may have some trouble reversing history as a few important Indians are still battling injuries (Shin-Soo Choo, Travis Hafner and Johnny Damon). On the other hand, the Tribe bullpen is in top shape and the pitching matchups look favorable so the Indians are in their best position to hold back the potent Rangers offense.

May 4th, 7:05 EST: Colby Lewis, RHP, 3-0, 1.93 ERA vs Jeanmar Gomez, 1-1, 2.35 ERA

Jeanmar Gomez will have to be just about perfect in this matchup to beat the Texas ace. Lewis has yet to give up more than 2 runs in a game and has pitched into the 7th in three of five starts. The best chance for the Indians to win is probably the same way the Mariners beat the Rangers last week against Lewis. In the only game the Rangers have lost that Lewis started, the M's scored four runs against set up man Alexi Ogando and Joe Nathan after being shut out by Lewis. The Indians have an equal if not better back end of the bullpen, so as long as they don't need to go deeper than Joe Smith, Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez, there is a chance here.

May 5th, 7:05 EST: Derek Holland, LHP, 2-2, 5.13 ERA vs Derek Lowe, 4-1, 2.27 ERA

In the battle of Dereks the Indians will have their best chance to steal a game out of this three game series. Lowe has been incredibly dependable so far this season, much better than anyone expected when he signed with the team late last year. Holland, however, seems to have regressed a bit in his last two starts. Combined he has allowed 18 hits and 12 runs in 13 innings. He also recorded losses in both games after winning two of his first three. If the Indians can't put up some offensive numbers in this game it could be a very short and depressing series.

May 6th, 1:05 EST: Yu Darvish, RHP, 4-0, 2.18 ERA vs Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP, 2-2, 5.02 ERA

I had the pleasure of watching Yu Darvish pitch in his second Spring Training start this year and the numbers he has produced in the regular season bear no relation to the pitcher I saw. At the time he was a wild mess, going deep into counts with every hitter and allowing anybody who wanted to to get on base. Since struggling in his first Major League start, Darvish has not allowed more than a single earned run in any one game and he struck out 19 in his last two games combined. He certainly seems to be pitching like the pitcher the Rangers paid over $100 million for.

Ubaldo was aided by three unearned runs in his last start, to make him look better than he was. He still gave up 7 total runs and was pulled out of the game before the end of the 5th inning, continuing a trend of Indians starting pitchers throwing fewer innings each game. I have so little confidence in Ubaldo against the Rangers that the rest of this post will be about Nick Hagadone, who could possibly throw as many as three innings in this game. Hagadone may be technically replacing Rafael Perez in the bullpen, but his left handedness does not make him a situational pitcher. Hagadone is the real deal against any type of hitter. So far this year he has faced an equal amount of lefties and righties and has allowed exactly one hit to each. He did walk a lefty and has struck out one more righty (3 RH, 2 LH), but the small sample size makes it hard to judge. Just wait and see how he plays against Texas in this series. He should show that he is something special.

AAA Roster Moves: Ryan Spilborghs was traded to the Rangers for cash just before the start of this series.

The puns will by a flying when Yu Darvish makes his debut in Cleveland.

(Picture of Yu Darvish throwing against Michael Brantley at Goodyear Ballpark)