The Cleveland Indians are Cruising in the American League Central

The Cleveland Indians got off to a sluggish start this season, but are now firmly in control of the American League Central division, which admittedly is pretty weak except for the Indians. Cleveland took three out of four from their next closest division rival, the Minnesota Twins in a four game set in Cleveland August 6th to 9th. The Twins were a Wild Card playoff team last year, but they were 53-61 following this series, 11 games behind Cleveland (64-50) and nowhere near contention for a Wild Card.

The Twins almost took the final two games of the series, but both times, Cleveland came back to win in walk off fashion. Francisco Lindor homered in the bottom of the ninth in the August 8th game, and Michael Brantley singled in the go ahead run in the August 9th game.

Lindor and especially third baseman Jose Ramirez (.332 batting average, 33 homers, 83 RBIs) will figure prominently in the MVP voting, though at this time the award will probably go to Boston’s J.D. Martinez. Cleveland has a potent lineup, with seven players in double figures in home runs. The top four pitchers in the rotation–Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, and Mike Clevinger–are solid. Bauer (11-6, 206 strikeouts, 2.25 ERA) is on course to exceed last years fine season when he was 17-9, with 196 strikeouts and a 4.19 ERA.