The Astros are 13-6 in September - a 111-win pace - and the Indians have gained six games. What Cleveland is doing is batshit crazy. They've gone from 11.5 back on August 1 to 2.5 up in less than 2 months. We can kick the Astros around (if we want) for scuffling in August - but I'm not sure they could have done ANYTHING to hold off this Indian team.
Yup, they are a juggernaut right now. But going 1-5 vs them earlier in the year is really hurting right now and that was long before they got hot.
Kevin Brown ('98) goes All-World... Sox ('05) have an All-World postseason run.... Royals ('15) go All-World in the 6th.... CLE ('17) goes All-World and destroys the AL.... Ahhh shucks !!!!
The best thing going for the AL is that the Indians have spent over 2 months destroying baseball and none of that was in October. Can they make it 3 months? October has cooled more than a few teams down.
There hasn't been a .950 team in all of baseball history and the Indians will not be the first. Streaks happen and then they end. While I am a believer in teams gravitating towards their mean, we dont know over what period of time it will take for that to occur and in what fashion it will happen. This is the same team that was a mere 69-56 on August 23rd.
as 1st round opponents go, my preference would be MIN, BOS, NYY in that order so wouldn't really mind if we are #2 seed maybe Yankees knock off the Indians
We didn't need the Yankees to beat them, we just needed the Yankees to be admirable speedbumps. To this extent we've already succeeded. Any outcome is favorable Wednesday, and the best one is for both sides to bludgeon each other to death while we stand on the side like some bystander with our cellphones videotaping. WORLDSTAR
Could just be that the playoffs are a different beast. And weren't the Indians basically racking up most of those wins down the stretch against horrible teams? I know they played the White Sox a bunch.
Yes starting August 24 (Start of 22 game win streak) through end of the season they went: 1W 0L vs BOS 6W 1L vs KC 3W 0L vs NYY 7W 0L vs DET 6W 1L vs CHW 3W 0L vs BAL 3W 0L vs LAA 2W 1L vs SEA 2W 1L vs MIN 27W 3L vs bad teams (KC, DET, CHW, BAL, LAA, SEA) 6W 1L vs playoff teams (BOS, NYY, MIN) Their run to end the season was definitely aided by sub-par opponents. Not that the Astros schedule down the stretch was any harder. Astros fans weren't acting like a bunch of choads in the baseball subreddit though saying their team is a step above any potential playoff opponents. Cleveland fans have been driving me crazy to the point that I'm rooting for the freakin' Yankees.
No matter what happens, the Indians will not come out of this series feeling invincible. That's huge for us, as baseball seems to be a sport where how a team perceives itself can actually show up on the field. We want those little seeds of doubt planted in their heads.
