Beasts of the East?

I think at this point the Tribe might be wishing this were 1993, before the divisions in baseball were realigned and we had the pleasure of residing in the AL East. Of course, we were also still in the old Stadium and our roster was pretty horrible (aside from young Thome, Belle, Ramirez, etc.). But the point I'm trying to make is that in 2008 the Tribe has been awful in the own division (just 17-30 vs. the AL Central), but a stellar 16-8 vs. the AL East after the weekend sweep in Toronto and then their 13-8 victory last night against Baltimore. To illustrate the quirkiness of realignment in MLB, this was somehow the first time the Indians faced the Orioles since May 7, 2007 (they have played the Reds - a team from the National League - 12 times since then). It doesn't really make sense and no one is really a fan of it as far as I can tell:

"It's a tough thing, but it's the same for both teams," Wedge said. "I don't
like it, but there's nothing I can do about it. It's part of baseball. Now that
we have interleague play and the unbalanced schedule, that's how it works out."

Last night's game was a bit of a wild one, with the Tribe taking a 7-3 lead into the 7th inning. Then Fausto Carmona ran out of gas and Edward Mujica, in true 2008 bullpen fashion, somehow allowed 4 runs to score on just 4 pitches (sadly, he was only charged with one of those runs). He proceeded to blow the lead and the win for Carmona, only to end up getting the win himself when the Indians' offense scored three more runs in the bottom of the 7th. It's been that kind of
year for the Tribe. Asdrubal Cabrera was the hero at the plate last night with the game-winning RBI double, to go along with a 2nd inning home run. Andy Gonzalez also hit his first home run in an Indians uniform. Brandon Donnelly also made his Tribe debut, returning to a major league mound for the first time in over a year, working a scoreless 8th inning.

Gonzalez was one of three Indians to homer on Monday night

The Indians and Orioles continue their 4-game series tonight at the Prog with Jeremy Sowers still looking for his 2nd win of the year. With a win and a Royals loss the Tribe can climb out of the Central cellar for the first time since July 26th.

Other Tribe Updates: Ryan Garko appears to really be sorry (at least to "the clones") about not running out that grounder. And we get some injury updates on Victor, Hafner, and Barfield.

Browns Update: Steve Sanders (no, not him) is temporarily seizing the opportunity with the first-team offense in the wake of Braylon Edwards' bizarre post-practice shoeless foot injury. And Romeo isn't too concerned about the injury. He also is seeing improvement in the secondary.

Cavs Update: LeBron chipped in 12 for Team USA in their 21-point win over Angola this morning. They are now 2-0 to start the Olympics with their most important games (Greece and Spain) next on the horizon.

LeBron and the Redeem Team won easily on Tuesday morning