30/30 and a half-game behind

The Tribe just kept rolling along last night, collecting their eighth straight victory with a 4-3 win in 10 innings in Detroit. This makes it 14 wins in their last 17 games and they are creeping closer to 3rd place in the Central, now just a half-game behind the Tigers. Grady Sizemore became just the second Indian in team history to join the 30/30 club, adding two more HR's last night. He now has 31 homers and 34 steals, and actually a decent shot at the exclusive 40/40 club with 32 games still left to be played.

Welcome to the 30/30 club Grady - got enough left for 40/40?

"He's unbelievable," manager Eric Wedge said of the three-time All-Star. "You wouldn't know if it was his first or his 30th. In a low-scoring ballgame, he set the tone. That's what he does. He does it from a spot in the order that can give us a lot of energy."

Newcomer Zach Jackson gave the Tribe another good start, going 6-1/3 and allowing 3 runs. Then the bullpen (where have you been all year???) really came through with some solid work, aside from Masa Kobayashi's two hits allowed and no outs recorded. Rafael Perez and Brandon Donnelly kept the Tigers scoreless for 2-2/3 innings. And the suddenly hot-hitting Franklin Gutierrez gave the Indians the lead for good in the top of the 10th with a shot to left field. Jensen Lewis came on to close things out was able to register a 1-2-3 10th for his 7th save in 8 chances. It makes me wonder how good this team could have been with a semi-consistent bullpen all year...

The Indians will look for their ninth in a row tonight with ace Cliff Lee on the mound for the good guys. He will look to improve on his 18-2 record and his 2.43 ERA... although I'm not sure what else he can do at this point for an encore. He has simply been incredible all year. With a win the Tribe would also move ahead of the Tigers in the standings for the first time since June.

Other Tribe Notes: Victor Martinez may finally be ready to return before the rosters expand on Monday. But not so fast for Travis Hafner. And Matt LaPorta is back in town after his beaning in China. Let's hope he's able to finish out the season in Akron.

Browns Updates: Brady Quinn will likely get another start in the Browns' quest to avoid injury before the season opener (a.k.a. their final preseason game). This is good news for Brady, as I'm sure he can't be happy with his performance in the last game. Although I'm a little concerned that Derek Anderson's next snap he takes in a live game will be on September 7th against the Cowboys... BQ has also been putting in some extra time with Donte Stallworth... And don't expect to see much from the Browns again in the finale, as they will be without lots of players.

Streak ends at five

All good things must eventually come to an end. We knew the Tribe's winning streak couldn't last forever, and it ended at five as the Orioles took them down 6-1 last night at the Prog. The good news is that the Royals continued their losing ways and spared us from last place for another day. The bad news was that another ex-Indian came back to haunt us. This time it was Jeremy Guthrie, our one-time can't-miss prospect that never panned out for us. He went 7 solid innings against his former team last night to win his fourth straight game. I guess we can add Guthrie to the growing list of former Indians that couldn't figure things out here but have gone one to have solid seasons elsewhere (joining Ryan Ludwick, Russell Branyan, Brandon Phillips, Jody Gerut, etc., etc.). And yes those guys really have combined to hit 71 HR's this year...

"I just focused on what I had to do, blocked things out, and the guys got some big hits," said Guthrie, refusing to say he felt that he extracted any revenge on an Indians team that put him on waivers in January 2007.

Anthony Reyes had another decent start for the Indians, who may have just found something in that minor deal with the Cardinals. Reyes went 6 innings, giving up only two earned runs on 96 pitches. The bullpen did not fare so well (again). This time it was Brandon Donnelly's turn to help raise the ERA of the AL's worst bullpen. He entered in the top of the ninth and promptly gave up 5 hits and 4 earned runs in just two-thirds of an inning, turning a manageable 2-1 deficit into a 6-1 hole. The Tribe will look to make it 3 out of 4 from the Orioles tonight when newly-promoted Zach Jackson gets the start.

Reyes had a second straight solid start for the Tribe on Wednesday night

Other Tribe Notes: Victor Martinez and Josh Barfield are set to start rehab assignments soon. And apparently Masa Kobayashi is getting tired. I know the feeling - I'm tired of watching him get lit up on the mound. And Shin-Soo Choo just wants to watch Korea in the Olympics.

Cavs Update: Now onto the big news of the day yesterday. The more I think about it, I just love the trade for Mo Williams. I liked it when I heard about it yesterday, but I love it now. The fact that Ferry pulled this off without having to use our two biggest tradeable assets (Varejao and Szczerbiak) really shows how hard he must have had to work to get this done. Now we still have their expiring deals, along with Eric Snow's $7M, to package in another deal before the deadline in February. I still think that we will work to get another big man, especially given the loss of Joe Smith. It will really come down to how ready rookie J.J. Hickson is to step into the rotation. And it will be interesting to see where this trade leaves Delonte West in his contract negotiations...

Some trade reactions from around the web:

• Bill Livingston of the Plain Dealer
• Bud Shaw of the Plain Dealer
• Brian Windhorst of the Akron Beacon Journal (more on him in a moment)
• Cavs GM Danny Ferry
• John Hollinger of espn.com
• Marty Burns of SI.com
• Damon Jones (and yes, this finally puts my mohawk tribute site to rest)
• Mo Williams himself on WKNR yesterday evening
  

And my favorite piece from yesterday's trade comes from Henry Abbott's Truehoop blog, where he gives some background on Brian Windhorst breaking the news of the trade. It's good to have you back Windy :)

After 55 days in the hospital, dealing with all manner of health trouble that I'll let him tell you about if he's so inclined, today was the day that he got to go home for the first time.

Would you believe he actually dictated this story over the phone, from the car, on the way home from the hospital?

Most sportswriters never get to have a "Willis Reed" moment, but Brian has certainly had his.

Also, as expected this morning, Team USA exacted some revenge on Greece in game #3 of their Olympic run. The Americans won 92-63, with LeBron James chipping in 13 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 blocks.

Browns Update: Nothing big today, just some news of a rough practice yesterday. I can't wait till we can start hitting other teams, instead of each other. The real season is now only 24 days away if you can believe it...