With a 9-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night, the surprising Cleveland Indians snapped a three-game losing streak and moved their overall season record to 14-8.
That not only keeps them atop the AL Central with a 2.5-game lead over the Royals and Detroit Tigers, but it gives them the best record in the AL.
And yet despite their fast start and current eight-game winning streak at Progressive Field, the Cleveland Indians know it's still early and that nobody's going to be making any strong proclamations that they're this year's San Diego Padres just yet (though Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports does suggest the parallel in his column.)
But that's just the way they like it. At least according to pitcher Justin Masterson, who moved to 5-0 on the year with another quality start ? three runs in 6 2/3 innings ? on Tuesday night.
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer: �
"Probably not," said Masterson, when asked if people were beginning to take the Indians seriously. "You need some nay-sayers out there. We don't care what people think. We still have to go out and do our job no matter what people say. [...]
"You can't get too high or too low because with all the good times you have, there are going to be some struggles. We're not perfect."
Thing is, they don't need to be perfect to win this division. With the four other teams displaying their own shortcomings in this first month, it's quite possible that the AL Central winner walks away with a win total in the middle-80s, and if things break just right and everyone stays healthy, why can't it be the Tribe? It's not as if Cleveland is competing in the AL East here.
Still, there are going to be plenty of doubts. Baseball Prospectus' PECOTA system doesn't project a promising remaining record for the Indians (only the Royals are slated to be worse) and we're going to need more time to tell if a player like Masterson's eventual correction sticks closer to his 2.18 ERA in 2011 than his 4.70 mark in 2010. (But talk about a nice start to a turnaround. Last season, �Masterson didn't notch his fifth win of the year until Aug. 26.)
But that previous paragraph, I suppose, is exactly Masterson's point. No one's going to be convinced about Cleveland until we're past the point of needing convincing. To reach that point, the Indians need to stick with their form and keep swimming against the current.
After all, a �little resistance never hurt anyone.
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