The Tribe is Smokin'

Don't look now but the Cleveland Indians are baseball's hottest team. Winners of 18 of their last 22 games including five in a row, the Tribe stand alone atop the American League Central division at 26-17, 2.5 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers after completing a four-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners on Monday with a 10-8 victory in extra innings. While most of the baseball world has begun to take notice of the Cinderella story that is the Cleveland Indians' blazing start, unfortunately their fan base hasn't quite gotten the memo. At least not yet. Despite their red-hot month and a half, the Indians are struggling to attract a packed house. The empty stands have even caught the attention of some of the players who've begun giving out free tickets to lucky fans on Twitter and other social media networks.

Though Cleveland fans have seen a similar beginning to the season in each of the past two years only to witness their beloved Tribe return to earth with a mediocre second half following the All-Star break, this year's Indians squad appears to be different. Of coarse having an ace in Justin Masterson who took home AL Player of the Week honors this week after going 2-0 with 20 strikeouts and a flawless ERA of 0.00 in 16 innings is nice as well as hitting a league-best 60 home runs, but this year's Indians squad has something they've lacked the last two years -- a proven manager who knows quite a bit about winning in first year skipper Terry Francona. With the acquisitions of Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn creating some buzz during the offseason, it was the addition of Tito which garnered the most attention prior to Spring Training. Having managed a team to a pair of World Series titles while at the helm in Boston, Francona serves as the hope to help turn things around for an Indians franchise that hasn't made it to the postseason since 2007.

Francona's ball club has been no fluke up to this point, as they've knocked around some of the game's best, handing losses to such pitchers as Felix Hernandez, R.A. Dickey, David Price, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Bartolo Colon and Justin Verlander, all of whom are former Cy Young Award winners. Jake Peavy of the Chicago White Sox was the only former pitcher to take home the hardware that Cleveland faltered to this season, preventing them from making it a perfect 8-0. They've also had a flair for the dramatic, logging six walk-off wins already with their most recent coming on Monday in a wild, back and forth affair that ended on a 3-run home run from Yan Gomes to give Cleveland the 10-8 victory. If there's one thing we've learned about this ball club thus far it's that they refuse to give up. And while the Indians most likely have more naysayers than believers, whether or not their third time will be a charm will be one of the many storylines worth keeping an eye on this MLB season.



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