The Indians had a golden opportunity last week with a make or break series against Detroit and they broke, losing five of seven games. At this point, Cleveland would have to essentially win every game for the rest of the season to make the play-offs and even that may not be enough. While there is still mathematically a chance, the Indians will likely to go all out in an attempt to play October baseball for the second straight year, but even one or two losses could have the team looking towards 2015. This should lead to a lot more playing time for the likes of Jesus Aguilar, Tyler Holt and Zach Walters as the Indians need to evaluate how they play at the Major League level before next season comes around. Cleveland has a full slate of games this week and, while still incredibly unlikely, they won’t ever get a better chance to go 7-0 as they play two of the worst four teams in the American Leauge.

Up first are the Astros in Houston with a four game series against what has been a surprising team given the level of competition in the AL West. Despite the youth of the team, their recent transition to the American League and the fact that it is possible three West teams will make the play-offs this year (two will for sure), the Astros have still won 65 games and sit nine games ahead of the big market Rangers in fourth place. The Indians played the Astros at home less than a month ago and won that series 2-1, but this will be the Tribe’s first trip to Houston.

The Indians will be forced to expand their rotation for the first game of the series, thanks to the double header last Thursday. Zach McAllister is slated to start on Monday, his first start and just third appearance since rejoining the team at the beginning of the month. He has been inconsistent all season and has already given up four runs in 5.2 innings this past month. While the Houston offense is not too difficult to control, outside of Jose Altuve, McAllister’s penchant for giving up long balls doesn’t coincide well with the Astros’ big mashers, like Chris Carter and George Springer. Corey Kluber, T.J. House and Carlos Carrasco will pitch the final three games of the series, all of which start at 8:10 PM EDT.

Following those four, the Indians will head to Minnesota for their final three games against the Twins for 2014. Cleveland is just 9-7 against the last place Twins this year, including a 2-1 series win last week. Like the Astros, the Twins are a very young team and one player in his rookie season has been particularly irksome for the Tribe. Kennys Vargas played the last six games against the Indians, knocking in four runs while batting .292. On the season, he has seven home runs and 35 RBI in 40 games, giving the Twins some hope at first base and DH as Joe Mauer continues to deal with injuries and age.

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Who’s Hot – Who’s Not

Lonnie Chisenhall hasn’t made a whole lot of noise in the second half of the season, but he stood out this week as one of three impressive offensive performers (along with Michael Brantley and Carlos Santana). In seven games, Chisenhall knocked in six and scored a couple times while playing considerably better defense than he did during the first half.

With how tremendous the Indians starting rotation has been of late, it was largely the bullpen’s fault for each loss. Particularly disappointing was Bryan Shaw, who blew each of the Indians final two games against Detroit. Shaw pitched just 2.2 innings during the past week, but gave up a pair of two run home runs to the Tigers, both in games with a one run lead.