The Indians went 4-3 during the past week, losing the more important series with Detroit while winning the lesser with the White Sox. If they would like to have a reasonable chance at the play-offs, they will have to do a little better in the coming week. Things will start off with a make-up of a rained out game from June 18th with the Los Angeles Angels at 1:05 PM, Monday afternoon.

The Angels are virtually guaranteed a play-off spot, being 6.5 games ahead of the Athletics and 8.5 above the Mariners. At the moment, three Western teams are slated to make the postseason and the Angels are the best, with the fact that they play the majority of their games against these other great West teams making their position even more legitimate. The Indians have been generally disappointing against Los Angeles this year, losing four of six so far, although this game will be an opportunity to decrease that gap. The Angels did struggle a bit last week, losing a two game series to the Astros, but this came directly after an impressive six game winning streak, including a four game sweep of the second place Athletics. Of course, momentum is only as good as the next game’s starter and the Angels starter in this single game series appears to be the Indian killer Jared Weaver (8-4, 3.23 ERA with 84 strike outs in 18 starts).

Following the short, single game series will be a three game set at home with the Twins. This will end the Indians longest home stand of the year (11 games), possibly in a positive manner. This will be a huge series for the Indians to win, for no other reason than the that the Tigers and Royals will be playing each other, guaranteeing a gained game on someone with a series win and two games with a sweep. The Indians are scheduled to send Trevor Bauer, T.J. House and Corey Kluber to the mound, a trio that has performed admirably this season and tremendously in the past week. If the Indians are to have a chance at the postseason, it will be because of these starting pitchers in particular.

Following the Twins will be a series with a more formidable Central Division foe. The Indians will head to Detroit for their final three games of the season with the Tigers and they look to be incredibly important ones. While the Indians did lose their last series against Detroit, this is not like last season when the Tribe went 4-15. This season, they are an even 8-8 and even two wins out of three would make a huge difference down the line. On the other hand, a sweep at this inopportune time could be the end of the Indians season. It is difficult to predict in advance how important these games will be due to the Tigers and Royals playing earlier in the week, but at just five games back coming into the week, the Indians could still legitimately be looking at surpassing one team or the other by the end of the week.

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Who’s Hot – Who’s Not

While Carlos Santana has been a valuable player all season for the Indians, but they have been waiting for something more. This week, he has given it to them with an RBI in each game but one (eight total), three home runs and a double against the Tigers and White Sox. He has hit in five of seven games during the past week, took five walks and was largely responsible for the little offense the Tribe has produced (nine of 21 runs were created by Santana).

Josh Tomlin only pitched in one game this week, mostly due to the fact that he had left the team to join his wife during the birth of his daughter, but that one was a real bad one. In possibly the worst appearance by any pitcher this season, Tomlin gave up five runs and took the loss in a devastating loss in extra innings to the Tigers. In his two previous appearances he wasn’t much better, allowing three runs and seven hits in three innings pitched.