Tribe Finds a Pearl in Cabrera

Asdrubel Cabrera, the Tribe's "Shortstop of the Future" is looking more and more like the "Second Baseman of Today." All he did yesterday was get a clutch two-out 9th inning hit to send the game into bonus baseball. The day before he made a totally sick play where he fielded a wicked hop groundball and shoveled the ball to Peralta to start a double play - with the runner going. Plus, he's got a signature fashion statement - a necklace which appears to be pearl. Not every baseball player could get away with that.

Since The Pearl was inserted into the starting lineup, the Tribe is 7-3. They finish a road trip where they won all three series at 6-3. Small sample size? Heck yes. Were two of those teams Tampa Bay and Kansas City? Yes. But he seems to have given this team some sort of spark, and the team certainly needed it. On this road series, the Indians did something they hadn't been doing - they beat teams they should have beat. And they took 2 out of 3 from the Tigers.

It was nice to see Pronk get a big base hit yesterday - the winning hit in the 11th in fact, smoking a liner up the middle that actually fell in. Pronk has been a victim of some bad luck lately, but he looked good on that at bat. Turning point? Maybe. We'll see. We've had so many potential turning points recently for Pronk and he's not turned on any of them.

The series against those Pesky Twins will be big for both teams. A good showing here by the Tribe will likely knock the Twins out of playoff contention and perhaps even make them August 31 deadline sellers instead of buyers. Wouldn't that be pleasant to see?

Mojo Watch
Pronk: . I'm giving Pronk back some Elvis, since he got the game winning hit and all.

Indians hitting: This team actually displayed some clutch hitting over the weekend - big hits with two outs and two strikes and game on the line and whatnot. Sure, it was KC, but it bodes well.

Indians pitching:

Asdrubal Cabrera: This kid's got major Elvis going right now, and it seems to be catching.

The Cleveland Indians: Let's give them 4 Elvi for taking care of business on the road. Now it's time to come home and do the laundry and put the Twins through the wringer. We haven't seen much Leadership Pie lately. Time to go to the bakery on this key homestand.