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Early on in the season, the Cleveland Indians were the leaders in the AL Central division, besting the Detroit Tigers with regularity and generally shocking everyone. Now, they're at third-place in the division and virtually a non-factor barring a colossal winning streak, sitting 9.5 games back of the Chicago White Sox in first, and nine games back of the Tigers in second.
They're losers in 11 of their last 12 games, being out-scored in that time by 97-42. The good news is that their last outing was a win, a 6-2 affair over the Minnesota Twins after dropping 11-straight games, including sweeps at the hands of Kansas City, Detroit and the aforementioned Minnesota the first go-round.
Next, they'll take on the Boston Red Sox in a four-game set, hoping to have some better luck. Boston hasn't fared too much better, with losses in six of their last games, including a two-game losing streak they're presently on. They're sitting at fourth-place in their division but have a couple wins more than Cleveland at 55-57.
Cleveland will send the struggling Ubaldo Jimenez to the mound. He's 8-11 with a 5.29 earned-run average and suffered a loss in his last outing. He gave up six runs to the Tigers on Aug. 4, lasting just over five innings. He's up against Felix Doubront, who is 10-5 on the season with a 4.56 ERA to his credit. He was given a no-decision on Aug. 3 against Minnesota, but gave up five runs in five innings.
Game one of this set will begin at 7:05 p.m. on Thursday at Progressive Field in Cleveland, OH.