Cleveland Indians Look to Shrink Magic Number and Knock Out Defending Champs

The Cleveland Indians have hit the home stretch, as the team will play its final 13 games in the next 13 days. First up are the defending champion Kansas City Royals, who will need a miracle to make the postseason.

It’s an old adage in sports that, while reaching the top of the mountain and winning a championship is tough, getting back is even tougher. The Kansas City Royals, who come to town to start a three-game series with the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night, are finding out just how true that axiom is.

The Royals came up just short in 2014, falling to the San Francisco Giants and a freight train named Madison Bumgarner in the World Series, but defied the odds and returned to the Fall Classic last season, ultimately taking home the club’s first title in 30 years. 2016, however, has not gone as planned, as injuries and inconsistent starting pitching have Ned Yost’s squad hoping for a miracle to reach the postseason for a third straight year.

Kansas City enters Tuesday night’s game staring up at Cleveland from 9.5 games back, giving it zero statistical possibility of winning the American League Central Division according to FanGraphs. At five games back of the second wild card spot, the odds of securing a playoff spot aren’t much better.

On the other side, the Indians are in fine shape for the shape they’re in. Despite a slew of injuries and a bit of a beef with a local media member, the Tribe is fresh off a series win over the Detroit Tigers that cut the magic number to clinch the division to just seven. At this point, it appears the question is not if the team will do so, but rather when.

But it’s not all sunshine and fresh-cut grass for Cleveland, as the injuries sustained to the pitching staff have served to handcuff the starting rotation. These final 13 days of the regular season will be used to figure out how best to move forward into the postseason, and to prepare the mound corps to be at its best when it’s needed most.

This is the first of two three-gamers the Royals and Indians will play in that span, so let’s take a look at what we need to know.