Cleveland Indians: August gauntlet a daunting month for the Tribe

The month of August could make or break the Cleveland Indians season. They face a daunting schedule, which includes 23 straight games without a day off.

The Cleveland Indians will really show fans and themselves what they are made of in the month of August. A month that sees the team play 23 straight games from August 8 to August 30.

The Indians will see what they really have in them this month as they will face the toughest part of their schedule. This part is dominated by home and away matchups between Boston, New York and Kansas City.

The biggest impact on them will be the series against the Royals. The Tribe will have a chance to put some separation between them and their division foes or they will fall behind in the push for October.

As of Monday night, the Indians rank sixth in the majors in team batting average (.261) and own the league’s fourth-best team ERA (3.77). Both of these stats should bode well for the Tribe in their push for October as they are ahead of the Royals in both.

The team has a 23-game stretch and then one day off before starting another long stretch. The second stretch is 18 games in 17 days beginning with a doubleheader at home against Detroit.

If the Indians are going to start to gain separation, they are going to need more consistency. Consistency from all groups needs to improve drastically.

The starters, outside of Corey Kluber, perform shaky each outing and fans are not used to this from the team. The group that was once the greatest strength of the team is now an inconsistent question mark.

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However, the team has gotten a great bounce-back from Danny Salazar. His last three outings off the DL have helped bolster the starting pitching.

The starters are not the only pitchers that will need to step up. The bullpen needs to get it together because they have been shaky at best for much of the year.

With Andrew Miller on the DL, the rest of the bullpen must remain willing to pitch in high-leverage situations and pitch well. Joe Smith‘s addition will help but the rest of the ‘pen will need to step up their game.

The offense will get a huge boost with the returns of Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall. However, they will need a substantial improvement from other guys in the lineup.

The defense has been solid from the team most games, especially Giovanny Urshela. His defense was huge in Jason Kipnis’ absence.

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The Indians have a big task ahead of them but they have the guys and the coaching staff to make the push for October. The team will need to go out and play well each day in August to help make the push easier.