Cleveland Indians: The return of late season magic has Tribe back in AL Central race

The Cleveland Indians defeated the Chicago White Sox in walk-off fashion again, bringing back the magic to the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.

Since the start of the Terry Francona era to start the 2013 season, the Indians have been a persistent threat in the regular season and a perennial playoff competitor. Coming along with that new sense of respectability that came with Francona was a certain type of magic that had been long gone from the team; even during the better-than-expected Eric Wedge years.

It started in 2013, when the Indians went from 68 wins the year prior to 92 wins in 2013. The team was nearly dead and buried to start September but under Francona, the team battled back and on the last day of the season and had clinched their dance card to the playoffs. They went 21-6 in September with a 10-game winning streak. A thing of beauty.

The 2016 playoffs speak for themselves, while a loss in the World Series hurts, just to get there was an achievement.

The other magical moment during this era has to be the 22-straight wins in 2017. Each game got tenser and tenser as the streak continued. Chatter was up, fan interest was up, and everyone in the world of sports hung on each and every passing game.

That magic wasn’t there in 2019, as the Indians fell short of a playoff birth. Then to start the 2020 season, you had the global pandemic, which led to things like the nine-game losing streak, Terry Francona’s health issues, and of course One Night in Chicago, starring Mike Clevinger and Zach Plesac.

It felt like the magic wasn’t coming back this year. Then the Indians had back-to-back walk-offs against the Chicago White Sox in the last week of the season. Normally that’d be nice but not something one would say is truly magical. Yet, after the nine-game losing streak all but killed the Indians chances of winning the AL Central, the team has bounced back and won six of their last seven and two in a row by walk-offs.

Now the Indians are just two games out with four to play. The Indians play host for one more night against the Sox and then finish out the year against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The worst team in the NL. While Sandy Alomar is the current manager, filling in for Francona while he recovers from his health issues, the magic is still very much there for this ballclub.

While the offense has been a disaster all season, the team might just be primed to do the unexpected yet again. What else is new with this club?

Roll Tribe.