3 Cleveland Indians takes: Jose Ramirez, making baseball fun again

3. Cleveland Indians not gaining ground

The Indians are hot, winning five of their last six, but those pesky White Sox keep winning.

Chicago is now without three key starters from what was projected to be their Opening Day lineup: Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert and Nick Madrigal. Yet, the southsiders keep cruising behind a stealer pitching staff that includes Lucas Giolito, Carlos Rodon and Dylan Cease.

Tribe fans have watched the formula for years. You can suffer on offense if you’ve got the thoroughbreds to get you through seven innings.

At 37-28, the Tribe has made up no ground on Chicago, trailing by 4.5 games in the standings. They’re a game out of the second Wild Card spot, trailing Houston by a game.

If the Indians are going to catch Chicago, they’re probably going to need to take advantage of the matchup in head-to-head contests. Not easy to do, as games so far between the two clubs can feel like playoff baseball.

Cleveland is 6-5 on the season against the White Sox in 2021.

Still a long summer left to play, but unless the Twins wake up, it’s going to be hard to make up ground. The Tigers are terrible and the Royals fast start tricked some of us. With so many winnable games available to win the division, the White Sox can just keep rolling.

The Tribe’s doing it’s part, though, at least for now. Beat up on the lesser teams and play .500 against the good clubs.