Different Year, Different Tribe

The Yankees will try to put an end to their 4 game skid tonight when they face the Cleveland Indians in the first of a three game set. Derek Jeter is likely to be back at shortstop tonight and the Yankees are hoping Jason Giambi can DH.

This is the first meeting of the season between the two teams this season and the last series before the Yankees take on the NL East.

Pitching Match ups

Tonight - Chien-Ming Wang vs Paul Byrd
Wednesday - Randy Johnson vs Jason Johnson
Thursdsay - Mike Mussina vs Cliff Lee

The Indians narrowly missed making the playoffs last season, winning 9? games. 2006 has not been as kind to the Tribe as they've played mediocre ball all season. They are just 4-6 in June and 30-32 overall. It's left them 10 games behind 1st place Detroit and 8.5 behind the second place White Sox in the wild card race.

Given their off-season moves it came as no surprise that the Indians would take a step back this season. And even though there's a lot of baseball left to play things have to change soon or the Indians will be watching the post-season from their homes once again.

Losing Kevin Millwood to free agency was the biggest blow to the team's make up. C.C. Sabathia is a 5-2, 2.62 in 9 starts and 1 trip to the DL. Jake Westbrook has the next lowest ERA at 4.77. Cliff Lee went 18-5, 3.79 last season, but has struggled for most of this year. He's 4-5, with a beefy 5.12 ERA. The league is also hitting .283 against him and he's allowed 11 home runs. Paul Byrd was brought in as one of the replacements for Millwood, but his ERA is nearly a full point higher than his 4.28 career mark. Another free agent signee was Jason Johnson who has pitched better of late, but still has a 5.70 ERA.

The Indians still know how to score runs. Lead off man Grady Sizemore is blossoming into a star. Travis Hafner is on his way to another 30 HR, 100 RBI season. About the only disappointment offensively is Jhonny Peralta who had a break out 2005 with .292-24-78. This season he's at .225-5-26 and has already struck out 67 times in 240 at-bats.

The bullpen gave the Indians trouble last year and they are still having problems finding arms to get them to closer Bob Wickman. Guillermo Mota was brought in via a deal with Boston, but has been a huge disappointment. His 7.82 ERA is the worst on the staff. The remainder of the pen is pretty much interchangeable with not much success.

With the way the Yankees are playing right now this series is up for grabs.