Tribe Takes Another Series

Though it didn't start off as planned, the Tribe managed to pull things together and take another series. While the Seattle Mariners are not exactly the Tampa Bay Rays (at least pre-losing streak), I'm willing to take a win whenever I can get it.

There are plenty of highs and lows to discuss, so let's have at ita€¦

The goods:

- Grady Sizemore coming out of the break and hitting two doubles is a good sign. If he only hits 10 home runs in the second half, some will claim that it was the "derby" that did it. I would tend to say that it will be more of a regression to the mean. It is worth mentioning the Grady has raised his batting average 13 points in 13 games since July 1st.

- Shin-Soo Choo had a solid series, but it was much-needed. He had five hits for the entire month of July before going 4-for-12 with nine total bases against the Mariners. The series raised his BA for the month to .205. He will need to keep this going.

- Jeremy Sowers notching his first win of the season. Though allowing four earned in six innings, Sowers is finally able to get rid of the goose egg. He now has 11 strikeouts in the last 10 innings, but also totes 10 bases on balls. Good news is that the kid has currently taken a full run and a half off of his ERA for the month. Bad news is that it is still near sevena€¦

- Cliff Lee becoming the first AL pitcher to notch 13 wins. A complete-game win that lowered his ERA to 2.29, off of four days rest following the All-Star game. 84 of his 109 pitches were for strikes, which is an amazing percentage. Here's to our ace keeping this up through the second half.

The not-so goods:

- Calling Aaron Laffey's outing "tough" is a complete understatement. If Jhonny Peralta fields a routine grounder in the second inning, the Tribe leaves unscathed. Instead, it turned into a five-spot. Say what you want about his bat, but his fielding cost us quite a bit here. Granted, we only put up two runs for the game, but stilla€¦

- David Dellucci and Ryan Garko combined to go 0-for-10 in the series. I sense that the clock is ticking on these two. At least I hope so in Dellucci's case.

- Yes, I'm glad that Asdrubal Cabrera was able to go 2-for-7, but the three strikeouts are still a bit alarming.

- Only one outing, yes, but Masa Kobayashi is supposed to be the new closer and he allowed three hits and two earned runs in an inning pitched. Perhaps he's just assuming the role a bit more than we would like him to, but he's quickly approaching 50 innings on the year. This could get interesting.

- The 3-10 Paul Byrd locks up against the 11-3 Ervin Santana tonight. This could be interestinga€¦

It's worth noting that Fausto Carmona is slated to return to the squad this week. Matt Ginter is the probable pitcher for tomorrow's game with Laffey going again on Wednesday. No one is on the docket for Friday's game against the Twins, so we'll see what the team decides to do.

Obviously, I am not about to let myself get too excited about taking a series from the Mariners, as we are 12 games under .500. Let's revisit this team again after the LA series. Santana, Jared Weaver (hey, we have his brother!) and John Lackey will provide us a bit more of a challenge than Carlos Silva and Miguel Batista.

(Less than two days 'till campa€¦)