The Chicago White Sox beat one of their perennial rivals yesterday, the Cleveland Indians. Gavin Floyd was able to hold the Indians to zero runs and 5 singles over about 7 innings. He also made an amazing defensive play that got him out of a bases loaded jam in the 7th. He got a ball that might have been rolling foul on the line and threw it to first to get the out. The Indians, however, are in a world of trouble. The team was expected to be one of the best of the division but they have been in free fall for weeks now. They traded infielder Mark DeRosa over the weekend to get a relief pitcher named Perez. Perez pegged two batters in the top of the 9th, an inning that yielded 4 runs for the Sox. The Sox won the game ultimately 6-3, with the Indians scoring 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th, but it wasn’t enough.

What do you know? The standings are a little bit weird now, because a lot of the teams that we might’ve expected to be dominant have not had as much luck as they had hoped. Boston is at the top of the AL East, ahead of the Yankees and Blue Jays. AL Central has Detroit ahead, and not Minnesota or KC (who were supposed to be much more improved), let alone Cleveland. In the West, Texas and LA seem to be basically tied for first. In the NL, the East PHI, Florida and NY are essentially tied at the moment, which is not unexpected, because it’s very competitive. The Central has St. Louis and Milwaukee in the front of the division. The West has the LA Dodgers, dispite the lack of Manny in their lineup.

The Chicago Cubs are back and they are hitting much better than they were before. Last week may well have been a turning point for this team. They took on the White Sox, splitting a two game set, with a big comeback win. And then they got some very impressive wins over the weekend against the Cleveland Indians. The Indians aren’t the best team in the world, but these wins are quite a bit different than the random wins before. It seems like Chicago is finally getting some momentum after having underperformed all season and dealt with some tough injuries. But they are getting themselves back in the thick of things. When Ramirez finally comes back, it will be that much better, because he adds some good strong batting to the offense. If they can keep the hot bats going, the summer wont be nearly as long as it was before.

The Chicago series between the two different Chicago teams was an exciting one. It was intended to be a 3 game set, but instead a rainout on Tuesday made it a two game series. It got a bit crazy in both games. John Danks won on Wednesday and Thursday saw a fantastic comeback game. The Cubs were finally able to push forward with a great come from behind victory. They were behind 5-1 during the 8th inning, but two homeruns tied up the game. Then they moved on to take a win playing small ball in the 9th. It was an exciting game and we hope that it will be just as fun when they make up the cancelled game in September!

The Indians thought they had it with a 12-8 lead in the 8th inning. But then the Indians’ relievers with all their talent ended up giving up 6 runs and losing the game 14-12 in the end. It was a crazy game against the Milwaukee Brewers, with both teams having leads at different times. One might have thought that the Indians’ 4-run fourth might have sealed the deal. Or that the Brewers’ 6 runs by the end of the 5th inning could have invoked the mercy rule. Instead, they just kept batting. One player hit his first Grand Slam last night, and got the ball back, because the Cleveland fans didn’t want it! This is why interleague play is some of the best baseball, because the teams don’t necessarily know each other perfectly well from playing several games a year.

Geoff Blum made the Cubs sad once again. Houston and Chicago have gone to extra innings the last two nights in a row, but suddenly we see that Chicago hasn’t been able to hold on in extra frames this year. A long game is even worse for the Cubs, because the amount of time that the bullpen can help them is only so much. Admittedly, the relief pitchers took the Cubs into the 13th inning this time around, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Ascanio walked a batter, struck one out, walked another and then gave up a single. The small-ball points are really going to get them this year, if they can’t find a way to slow the other teams down a little bit.

Tom Glavine might file a complaint against the Atlanta Braves because he was released by the team last week. They say that they didn’t think that he would make it back from surgery in order to play well this season, so they released him from his contract. Glavine, one of the main pitchers from the Atlanta Braves glory days. Glavine was injured during the last season or so and had surgery this year. But it wasn’t anticipated that he’d be ready in time to join the team this season. The owners, obviously, don’t want to spend the money to bring him back and also don’t want the team to have to wait out a guy who can’t pitch the way they need him to. It will be decided soon whether he will officially complain about the decision.

The Big Unit, Randy Johnson, got the 300th win of his career last night on his first try to get it. It’s exciting for him, a man who has won several Cy Young Awards and will be going forward into the future looking to get about 200 more and catch up with Cy Young himself. This isn’t going to happen, but it is exciting to see him back on the mound with some of his best stuff. Johnson is 45 years old and has been pitching for over 20 years and it’s always great to see him right there in action. The San Francisco Giants had hoped to sign him and get the great pitcher who used to play for the Diamonbacks and other teams. But he’s not quite that good anymore, but it was good enough for last night’s win. Congrats to him!

The New York Yankees were able to win in a very impressive game last night against the Cleveland Indians. The team was able to leap into the winner’s circle despite the fact that Joba Chamberlain started the game. The last time he started at the Indian’s Field, in the ALDS a few years ago, a lot of little lake mosquitoes came in and bothered him while pitching. Last night, there were some bugs, but it seems like he found his way through to win despite them. The 5-2 win keeps the New York team in first place and keeps Cleveland further down than they were expecting. It’s a good year for them, but not quite as good as they were hoping for!