Quick Hit: Cleveland’s Postseason Chances Cut In Half on Off Day

Sep 24, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Indians left fielder Michael Brantley (left) and center fielder Michael Bourn (24) celebrate a 6-4 win over the Kansas City Royals at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

On Thursday, the Cleveland Indians did not play a baseball game for the first time in weeks.  However, they saw their already brittle playoff hopes fade even further as they watched the Royals come back from a 1-3 deficit against the White Sox, eventually emerging with a 6-3 victory.

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Headed into Thursday’s game, the Indians could only make the playoffs if either Oakland got swept by the Rangers or Kansas City got swept by the White Sox.  Either way, the Tribe would have to sweep Tampa Bay and Seattle would have to lose at least one game against the Angels.  All of that good luck would result in having to play at least one game against Oakland in order to get into the one-game Wild Card Playoff.  If Seattle were to take two out of three games from the Angels, it would likely result in the Indians having to beat both Seattle and Oakland in one-game tiebreakers in order to face Kansas City in the Wild Card playoff game.

Cleveland’s already threadbare playoff hopes dwindled even more last night with Kansas City’s win over Chicago.  The win eliminated the possibility of Cleveland catching up to KC in the postseason chase.  From this point forward, any Oakland win or Indians loss will strike the fatal blow upon the Tribe’s 2014 season.

Cleveland has Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar lined up to pitch the final three games of the regular season against the Rays.  Oakland will send former Indian Scott Kazmir, Jeff Samardzija, and Sonny Gray to the mound against the Rangers.