Cleveland Indians: Breaking Down the Remaining Schedule in the AL Central

It’s a three-team race in the American League’s Central Division. How do the schedules for the contending Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, and Kansas City Royals stack up?

Entering play on Monday, the Cleveland Indians have a 5.5-game lead in the American League Central with 27 games remaining in the regular season. The Indians’ September schedule is full of divisional matchups, which would seem to bode well for the club.

The Tribe is 36-17 against the Central in 2016, including marks of 11-1 against the second place Detroit Tigers and 8-5 when matched up with the third place Kansas City Royals. Cleveland’s dominance against those two teams will need to hold if the first divisional title for the franchise since 2007 is to become reality.

The Indians will play the Tigers and Royals 13 times in the final 16 games of the season, a stretch that is likely to determine not just how the Central will be won, but also how the AL wild card race will shake out.

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Among the three, Cleveland’s remaining schedule is the most difficult when computed by opponents’ winning percentage. The rest of the way, the Indians’ opposition has a .497 winning percentage entering play on Monday. Detroit has the easiest remaining slate by a hair with a .485 opponents’ winning percentage, while Kansas City will face a .487 opposition.

Here’s how the schedule breaks down:

Cleveland

13 home games: Houston, Detroit, Kansas City, Chicago

14 road games: Minnesota, Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City

Detroit

14 home games: Baltimore, Minnesota, Cleveland, Kansas City

12 road games: Chicago, Cleveland, Minnesota, Atlanta

Kansas City

14 home games: Oakland, Chicago, Minnesota, Cleveland

12 road games: Minnesota, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit

Cleveland is the only one among the three that will spend more of the final month on the road than at home, and that includes the final seven games, four of which will be played in Detroit and three in Kansas City. What happens between now and that last week of the regular season will determine how tense the year’s final roadtrip will be for the Indians.

Detroit will finish the season with three games in Atlanta against the lowly Braves, while the Royals play their final six at home. The schedule is certainly set up to make the stretch run the awesome, agonizing time for teams that Tribe skipper Terry Francona talked about a couple weeks ago.

Next: Coco Crisp and the Makeshift Outfield

Whether it’s awesome for fans or turns into agony is part of why we love to follow the game. The Indians are in a knock-down, drag-out pennant race, playing meaningful games throughout the month of September. Everything about that is pretty awesome.