Cleveland Indians make big leap in ESPN power rankings

The Cleveland Indians had an amazing week and are finally ranked among the division leaders in ESPN’s MLB power rankings.

The Cleveland Indians have not lost a game in over a week and enter play today with a comfortable eight-game lead in the AL Central division.

The team finally took advantage of some weak division opponents in the White Sox and the Tigers. The Tigers came to Cleveland looking to fight to make the division close, but left town after three brutal losses at the hands of the Indians.

This great week has the Indians ranked No. 6 overall in the latest edition of ESPN’s MLB power rankings. The team was ranked No. 10 a week ago.

It was only a matter of time before the Indians began pulling away in the division. The Royals and White Sox both have over 50 losses while the Twins and Tigers are already over the 40-loss mark. The division has been decided for months and it was just up to the Indians to start putting it all together and to not let the division race stay close.

The eight-game lead is now the largest in baseball and the Indians are only 7.5 games back of the Yankees for the best record in the American League. It will take some great play to fight for that top spot, but the Indians still have plenty of games to play against the terrible Central. That won’t hurt the cause at all.

Fans will see if the Indians can keep the winning ways going against some actual competition this week as the team heads to St. Louis and Oakland. Both teams are over .500 and aren’t openly tanking. That will be a change of pace after the last week of play.

Next: Previewing the road series against the St. Louis Cardinals

The key for the Indians is to not give up much ground in the division this week. Expanding this lead to around 10-12 games by the All-Star break should have the Indians coasting to another division title for the final two-plus months of the season.