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	Thursday, June 15
	Injuries rob Indians of challenging for first Associated Press
	CLEVELAND -- Here's how bad the baseball season has gotten in Cleveland: Indians fans will spend the weekend rooting for the hated New York Yankees. Not since they were the majors' biggest laughingstock, playing in dreary, dingy Cleveland Stadium to sparse crowds and losing on a regular, basis have the Indians been this far out of first place. Normally, they'd be running away from the AL Central at this point. Instead, the five-time defending division champs are 5½ games behind the blistering Chicago White Sox. In second place. Hard to believe. "Now we know how other teams feel," said catcher Sandy Alomar, one of the few Cleveland players who remembers the bad old' days. "I've been here since 1990 and have never really been in a pennant race." Well, Cleveland, you're in one now. Chicago, baseball's biggest surprise this season, completed a three-game sweep in the rain Wednesday night. It was the club's first sweep in Cleveland since the final series ever played at Cleveland Stadium. The White Sox, who opened a four-game series in New York on Thursday night, outplayed the Indians in all three games. When they needed a big hit, the Sox got one. Their starting pitching was better. And they played with a spirit the Indians haven't shown this season and rarely in the past few years. "Now I think they know they can play with us," Indians first-year manager Charlie Manuel said. "What we've got to do is get better pitching and situation hitting." Injuries have left Manuel's pitching staff in shambles. He had to start rookies Paul Rigdon and Jim Brower in the bookend games of the series, and during Wednesday's 11-4 loss to the Sox, Manuel used seven pitchers -- six of whom started the year in the minors. These days the most amazing thing about the Indians is when 24 hours pass without them making another roster move. Since May 18 they've placed seven players on the DL and have had three pitchers undergo surgery. "It's tough to put a stretch of wins together with all the transactions," Alomar said. "But some of the young guys seem to do a little better on the road, so we'll see this weekend." The Indians, who have lost four straight, open a three-game series in Detroit on Friday before playing four games next week in Chicago. How far back in the standings the Indians could be by then will depend on how the Sox handle the pressure in Yankee Stadium and whether the Indians can get a clutch hit. Cleveland has stranded 43 runners in its last four games, and in the first two games against Chicago Indians hitters were 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position. The Sox went 7-for-11 with runners at second and third in the first two innings Wednesday night. Some help could be on the way. Manny Ramirez, on the DL since May 30 with a strained left hamstring, will begin a rehab assignment at Double-A Akron on Friday and should join the Indians in Chicago on Monday. "We miss Manny in the middle of our lineup," Manuel said. "He's our big RBI guy." But when Ramirez returns, what will the Indians do with Russell Branyan? Since being promoted from Triple-A Buffalo, Branyan has six homers in 22 at-bats. "It's going to be tough to cut him," Manuel said. "When he hits, he puts fear into people. It will be a big decision." And one made tougher by a pennant race.