As Steven Goldman pointed out in a recent Pinstriped Blog entry, tonight the Yankees begin, in Steve's words, a "punishingly difficult" stretch of schedule that extends through late August. Between now and August 21 the Yankees will face the following:

Opponent	2005	Upcoming Games	Home/Road
White Sox	.687	6	3/3
Angels	.619 (.634 at home)	7	3/4
Boston	.578 (.632 at home)	4	0/4
Minnesota	.561	3	3/0
Cleveland	.548 (.568 away)	7	4/3
Texas	.518	6	3/3
Toronto	.512 (.553 at home)	3	0/3
Tampa Bay	7-3 vs. NYY	3	0/3

Cleveland Indians

2004 Record: 80-82 (.494)
2004 Pythagorean Record: 81-81 (.500)

Manager: Eric Wedge
General Manager: Mark Shapiro

Ballpark (2004 park factors): Jacob's Field 98/98

Who's replacing whom?

Grady Sizemore switches roles with Jody Gerut
Aaron Boone replaces Matt Lawton
Jhonny Peralta inherits Omar Vizquel's playing time
Ramon Vazquez replaces Lou Merloni
Jose Hernandez replaces Alex Escobar
Josh Bard inherits Tim Laker's playing time
Kevin Millwood replaces Chad Durbin, Jeff D'Amico and Jason Davis's starts
Arthur Rhodes replaces Rick White
Scott Sauerbeck replaces Jose Jimenez and Cliff Bartosh
Fernando Cabrera replaces Kazuhito Tadano

Projected Roster:

1B – Ben Broussard
2B – Ron Belliard
SS – Jhonny Peralta
3B – Aaron Boone
C – Victor Martinez
RF – Casey Blake
CF – Grady Sizemore
LF – Coco Crisp
DH – Travis Hafner

Bench:

R – Jose Hernandez (IF)
R – Ramon Vazquez (IF)
L – Jody Gerut (OF)
S – Josh Bard (C)

Rotation:

R – C.C. Sabathia
R – Kevin Millwood
L – Cliff Lee
R – Scott Elarton
R – Jake Westbrook

Bullpen:

R – Bob Wickman
R – Bobby Howry
L – Arthur Rhodes
R – David Riske
L – Scott Sauerbeck
R – Matt Miller
R – Fernando Cabrera

DL:

R – Rafael Betancourt
R – Juan Gonzalez (OF)
L – Jason Stanford (60-day)

Proposed Line-up

L – Grady Sizemore (CF)
S – Coco Crisp (LF)
L – Travis Hafner (DH)
S – Victor Martinez (C)
R – Ron Belliard (2B)
L – Ben Broussard (1B)
R – Casey Blake (RF)
R – Aaron Boone (3B)
R – Jhonny Peralta (SS)

After starting the season 9-15, the Indians have been living up to the pre-season hype, playing .617 ball since then and losing just four of their last 17 series (to no less than the four best teams in the AL: the White Sox, Twins, Angels and Red Sox).

The big question about the Indians coming into the season was pitching, but thus far the Indians have the fourth best staff ERA in the majors. No pitcher who has thrown as much as a single pitch for Cleveland this season has an ERA higher than starter Scott Elarton's 4.79, while no member of their bullpen has an ERA higher than Bobby Howry's 3.34. Indian relievers have pitched 252 1/3 innings thus far this season and posted this line:

2.68 ERA, 252 1/3 IP, 202 H, 207 K, 77 BB, 23 HR, 1.11 WHIP

Wow.

The rotation, meanwhile, has been lead by the suprising performance of free-agent Kevin Millwood (3.18, 7.24 K/9) and the emergence of 26-year-old Cliff Lee (3.68, 9-3 in his second full season).

At the plate, the story has been DH Travis Hafner (.318/.422/.596 - .337 EQA), who is essentially David Ortiz in hiding and absolutely crushing the ball right now, hitting .542/.607/1.167 in July with five homers, nine RBIs and ten runs scored in six games. Hafner's two most exciting supporting players have been 23-year-old shortstop Jhonny Peralta (.296/.347/.512 - .287, 115 Rate) and 22-year-old center-fielder Grady Sizemore (.292/.344/.417 - .274). Hafner, Peralta and Sizemore make barely more than $1 million combined, or just more than a third of what the Indians are paying Aaron Boone (.193/.252/.349 - .208).

For their part, the Yankees come into this series on a modest roll, having won six of their last eight and scored in double digits in three of their last four (with a tidy 1-0 victory behind Chien Ming-Wang being the exception in the middle). They'll need to keep their offense clicking to do damage against the Tribe as they'll see Millwood and Lee in the first two games and last-year's break-out Cleveland starter Jake Westbrook (sporting a 1.19 WHIP thus far) on Sunday, with the start Carl Pavano won't make (he was just placed on the DL retroactive to June 28) sandwiched in between.

Between Old-Timer's Day on Saturday and Melky Cabrera's major league debut tonight (he takes Pavano's place on the roster), it should be an exciting series. I'll be in the bleachers for both weekend contests (assuming I break my habit of skipping the Sunday game after Old-Timer's day given the superior pitching match-up in Sunday's game). Moose will look to get back in gear against Millwood tonight following a pair of six-run outings that weren't quite up to par.