Barkett has Tribe Ready for Stretch Run

So here was the question to Andy Barkett the other night, just before he managed his 92^nd game with the Indians. Anything about Indianapolis he knows now that he didn't know in April?
"There's a lot of traffic at 5."
Amen, shouted the multitudes at the corner of West and Washington streets. Anything else?
"I didn't realize how deep the fan base was, how many people really care about this team. I knew they had a good foundation, but I didn't realize the passion for the team. And I didn't realize downtown was so cool."

And the franchise's flair for history and the postseason? Well, he already understood that.
"If you've played any time in the International League at all, you know about the history of Indianapolis. You hear stories about the ghosts of the past. For me, wherever I go to manage. I want to make it better when I leave, and create memories while I was there."
Which brings us to this very moment. The Last 50. With Sunday's 6-5 loss to Louisville, the Indians entered the final 50 games of the season, a slim 1 1/2-game lead to protect over their old pals and frequent pests from Columbus in the International League West. To borrow Barkett's phrase, crunch time is also memory-creating time, and it's at hand.
They're called the dog days, but not so much if you're having fun and winning and contending. All of the above, for the Indians.
"I've been at the bottom of the standings before. It gets tough," All-Star pitcher Steven Brault was saying. "It's hard to get to the field every day and get amped for the game when you're in last place."
"We've been able to get that kind of an urgency that hasn't gone away. I don't see this team ever getting into the dog days. I don't think it's ever going to happen."
To get an idea of where the Indians are going the last seven weeks of the season, we should note where they have been. An unusual journey, it is.
This is the team, you might recall, that had the worst April in the league, and started 1-9 in one-run games. That has had 12 players called up by the Pirates, and lost two to Asia. That owns six 1-0 defeats, and is yet to hit a grand slam.
Also, how many division leaders do you know have been shutout 11 times at home, with 52 percent of Victory Field defeats - 11 of 21 - via the goose egg?
Barkett: "That's us? At least when we lose at home, we lose quick."
Eric Wood: "We have? I can believe that. It's a difficult place to hit. We've shutout a lot of people, too (five at home, two on recent consecutive days). You've got to take that for what it's worth."
But never mind the numbers from the Oddity Department. These are the more pertinent things that have set up Indianapolis for the pennant drive:
A bullpen that recently went 29 innings without a run allowed.
Tyler Glasnow back in town, owning a 4-0 record, 1.49 earned run average, and 55 strikeouts in 36.1 innings. Barkett's summation: "Wow. The organization's excited, we're excited."
Brault going from an 0-3 start to a 7-4 record, and Wood driving in six runs all April, then 41 the next 2 ½ months to lead the club.
Eury Pérez fourth in the league in stolen bases with 19, even though he's played in only 40 games, and Joey Terdoslavich recently getting seven hits in seven consecutive at-bats, and Starling Marte's average up to .333 in an extended rehab assignment, and Christopher Bostick still hanging around close to .300, and Gift Ngoepe back as the immaculate shortstop, putting a highlight at No. 3 on SportsCenter's top plays the other night.
And most of all, playing .638 baseball since early May.
Perez started clicking off the factors why on his right hand. "We play defense. We've got good pitching. We've got fast runners. We play together." What would he run out of first, reasons or fingers?
The Indians talk a lot about unity, about enjoying one another as teammates, about the heads being in the right place. "People ask, and I always tell them this is my favorite team I've been on in pro ball," Brault said. Those are important qualities with all the changing faces. The Indians' roster has had more comings and goings than a high school cafeteria at noon. There have been 12 different starting pitchers, 12 left fielders, seven second basemen, five catchers.
A lot of fingerprints, then, on the Indianapolis surge.
"That's how good teams work. You can't rely on one or two guys every single game. Baseball's too hard for that," Wood said.
"That's what I've probably been most proud of," Barkett said. "We've developed a culture on this team that with the ebb and flow (of players), obviously it gets affected, but it gets back to even every time. It may take a few days for the new guys to transition in and get the feel for what we're doing, but I've been really proud of the way that our team has been able to stay cohesive, even though the roster's constantly changing."
Perez, an Indy newcomer this season, mentioned his first impression. "You see one game, the way we play together, and you think, wow, these guys play different."
More tests are dead ahead. The heat of the summer. The Clippers - always the Clippers, it seems like - in the rearview mirror. The Pirate call-ups as September nears, which can pull at a club, if allowed to.
"I've had every emotion like that as a player this time of year," Barkett said. "There's guys in the room that want to finish strong and be on the 40-man roster, there's guys in the room that are on the 40-man roster and they want to be called up. There's guys that are free agents who want to get numbers for jobs next year.
"Everybody's got different personal agendas, and that's fine. But the best way to put up those numbers and to get to where you want to go is play to win. We've told them, `If you're tied to your results, fine, I'm giving you the best route to go after the results.' And they've bought into it and it's worked."
Or as Wood said, "If everybody's playing to win, then everything kind of takes care of itself."
So here's the deal on The Last 50. The Indians entered with basically a six-man pitching rotation, and the second highest team batting average in the league. They play 27 games away from Victory Field - including the last eight, so some heavy lifting might have to be done on the road.
They'll need to flex muscle against last-place Louisville, with 11 games left against the Bats. As for the Clippers, when last they met, Indianapolis won 21-1. The rest of their games probably won't be settled by three touchdowns. They have six dates left; three in Columbus in early August, three here late. Toss another item on the pile of curious Indianapolis stats -- the Indians are 7-3 in Columbus this season, but 1-5 at home.
This is Barkett's first pennant race as a Triple-A manager. So far, so fun.
"Coming to the ballpark when you're in the race and in first place is a great feeling. Coming to the ballpark when you're out of the race is a miserable feeling. I'm having a blast, trying to get these guys better. Sending guys to the big leagues is just as much fun as winning games. But to then be winning games with a roster that has changed so much, and guys stepping into different positions, it's been wonderful to watch.
"I'd like to see us playing our best baseball down the stretch. That would be an accomplishment. As a manager, if your team is playing its best baseball in the last month of the season, you feel like you've done your job as a staff. But it doesn't mean your best baseball is going to win."
He mentioned 2014, his last season with Double-A Jacksonville. The Suns won 10 in a row at the end on their way to a Southern League title.
"The fans always remember that championship there," he said. "I'd like to do the same thing here."
Can he? The Last 50 will tell us.