Wedge: Indians will get better

CLEVELAND (AP) — Indians manager Eric Wedge doesn’t believe his club will be in last place for long.

The defending AL Central champions entered play Friday 71‚Ñ2 games behind the first-place Chicago White Sox and tied with the Kansas City Royals for last place in the AL Central.

“Well, it’s not where you want to be,” Wedge said Thursday before Cleveland salvaged a victory in a three-game interleague series against San Francisco. “But it is only late June and there is a long way to go. I look at how many games back we are rather than the standings.

“We have one great week and people will be asking different questions.”

The last time Cleveland was in last place this late in the year was June 25, 1993, when they were seventh in the AL East.

Ace left-hander C.C. Sabathia, the reigning AL Cy Young winner, is just as confident as his manager that the Indians will get straightened out.

“Nobody in this room has pushed the panic button,” said Sabathia, equating the team’s low standing to his own early season struggles.

Coming off a 19-win season a year ago when Cleveland got within one win of reaching the World Series, Sabathia was 1-5 with a 7.51 ERA after his first seven starts this year. He’s since lowered his ERA to 4.06 and pitched two complete-game shutouts to improve to 5-8.

“You have to just keep battling, which is what every guy on this team is doing,” Sabathia said. “We’re staying strong mentally. That’s the big thing that I had to do and what these guys are doing now.

“There’s a tremendous amount of talent on this team. We’ve showed it before. We’ll show it again.”

The talent pool has been depleted by injury, however. Right-hander Jake Westbrook is out for the season after elbow surgery. All-Star catcher Victor Martinez also had an operation on his right elbow and is not due back until August.

Right-hander Fausto Carmona, also a 19-game winner in 2007, has been sidelined since May 24 with a strained left hip. Designated hitter Travis Hafner has been on the disabled list since May 30 with a sore right shoulder. News on their progress is expected soon.

“Walking into the ballpark today it really hit me,” Wedge said. “I’m walking in and Fausto and Victor are walking out after doing their rehab work. I get to the clubhouse and there’s Jake and Travis getting ready to do their rehab.”

Despite the team’s slip in the standings, there are signs that all is not lost, Wedge said. Cleveland is third in the majors with 121 runs scored in June and their starting staff ranks fourth overall with a 3.79 ERA for the season.

“We don’t come here hoping to win; we come here every day expecting to win,” Wedge said. “It’s tougher without some of our regular guys, but we look at it as a challenge.

“We’ve got some young guys playing more than anyone expected because of the injuries, but over the course of a season they should only get better because of it.”

After finishing interleague play with three games against Cincinnati this weekend, the Indians then play eight consecutive road games — all against division rivals.

“We’ve got a lot of games left in our division,” Wedge said. “We just have to get pointed in the right direction.”