Puskas: Tribe, Bucs keeping us interested

Football is king in Youngstown and just about anywhere else within a 200-mile radius.

The Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers are in camp.

Youngstown State began preseason workouts Thursday and Ohio State — ranked second in the nation and coming off a 12-0 season — starts today.

High school two-a-days begin Monday and your Vindicator sports writers are busy compiling previews of 44 teams from Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties.

Even the weather for the last week or so — especially at night — has felt more like fall than late July and early August.

And honestly, thoughts tend to turn to football early in these parts because the Cleveland Indians and Pittsburgh Pirates normally schedule their trade-deadline garage sales for the end of July.

This summer seems different. It’s August and entering play on Saturday, the Pirates had the best record in baseball — by percentage points — and were in first place in the National League Central. The Indians were just three games behind Detroit in the American League Central and a half-game out of a wild-card spot.

Both cities deserve to enjoy a season-long pennant race.

The Indians have stayed within striking distance of Detroit since the All-Star break with great starting pitching from Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez, Cory Kluber and Scott Kazmir.

The bullpen has struggled at times and the lineup — particularly Mark Reynolds and Nick Swisher — has underachieved, but the Indians’ recent eight-game winning streak suggests they’re in the race to stay.

Startng pitchers Francisco Liriano and Jeff Locke — a combined 20-7 — and solid efforts from Wandy Rodriguez and Gerrit Cole have carried the Pirates. A.J. Burnett also has pitched well, even if the wins haven’t come. The bullpen has been terrific, even with closer Steve Grilli injured.

I thought the Pirates could have used a bat before the trade deadline, but Andrew McCutchen, Starling Marte and Pedro Alvarez have been productive.

So many people wanted to give up on Alvarez less than two years ago, but the third baseman hit 30 home runs last season and 27 thus far in 2013. If he can cut down on the strikeouts (a combined 309 in 2012 and ’13), his numbers will get better.

Alvarez has a bit in common with Jimenez, a pitcher a lot of Tribe fans were sick of seeing every fifth day just a couple months ago. Each front office was patient when Alvarez and Jimenez struggled and that patience has paid off for both players, both teams and both cities.

Let’s not get crazy and start talking about a Turnpike World Series just yet, but it doesn’t look like the Indians and Pirates are going away.

Ed Puskas is sports editor at The Vindicator. Write him at epuskas@vindy.com and follow him on Twitter, @edpuskas85.