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As bad as they have been all season, you have got to give it to this scrappy Indians team lately. I know I know, they were picked by many to win the AL Central and sit seven games out with an unimpressive 25-34 record, but there are signs of life.

I mean seriously, how can you not be somewhat impressed with this bunch of rag-tag youngsters and journeyman that surround Victor Martinez after Sunday’s 8-4 in Chicago? Did you see the lineup that Eric Wedge posted? To quote radio play by play man Tom Hamilton before the game “when Kelly Shoppach is hitting sixth right now, you know you could be in for trouble.” Travis Hafner was unavailable as the Indians aren’t playing him more than two days in a row. The bottom third of the order read like this:

Chris Gimenez – 1B

Luis Valbuena – SS

Trevor Crowe – CF

Not exactly murderers row. So how exactly did the Indians manage to score eight runs and win the rubber game of the series? Two words:  Bartolo Colon.

The hefty former Indian Ace and one time Cy Young award winner is a shell of his former self, despite keeping on his trademark weight. He was barely registering 90 mph on the gun and wasn’t throwing a slider or curve ball. He stuck to his fastball and change-up. That combination couldn’t even get out an Indians lineup that was reminiscent of the Columbus Clippers.

Here is how I know Bartolo should hang up his spikes this morning.  In the second inning, he allowed back to back homers to Gimenez and Valbuena. Anyone who does that should have to file their retirement papers immediately. If that wasn’t bad enough for the man who brought us Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, and Brandon Phillips,  Victor Martinez and Shin-Soo Choo touched him up in the fifth for a second pair of back to back jacks. All in all, Colon stumbled through five innings, giving up four home runs leading to six Indians runs.

On the other side, another of the Tribe rookie brigade, David Huff, went five to record his first major league win. He threw 96 pitches and was really only hurt by one big hit, a three-run blast off of the bat of Alexei Ramirez with two outs in the fifth, that cut the Indians lead in half (6-3). I will say this for Huff, he has gotten better and better each start and looks more comfortable out there. That stat of the day: Huff was the 11th starter the White Sox have faced for the first time this season. Those pitchers are a combined 8-1 with a 1.79 ERA against Chicago. Crazy. That sounds like something that would happen to our Tribe.

Back to the AAA lineup – they somehow delivered 11 hits and eight runs. Every starter had at least one hit, with the exception of third baseman Mark DeRosa. Jamey Carroll, who is one of the most under-appreciated members of this club, had three hits from the two hole, moving his average to .345 since coming off of the DL. Gimenez, playing first base, reached base twice and has two home runs out of his three hits thus far.

All of the goodness was almost lost in the eighth inning, thanks to some trademark spotty relief pitching. After two scoreless from Greg Aquino, Eric Wedge turned to Luis Vizcaino with a 8-3 lead. The Viz gave book-ended a single from Paul Konerko with walks to Jermaine Dye and Josh Fields. Without the DL’d Rafael Betancourt available, Wedge wasted no time in yanking Vizcaino in favor of lefty Rafael Perez, knowing that if he went to righty Matt Herges, Ozzie Guillen had lefties Jim Thome and A.J. Pierzynski on the bench.

Perez naturally walked Ramon Castro to force in a run, bringing the tying run to the plate. Perez came back to K the weak hitting Brian Anderson and pinch hitter Jayson Nix. Rookie Gordon Beckham then ripped a line-drive to center that looked like it would drop, but Trevor Crowe made a diving catch to save two runs. Classic Guillen response when asked about the pivotal eighth inning where the Sox had the bases loaded and nobody out and managed just one run – on a walk: “We had a great opportunity … and we did what we do best: strike out.”

Kerry Wood pitched a scoreless ninth to close out the series.

More genius from Guillen after the game, who was ever so-candid in ripping his club. “It’s so disappointing when you play like that,” Guillen said. “It takes the wind out of you. We don’t know what to do. Everything we try doesn’t work. Maybe if I go crazy with the media and [rip] my team … I might wake them up. But it’s wasting my time.” I’d be embarrassed to if my club was worked over by the like of Luis Valbuena, Chris Gimenez, and Trevor Crowe.

Tomorrow with an off-day, I will discuss the focus of this team the rest of the way, considering the number of guys returning from injury. After a 3-3 road trip, the Tribe comes back home Tuesday to face the slumping Kansas City Royals, who have lost nine of 10.