The Indians are hoping another outfield injury will not slow down their offense.

Michael Brantley aching right wrist caused him to miss last night's game against the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field. The injured wrist as bothered Brantley for more than a week.

Indians manager Manny Acta says Brantley has visited a hand specialist at the Cleveland Clinic and is not expected to go on the Disabled List.

This season, Brantley is hitting .270 in 106 games with 21 doubles, four triples, seven home runs and 44 runs batted it.

Acta hopes Brantley's injury will not linger for the rest of the season

Already during the 2011 baseball season, the Indians have had outfielders Shin Soo Choo, Trevor Crowe and Grady Sizemore on the disabled list with assorted injuries.

Second-year Cleveland Browns quarterback Colt McCoy is slowly becoming more familiar with the new 'West Coast offense'.

Following Wednesday's practice session in Berea, new Browns head coach Pat Shurmur said “I think it’s a gradual improvement that you’re seeing, but we all have better days than others."

Shurmur went on. "You can see the improvement daily. As people watching the sport whether you’re coaching it, reporting on it or a fan of the sport it’s easy in the quarterback position to focus on maybe a play or two. Whether it’s great or good. As coaches, we’re looking for consistency."

"It’s always the case and I don’t know what it is about football, but there’s times when you walk off the field and say, ‘Boy that was a great practice.’ Then you go and watch the tape and it was just an ok practice and vice versa because you focus on a play or two. Same thing on the other side, there’s times when you walk off the field and say, ‘My goodness that was horrible we couldn’t even get out of the huddle.’ Then you go back and look at it and say, ‘There was a lot of good stuff in there.’ That’s what happens and we’re all watching the same stuff all the time now 24/7. Everyone once in awhile you can draw those conclusions, ” said Shurmur.

But, Shurmur says the second-year quarterback out of the University of Texas is “As much as he can be in Day 10 or whatever day of camp this is. It’s starting to smooth out for him. When you’re talking about quarterbacks you talk about where the game slows down. Guys are struggling to see things. Everything’s fast and it’s just a blur of colors. As they get comfortable with what they’re doing it slows down they see it real clean and they execute.”

The Browns begin the pre-season on Saturday night in Downtown Cleveland at Browns Stadium against the defending Super Bowl Champions, the Green Bay Packers. Kickoff is set for 7:30 pm.

The Cleveland Indians offense caught fire last night and the Detroit Tigers paid for it.

Tribe rookie second basemen Jason Kipnis went 5-for-5 with four runs and three RBIs as the Indians beat the Tigers 10-3 last night.
The Tribe put a run on the scoreboard in the first inning, three more in the second. The Indians finished up the scoring with four more runs in the fourth and two more in the sixth.

Cleveland closed within two games of Detroit for first place in the American League Central Division. If the Indians are able to beat the Tigers tonight it would mark the second time this season that they have swept the Tigers. The big if for the Indians tonight is beating Tiger pitcher Justin Verlander.

Jimenez, now 1-0 with the Indians, allowed three runs and six hits in eight innings. He struck out six and walked one. Jimenez was obtained from the Colorado Rockies in a deal that was completed just before the Major League trading deadline.

Kosuke Fukudome had three hits and an RBI for the Tribe.  Travis Hafner, Carlos Santana and Lonnie Chisenhall had two hits apiece as the Indians offense pouned out 18 hits.

The Indians have defeated the Tigers 13 straight times at Progressive Field, dating back to last year. 

You'll be able to hear tonight's game broadcast on 1590 WAKR.  First pitch is at 7:05 pm.

The Cleveland Indians won't have Grady Sizemore back in center field anytime soon.

Indians manager Manny Acta it will be at least September before Grady could be back, and there are no guarantees he'll return this season.  Sizemore has been out of action since July 18th with a bruised right knee suffered in a game against the Baltimore Orioles.

Acta says Sizemore will definitely not be back on the field during the month of August. The Indians originally said Sizemore would be out of action anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks.

The 28-year old Sizemore, a three-time member of the All-Star team, played only 33 games in the 2010 season with the Tribe before having microfracture surgery on his left knee.  Acta says there is a chance that Sizemore could be taking swings and playing catch by the end of the week.

Acta made his comments about Sizemore before Tuesday night's game against the Detroit Tigers.

The Cleveland Indians today announced Columbus OF JERAD HEAD has been named the Indians Minor League Player of the Week for the week of July 31-August 6.

The Player of the Week award recognizes an individual performance from within the Indians Player Development System and will be announced each Tuesday thru the end of the minor league baseball season. All players from the Tribe’s minor league affiliates are eligible for the weekly award.
This past week, Head hit .393 (11-28) with 7 runs scored, 3 doubles, 5HR and 11 RBI in 6 games for the Columbus Clippers while posting a .393 on-base percentage and a 1.036 slugging percentage (1.429 OPS). He homered in four consecutive games from July 30 thru August 2 driving in 11 runs and homered in 6 of 7 games from July 30 thru August 6. Head has currently hit in each of his last 8 games batting .389 (14-36) with 4 doubles, 6HR and 14RBI and on the year is batting .290 (103-355) with 62 runs scored, 24 doubles, a career-best 21HR and 63RBI in 97 games thus far for the Clippers.

He currently ranks 2nd among International League leaders in slugging percentage (.535), 3rd in home runs (21), 6th in OPS (.882), 8th in runs scored (62), T11th in RBI (63) and T20th in hits (103).

The 6-0, 210-pound right-handed hitting outfielder was signed by the Indians as a non-drafted free agent in 2005 after attending Washburn University in Kansas. Last year, Head hit .315 with 15HR and 51RBI in 65 games at Akron before earning a promotion to Columbus. On the year he combined to hit 17HR between Akron and Columbus as his 17HR were T3rd most among all Indians minor league farmhands.

A prayer gathering is being held tonight for two of the Copley shooting victims who were involved in youth ministries at the Crosspoint Alliance of Faith Church.

Although they were not members of the Church, 16-year old Autumn Johnson and 16-year old Amelia Shambaugh were involved in programs that helped fifth and sixth graders.

The teens lost their lives Sunday. Their deaths have turned the Crosspoint Alliance of Faith Church upside down.

Senior Pastor Tim Feather will lead the prayer service and is inviting everyone one to come tonight. Pastor Feather is hopeful the service will ease the pain of many church members but those in the community.

Appearing on the 1590 WAKR Ray Horner Morning Show, Senior Pastor Tim Feather says tonight's service will include music, silent prayer, meditation and Bible readings.

The Church is located at Rothrock and South Cleveland-Massillon Roads. The Service begins at 7 o'clock.