CLEVELAND -- With 80 games remaining on the schedule, Paul Byrd didn't need a calculator to come to the conclusion.

"We're not mathematically out of it," said Byrd, whose Indians sit nine games behind the American League Central-leading White Sox, whom the Tribe will begin a three-game series with Monday night. "We can still turn this thing around and right the ship."

Even though the Indians do have time on their side, another poor series or two could ultimately sink the Tribe's ship and potentially open up select players to the highest bidder.

No, the Indians' three-game series with the White Sox and the five games that follow in Minnesota and Detroit won't be their be-all, end-all if they can't come up with more wins than losses.

But it certainly wouldn't help matters, and it might be the final factor in general manager Mark Shapiro's decision to buy, sell or keep things as they are as the July 30 trade deadline looms.

"This is what it's all about," manager Eric Wedge said. "We're through with Interleague now. We've got a lot of games left in our division, so it's going to make it or break it for us."

Strong words from the Tribe manager, who doesn't put much weight in one game more than the next too often.

His players have followed the lead.

"This is definitely going to be the biggest road trip of the year," pitcher Aaron Laffey said. "We've got to win, and we've got to win the majority of the games. If we can win all of them, that's great, but we have to come out of it with four or five games."

With seemingly every team in the AL Central but the Tribe thriving of late, the reigning division champions sit in the unfamiliar of position of last place two weeks before the All-Star break -- so unfamiliar that they haven't been there this late in the season since 1993.

And after losing the last two games of the Ohio Cup in lopsided fashion, the Tribe certainly isn't heading into the trip with momentum to build on.

A couple wins in Chicago followed by a few more in Minnesota and Detroit could be more than enough to forget about Cleveland's Interleague woes and, perhaps, its first-half struggles as a whole.

"It's pretty simple stuff with where we are," Wedge said. "We're going to be playing teams in front of us, teams in our division. It's going to tell everybody what they want to know, one way or the other."

Pitching matchup
CLE: LHP Jeremy Sowers (0-3, 5.97 ERA)
Although he picked up the loss, Sowers gave the Tribe a quality start in his last outing, going seven innings in Wednesday's effort against the Giants. Yes, his control was a bit erratic at times (five walks), he seemingly couldn't keep the ball in the infield (nine hits) and he found trouble early (two first-inning runs), but the left-hander showed better command of his fastball, which allowed him to mitigate the damage (three runs). Up and down from Triple-A Buffalo all season, Sowers has yet to face the White Sox in 2008. He faced them last year, though, giving up two runs in six innings for a no-decision.

CWS: RHP Gavin Floyd (8-4, 3.39 ERA)
The Dodgers jumped on the White Sox right-hander for two runs on three hits in the first inning of Wednesday's 5-0 loss, and Floyd never seemed to recover. He allowed four earned runs on six hits over 5 1/3 innings, striking out two and walking two. Floyd also has some trouble pitching around mistakes behind him, giving up his 13th unearned run against the Dodgers, tops in the Majors. Floyd has a 1-0 record with a 6.00 ERA against the Indians this season and is 1-1 with a 4.38 ERA lifetime against Cleveland.

Tidbits
The Indians have allowed seven grand slams this season, the most of any team in the Majors. ... The Tribe leads the the AL in fielding percentage (.988) and has committed the fewest errors (38). ... Cleveland has scored three or less runs in nine of its past 14 games. ... Sunday's start marked only the second time all season Laffey allowed more than four runs. ... Grady Sizemore hit his 50th career home run at Progressive Field on Sunday. He has now hit safely in 22 of his last 24 games. ... The Indians drew 111,424 fans for the weekend series with the Reds. It is the third consecutive weekend in which the Indians have drawn 100,000 or more.

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Up next
• Tuesday: Indians (Cliff Lee, 11-1, 2.34) at White Sox (John Danks, 5-4, 2.62), 8:11 p.m. ET
• Wednesday: Indians (C.C. Sabathia, 6-8, 3.78) at White Sox (Jose Contreras, 7-6, 3.99), 8:11 p.m. ET
• Thursday: Off-day