CLEVELAND — The last time I wrote from an Indians loss to the Red Sox at Progressive Field, I told the fans to relax because the Tribe would win one more ALCS game at Fenway Park and head to the World Series.
As you know, I was as wrong as wrong can be. Boston won three straight and the Indians are still looking for their first world title since 1948.
After a Joe Borowski butchering led to a 6-4 loss to Boston on Monday night, I’ve got the same message for worried fans: It’s no time to panic.
This time confidence in the Indians has nothing to do with my happy thoughts. It’s simply too early in the season to abandon hope — especially for a team that inspired high hopes just two weeks ago.
“Everything is more magnified this time of year,” manager Eric Wedge said Monday before the game. “Everybody wants to get off to a good start, the ballclub, the individual. It’s human nature.
“You have to trust your ability, trust you have 150 games to go.”
There’s nothing like an unreliable closer to shake a team’s trust — and the only thing guaranteed with Borowski is that he’ll raise the collective blood pressure of a city. He’s 2-for-4 in save situations, has an 18.00 ERA and has allowed three home runs in four innings.
He entered in the ninth inning Monday with the Tribe up 4-3. The lead was gone three batters later; the game two batters after that.
The shivering Indians fans with the short memories and long grudges hadn’t stopped booing former Indians hero Manny Ramirez when they turned their venom on Borowski. After all, he allowed the no-doubt two-run homer to left field to Public Enemy No. 1 — the guy with the baggy uniform and unkempt hair.
Borowski’s struggles aren’t the only problem for the Tribe, they just might be the biggest. An unsettled situation at closer scrambles a bullpen and sows seeds of doubt throughout the team. Wedge is well aware, but remains confident in his team’s character.
“We’ll rely on our toughness,” Wedge said after the loss. “We gained a lot of that in the last 2-3 years. It stings right now, but you gotta separate and have the same attitude you had today.
“It comes with the territory of 162 games.”
April isn’t even half over, though it already seems like an eternity. The Indians are 5-8 and have dropped eight of 11.
But the reality of the calendar is that there are 149 games remaining. Plenty of time to find a closer, fix the defense, generate some offense at the bottom of the lineup — Jason Michaels, Franklin Gutierrez and Casey Blake are all hitting less than .160 — and put some winning streaks together.
It may seem impossible to skittish Cleveland fans doubting their team and all the experts who praised it in spring training, but they should follow the example of Wedge and not panic.
He admitted to making a young manager’s mistake in the spring of 2006 when he stressed the importance of a good start. The team pressed, struggled early and never recovered.
“I put too much emphasis on it,” Wedge said. “It was a live-and-learn situation for me.”
So Wedge has adopted an even-keel, long-term approach. It comes in handy for nights like Monday, when a team effort is destroyed by one rag-armed closer with an 82 mph fastball.
The rest of the locker room has bought into the manager’s mantra. Today is another day.
“Nobody will come in tomorrow thinking about tonight,” said Jake Westbrook, who allowed just one earned run in 61/3 innings. “A loss is a loss. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing. It doesn’t make it any less or more devastating.”
Just a little more difficult to believe.
Contact Scott Petrak at 329-7253 or spetrak@chroniclet.com.

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