The Indians come into Friday only a half-game out of first place in the AL Central and having won eight of their last 11 games. They've been doing it without one of their top three starting pitchers, too, but that's about to change.

Carlos Carrasco went down with a hamstring injury and on April 24. This was the scene:

Carrasco in some pain over a month ago. USATSI

Indians fans surely feared the worst, but on April 25, the Indians announced he would be down four to six weeks. We're right in that time frame. Carrasco threw 50 pitches on Monday and he's headed to Double-A for a rehab start on Saturday.

Since he threw 50 pitches last outing, he can probably work up close to 70 this time around, so the hunch is he's two rehab starts away from rejoining the Tribe's rotation. The Indians, however, haven't specifically announced anything further than his start on Saturday in Akron.

Carrasco, 29, is 2-0 with a 2.45 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 20 strikeouts in 22 innings this season. With him healthy, the Indians boast one of the stronger 1-3 rotation punches in the majors with Corey Kluber and Danny Salazar joining him.

Trevor Bauer has gone 2-2 with a 4.13 ERA in five starts in Carrasco's rotation spot. He probably holds onto that now as the fifth starter behind the aforementioned strong trio and Josh Tomlin, who is having a great year in his own right (7-0, 3.35 ERA, 0.98 WHIP in 51 IP).

In fact, once Carrasco is back and looking like his old self, the Indians have one of the best rotations in baseball. That should be happening within the next few weeks, too.