We're going to have a look at some talking points from this series:
Offense Showing Signs Of Life
Cleveland took the first two games of the series solely off the back of the long ball. With the team struggling to manufacture much offense in the freezing conditions, thankfully home runs traveled just far enough to lead the the Indians to victory.
Center fielder Bradley Zimmer got things started with his 2-run blast in the fifth inning of Monday's game, and they proved to be the only runs in the Indians' 2-0 win.
Tuesday night saw home runs bookend the Tribe's 2-1 victory, with Jose Ramirez getting a solo-shot over the wall in the first inning, and Roberto Perez ending the contest with one of his own in the eighth inning.
The offense showed some semblance of returning to normal on Wednesday night, finally recording a game with total hits in double-digits, for the first time this season. Remarkably the hometown team hit no homers that night but chose to do it the old fashioned way, with singles and doubles instead.
Thursday night saw the team really come alive, especially our most important hitters. Francisco Lindor (2-for-4, HR, 3 RBI), Jason Kipnis (3-for-4, double, 2 RBI), Jose Ramirez (1-for-5, HR, 2 RBI) and Michael Brantley (2-for-4, double, 1 RBI) all had key hits in the Tribe's 9-3 rout, and the team racked up 15 hits altogether.
Despite the offense as a whole starting the season slowly (with many of our guys possessing batting averages below .200), the visit of Detroit jolted them to life. As the temperature slowly climbed each day, the bats got hotter as well, and hopefully the lineup can carry this momentum forward.
Rotation Domination
The success of this series largely hinged on the stellar performances from the pitching staff, particularly the rotation.
Corey Kluber took the mound on Monday night and was phenomenal. He had a season-high 13 strikeouts over 8 shutout innings, limiting the Tigers to 2 paltry hits and a single walk. It's gotten to the point where I expect this sort of game from Kluber every time he pitches. He's a superstar in the body of a man not interested in that sort of acclaim.
Carlos Carrasco got the start on Wednesday and, having seen Kluber's impressive outing, decided he had to go one better. These two guys had their own private battle in 2017, to test who was the undisputed ace of this staff, and I think that battle will continue this year. Carrasco pitched a complete game with 6 strikeouts, 3 hits, 2 walks, and routinely displayed his vast array of great off-speed pitches. The only run he gave up was a consolation solo-homer to Leonys Martin in the sixth inning, as the Indians ran out 5-1 winners.
After three starts each to begin the season, Kluber sits with a 1-1 record, a 1.57 ERA, with 27 strikeouts over 23 innings, whereas Carrasco has a perfect 3-0 record, a 3.48 ERA, with 14 strikeouts over 21.1 innings. Win-loss records can be so cruel (and remember kids, not necessarily a good indication of performance.)
Josh Tomlin toed the rubber for his second start of the campaign on Tuesday and, after a dreadful first performance against the Angels last week, Tomlin began the long journey towards silencing his critics. Tomlin picked up a no-decision for his 5 innings of scoreless baseball, limiting Detroit to 4 hits and 2 walks, with 3 strikeouts. Tomlin is no Kluber, obviously, but for the fifth starter, this was definitely an encouraging day at the office for the 33 year-old.
Finally, Trevor Bauer secured the sweep with another impressive display, pitching 7 strong innings to pick up his first win of the year. Bauer scattered 7 hits, for 2 earned runs, gave up 2 walks but struck out 7 Tigers. I've always considered Clayton Kershaw's curveball to be the most beautiful pitch in modern baseball, but Bauer's curve has got to run him close. It's a real weapon for the 27 year-old.
----------------------------------------------------
The Indians will now play one more series at home, welcoming the Toronto Blue Jays to Progressive Field for a three-game set. Mike Clevinger pitches Friday night and will look to continue his fine start to 2018. He'll face off against Jays right-hander Marcus Stroman, who usually enjoys pitching against Cleveland (2.17 ERA in five games), but Stroman has struggled in cold conditions so far this season, and the temperature could affect him once again.
No comments:
Post a Comment