Indians Earn Philly Split

The Indians return home to Cleveland today for a well deserved day off, and they make it back from Philadelphia in relatively good spirits. On Tuesday the Tribe offense stalled in a 6-2 loss, but rebounded yesterday afternoon to pound the Phillies in a 10-4 Tribe victory. The win puts us a 0.5 game back from the Tigers, who still lead the AL Central despite dropping one at home to the lowly Astros. Let's keep it short and take a quick look at this mini two game series in Philadelphia:

Can The Real Corey Kluber Please Stand Up?

The Scott Kazmir Comeback Tour took a slight detour Tuesday night. He managed to last 5 innings, giving up 4 runs including 2 homers, but never got the run support, with only Michael Brantley knocking in 2 RBIs in the 6-2 loss. We were all hoping for another vintage Kazmir performance in this series but it wasn't to be. Instead we got one from Corey Kluber on Wednesday.

The 27 year-old right hander got battered in his last start in Detroit, but he shook that off and pitched a good game in Philadelphia. Kluber lasted 6 innings, scattering 6 hits and giving up 3 runs whilst striking out 5 and walking none. It was a very composed and assured performance from Kluber, who has been somewhat difficult to predict this year. In all honesty, if every pitcher on the Tribe staff were healthy, Kluber would be in the bullpen or down in AAA Columbus. However, Corey has met the challenges of being a major league starter each time he's gone to the mound and he's done pretty well given the circumstances. Given the fact he's not really supposed to be in the situation he's in, I think he's doing a fine job and deserves the correct amount of credit when he pitches like he did yesterday.

The question going forward is can Kluber keep this up? Can he pitch like this every 5 days from here on out and keep the other starters like Brett Myers off his back? Probably not. But he's making the most of his opportunities and if he can carry this form into his next start and remain solid, maybe he'll keep that fifth spot in the rotation for a bit longer. I like Corey and will be rooting for him. Oh, and damn did he look impressive with the bat in his hands. For an AL pitcher taking his first cuts at the plate in his major league career, Kluber looked like a veteran in terms of plate discipline and awareness. His first at-bat in particular was amazing to watch.

Player Of The Series

I'm going with my boy Jason Kipnis. He had a pretty quiet first game of the series on Tuesday, going 0-for-3 but he did draw a walk and steal a base, his 7th of the year so far. His bat woke up on Wednesday though. The dynamic second baseman has been hitting the ball really well of late and nowhere was that more evident than yesterday, where he went 3-for-4 at the plate with a walk, 2 doubles, and a big 3-run homer in the 8th inning that effectively ended the Phillies' resistance. His home run was his 6th of the year and the first big fly that didn't come in the first inning. A very successful day at the office all in all.

The Indians have the day off today before welcoming the Seattle Mariners to town tomorrow for a four-game series. The can't-miss game of the series will be on Sunday, our best guy against their best guy: Justin Masterson (6-2, 3.14 ERA) versus Felix Hernandez (5-2, 1.53 ERA). I can't wait for it, and it starts at 1.05 PM ET so I'll get to watch it as well. Until next time...

Thanks for reading.