Five Notes on the Indians Wrapping up a Nine-Game Road Trip

The month of May has been a strange one for the Indians as the team has not played a home game since pounding the Seattle Mariners, 12-4, all the way back on Sunday, April 30.

Since leaving for the Detroit later that evening, the Indians have done what they set out to do on this long road trip: Maintain first place in the American League Central.

Visiting Detroit and Kansas City on the trip, the Tribe have been wildly inconsistent on offense while losing two of three in the Motor City and taking the series win in KC by only scoring five runs over the entire three game stretch.

Scoring six runs on Tuesday night in Toronto where the Indians returned to the site of the 2016 AL Pennant clinching game, it felt like the team scored 20 as clutch hits finally made a return to the Indians lineup.

With one game remaining on the trip, the Indians have a strong shot at taking another series to capitalize on the road trip with Danny Salazar on the hill (2-3, 4.28 ERA) against an old face in Francisco Liriano (2-2, 4.44 ERA).

Here’s a look at where we stand with game no. nine left to be played.

Bullpen Dominance

What has come to be expected of the Indians’ bullpen is nothing short of miraculous.

In a day and age where teams need a strong pen that can shuffle around guys to close out games, the Indians have become the best of the best in 2017 and caused great frustration to their opponents as the window for scoring against Cleveland has shrunk to just the first six or so innings.

Surpassing the White Sox earlier this week for the best rated bullpen, the Indians control teams past the six at an impressive rate. With a team ERA of 1.75 in 92.2 innings of work, the bullpen has now allowed just one, ONE, run over the last 44 innings of work (0.21 ERA).

We know the eye-popping numbers for Andrew Miller (but just to reiterate he’s 2-0, 0.00 ERA in 16.2 innings with 22 Ks) and the reliever of the month of April in closer Cody Allen (0.69 ERA, 9 saves, 24 Ks in 13 innings of work), but the star-studded cast is so much more than Miller and Allen.

Coming in for the ninth and not allowing Toronto much of anything, Nick Goody has posted a 0.00 ERA in 10.1 innings of work and really gained the trust of manager Terry Francona as well as his teammates as a guy who can come into tough spots and prevent a team from scoring.

Dan Otero and Bryan Shaw have been very effective in good use this season. Both players were intracule parts of the 2016 World Series run, have fit in nicely again this season with Shaw posting a 2.63 in 13.2 innings of work while Otero controls a 3.18 ERA in 11.1 innings of use.

Not to go unnoticed, Chris McAlister has been very effective as a stop-the-bleeding type of guy for the team if games get a bit out of hand. Not typically seen with a close lead, McAlister has a 1.42 ERA in 12.2 innings of use.

Offensive Inconsistency

If there’s one underlying issue we’ve seen with the Indians this season, it’s the inconsistent play of the offense.

Still waiting for Edwin Encarnacion to heat up, the Indians are still waiting on that big bat in the lineup that strikes fear into the hearts of opposing pitching.

Leading up to Tuesday night’s game, the Indians had scored just 11 runs all road trip and five times been held to two runs or fewer.

Still yet to be held scoreless in a game, the offense took a on Sunday when Michael Brantley went down in Kansas City with a sprained ankle. Waiting on his return, Yandy Diaz made his return to the big league roster after scorch in AAA Columbus.

Placing Diaz in left, it is not likely we see a return of Brantley this series, but has a good shot of returning to the lineup on Friday when the team returns to play Minnesota.

Still waiting on a fully-healthy lineup, the Indians are right in the middle of the road as a team offensively, but are more than capable of being a top-five offense.

The Curious Case of Trevor Bauer

Using a formula that worked in 2016 keeping Trevor Bauer in the bullpen for most of the first half of the year, Bauer honed in his stuff and became a strong end of the rotation pitcher for the Tribe during the final push to the post season.

Starting this season where he left off last season in the starting rotation, Bauer has been a liability on the hill with a punishing 7.36 ERA this season and a 2-4 record.

Facing the injury to ace Corey Kluber to his lower back, Bauer will be tested with the return of Mike Clevenger, who looked very sharp in his first start this season after being sent down to Columbus.

Needing both pitchers for the foreseeable future, Francona said after Bauer’s start on Monday in which he gave up four earned runs “His stuff was really good- better than we’ve seen all year. I think his stuff’s fine.”

With Francona being a straight shooter, the team still has faith in Bauer. Despite giving up the four runs, Bauer still came back down to earth and gave his team some good work and a chance to win.

If anything can be said, Bauer’s curveball was the best it has looked all year as he located his pitches to his liking, but he struggled to mix up pitches to be effective.

No Ace? No Problem

Down Kluber to the back injury, a new ace has emerged with some next level stuff in Carlos Carrasco.

He is what the Indians need right with a big shot to the arm for the starting pitching.

In 48.1 innings this season, Carrasco has a 1.48 ERA, good for fifth best ERA in all of baseball, and is 4-2 (somehow). Getting the Kluber treatment from two years ago with little offensive support, on Tuesday he got the help he needed and then some.

Leading the majors in WHIP with 0.77, Carrasco’s out pitches have been extremely effective as he is also has 46 punch outs this season.

Carrasco’s stuff just keeps getting better as he has put his injury problems of a year ago behind him and really turned the corner to be an ace-caliber player.

Welcome Back

Returning home this Friday for the first time in the month of May, Progressive is sure to be packed for a divisional opponent in Minnesota and dollar dog night.

The Indians will have their hands full seeing Ervin Santana for the second time this season as he has been one of the best pitchers in the game since coming back from suspension. So far this season, Santana is 5-1 with a 1.72 ERA.

The Indians will send Josh Tomlin to the mound as he looks to settle down after a couple of improved performances.