Long Day in KC Ends Well for the Indians in 8-0 Shutout Victory; Three Takeaways From the Win

The Indians and Royals had a long Sunday afternoon in Kansas City in the finale of their three-game set, as rain made everyone wait quite a long time before the Tribe eventually walked off with a much needed 8-0 win.

The rain basically wasted a start for Trevor Bauer, who was coming off his outstanding 14 strikeout affair on Tuesday night over the Oakland A's.

Bauer went just 1.2 allowing a hit, and then the rain hit, and the day was done for the Indians thrower. The pen did a solid job keeping the shutout intact, and the offense did more than enough after scoring five runs in the first two games of the series.

With an off day Monday, the team will continue the short road trip in Colorado on Tuesday. Here's three takeaways from Sunday's win to put the team at 29-26.

1. A Delay Worth Waiting Through

The Indians and their fans had to wait a long time with a 4-0 lead before they could get back to work, and already they lost their starting pitcher in Trevor Bauer since the delay took over two hours.

Instead of allowing it to be an issue, the team did a solid job with the pen stepping up and the team putting up four more runs on four Royals relief pitchers.

The weekend didn't go nearly as well as planned for the Tribe, losing a tough game on Friday and then blowing a 3-0 lead Saturday and losing a second game this season to Royals pitcher Jason Hammel - who has just two wins this season.

It was good though for the team to put the game away and stay focused through the delay and not allowing the Royals back into the game after Mother Nature made it for a long day.

2. Pen Does What It Does Best

After an awful day on Saturday, the bullpen Sunday stepped up and redeemed itself with a long day in which they ended up pitching 7.1 innings, not allowing a run and just five hits, seven K's and just one walk.

Five relief pitchers, including the tag team of Andrew Miller and Cody Allen, never let the Royals get going after a 4-0 Indians lead in the second, and it was a great team win from a pitching standpoint.

With the off day Monday, Terry Francona could run out whoever he felt like he wanted, as the team won't have to worry about the pen for over 48 hours with the night game in Colorado on Tuesday.

All in all, the pen continues to be the number one part of this team day in and day out in 2017.

3. A Bounce Back That Was Much Needed

The last two days were ultra frustrating for Indians fans, as the team was shutout on Friday and allowed a Royals season high 12 runs on Saturday after they led early 3-0.

Sunday they didn't wait too long to get going before the rain hit, as Roberto Perez and Daniel Robertson, two guys not many fear in the Indians lineup, each got two-run doubles to get the team going, and then the pitching did the rest.

"It's one game but we needed to bounce back from yesterday and we did," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "I thought it was important -- just the way we played was much better."

The team was focused, didn't allow the rain to affect the way they continued to play after the two-hour delay, and they just have to start stringing good stretches of games together.

It looked like last week they were on the verge of that with winning three of four against the A's, but then they went right back to their old ways in the first two games of this road trip.

The hope now is they take that momentum to Colorado to take on the Rockies for two days.