Blue Jays Top Indians 6-2 as Mike Clevinger Drops to 11-8; Three Takeaways

The Indians fell 6-2 against the Blue Jays Sunday afternoon to settle for a series tie, each team winning a pair of games.

Mike Clevinger dropped to 11-8 on the season after pitching six innings. The RHP gave up four hits, three earned runs and walking two. He did strike out nine batters.

Thomas Pannone improved to 2-1 on the season after a solid 6.1 innings in which he only allowed four hits and two earned runs. Francisco Lindor continued his hot streak hitting his 34th home run of the season.

Here are three takeaways as the team gets ready for a trip to Tampa for a rematch from a week ago against the Rays.

1. Jose Ramirez Slump

Jose Ramirez has been great most of the season but lately he hasn’t been himself.

He was 0-4 in Sunday’s loss and in MVP candidate’s last 10 games he’s gone 6-37 with three RBI. He’ll need to regain his MVP form of Cleveland is going to be a serious World Series contender this year.

2. Lindor Finding His Groove

Francisco Lindor has found his power again. The short stop hit his 34th home run of the season Sunday and his fifth homer in a weeks span. After going without a home run in nearly a month, the Tribe’s lead off man has been launching them out of the park at a very high rate the last week.

If Lindor is able to be consistent, along with Jose Ramirez returning to form the American League will be in big trouble. The Tribe will be getting Josh Donaldson Tuesday and those three alone will be enough to keep managers up at night.

3. The Bullpen Continues to Scuffle

Outside of Brad Hand it seems like everyone else in the Indians bullpen has been up and down or just bad. Jon Edwards relieved Mike Clevinger to start the 7th inning and gave up three runs (two earned) in 1.1 innings of relief.

The bullpen has been a concern all year and the Tribe is running out of time to work it out before the playoffs.