Clevinger Throws Complete Game Shutout; Indians Top O's 4-0

The Indians pitching remains a strong point thus far in 2018, and Saturday afternoon Mike Clevinger was at his very best, throwing his first complete game shutout of his career, wrapping up an impressive two hitter in a Tribe 4-0 win over the Orioles.

While Clevinger was dominant on the mound, the offense was paced by Jose Ramirez who had three hits and seems to be coming around, as well as Yan Gomes and Yonder Alonso who each homered in the victory.

The win puts the Tribe at 10-8 on the season, a half game up on the Minnesota Twins for the top spot for the moment in the AL Central.

Cleveland will have two more meetings with the O's before they come home for another very long homestand, 11 games in 10 days, including a double header against the Jays from the rain outs last weekend.

Here's today's takeaways from the Tribe's shutout win led by Clevinger.

1. Complete Game Clevinger

For the first time in his career, Mike Clevinger went the distance, throwing all nine innings, using 107 pitches (70 strikes) in wrapping up the shutout win.

Before Saturday, Clevinger had never thrown more than 7.1 innings, but was just in complete control of the O's lineup on Saturday afternoon at Camden Yards.

Clevinger allowed just two hits, and He walked a pair and struck out three in the win. He's now 2-0 on the season, and his ERA sits at 1.75, an impressive number for an up and coming pitcher in the Tribe rotation.

"Tell you what, that was really fun to watch," manager Terry Francona said. "He's a young pitcher who's getting better."

2. JRam Heating Up

Satuday's hero from an offensive side was Jose Ramirez, the scrappy Indians third basemen who went 3-for-4 with a homer, his team leading 5th homerun of the season.

Ramirez is one player the Indians could really use getting hot at the plate, and after an awful start it looks slowly like he might be coming out of the early issues he had.

Yes he's still only hitting .221 on the season, but consider that he's put up a pair of three-hit games in the Indians last four outings, it looks like he might be ready to put that slow start behind him.

3. Leaning on the Long Ball

The Indians still struggle stringing hits together or getting guys over from base to base when needed, but one thing they seem to have no issues with so far in 2018 is hitting the long ball, and they came through with three more homers on Saturday.

The first was Yan Gomes, a 4th inning homer to make it a 2-0 lead for the Tribe. Then the team hit a pair of homers in the 6th to put the game away.

Both homers were to right field, the first was Jose Ramirez, his 5th of the year, and then it was Yonder Alonso's turn to dial up the long ball.

Yes it would be nice to see the team put innings together stringing hits that would lead to runs, but for the time being the home run balls have been their best offensive weapon in 2018.