Game #43 Observations: Silent Night for the Indians Offense, Fall 3-0 to the Royals

CLEVELAND - The Cleveland Indians offense was back to its ugly form on Wednesday night, failing to push across a single run in a forgettable 3-0 setback to the now 16-28 Kansas City Royals.

The loss drops the Indians to 26-17 on the season, losers of two straight on a night when they should have done enough to get Carlos Carrasco a win.

“Cookie” went seven innings, allowing a run on seven hits. His mistake came in the 6th when he gave up three straight hits to the Royals to start the inning, with Adablerto Mondesi driving in the game’s only run.

The offense had their chances, and every time they came up with runners on base they didn’t get the big hit when needed.

The lack of offense is nothing new for the Indians, as despite the fact they are still nine games over .500, they still have nights like Wednesday when the offense seems to sleep walk through 27 at-bats.

The finale of the four-game set against the Royals comes up Thursday, and after winning Monday one might have thought four-game sweep, but now the team needs a win just to get a split with last place K.C.

Indians TV Ratings Yet Again Sky High in 2020, Second in MLB

Here’s some observations from game number 43, a tough to swallow 3-0 defeat.

Offensive Missed Chances

Royals starter Danny Duffy kept the Indians on their heels all night at the plate, but that’s not an excuse for not doing what needed to be done to push at least one or two runs across.

“We’re not able to get guys on base obviously and leaving guys on base, we’re trying too hard and need to put balls in play,” Alomar said.

“Sometimes we try and hit too big with balls in scoring position.”

The best chances against the Royals came in the fifth and sixth innings, both times failing to get that one big hit.

In the fourth inning the Tribe had second and third with two outs after a pop out and fly out to start the inning.

Franmil Reyes walked, and Jordan Luplow doubled to left, but Reyes had to hold up at third.

With a chance to tke the lead, Oscar Mercado fell behind in the count 0-2, and predictably he struck out on a 74 mile per hour curve.

The fifth saw an even better chance, as Roberto Perez walked, and Delino DeShields singled.

Cesar Hernandez got them to second and third on a sac, but then after Jose Ramirez walked to load the bases, Francisco Lindor hit a fly ball to center - not deep enough to score Perez.

Carlos Santana, still with a chance to drive in runs, struck out looking on a 76 MPH curve, and the biggest Tribe threat was over.

On the night the team left 10 on base, and the following inning when KC took a 1-0 lead it was like the air out of the balloon for the Indians and their dugout.

Making a Case for Zach Plesac to be the Indians Number Two Playoff Starter

“Mostly they were trying to hit the ball in the air, but they got too much underneath the baseball, and he also did a good job, normally we have been doing good against Duffy, but we had him in the ropes, we didn’t take advantage of those opportunities,” Alomar said.

The Indians drew four walks on Royals pitching, and struck out five times in the losing effort.

Carrasco Deserved Better

For the second straight game, Carlos Carrasco threw well, and he should have been given just a little run support to help him try and notch his third win.

Instead he dropped his ERA to 3.12, but still took the loss to fall to 2-4 on the season.

Carrasco struck out six and didn’t allow a walk in six innings of work, throwing 101 pitches, 74 of which were strikes.

“He took us late into the game, and that was a definite plus for us,” Alomar said.

He allowed Royals on the base paths in four innings, with the sixth being the inning that did him in, as he gave up three straight hits to start the inning to plate the only Kansas City run.

"Just trust myself and trust my pitches, for the last three games I just have been trusting myself and it's been working pretty well," Carrasco said.

It appears the stretch of three games where Carrasco went 4.1 against the Cubs, 4.1 against the Pirates and 3.1 against Detroit is in the past, as the last two games he’s gone 18 innings, allowing two runs on 15 hits against St.Louis, Milwaukee and Kansas City.

“He’s more attacking guys, and putting away batters more attacking guys,” Alomar said.

The Indians starting pitching staff has remained very good despite the bullpen having some letdowns, and the offense being very inconsistent all season long.

Five Indians "Fact or Fiction" 40 Games into the 2020 Season

For Carrasco, he’s slated to be back on the hill Tuesday night at Wrigley Field against the Cubs.

Can’t Afford a Bad Stretch Now

Tuesday night it was sloppy pitching by the pen (Adam Cimber in particular) that did in the Indians, while Wednesday it was a lack of offense, nothing new in 2020, that did the team in.

Coming off their three-game winning streak (last two against the Brewers and Monday against the Royals) the team has now lost two in a row, and Thursday is another key game as they look to at least split against the Royals.

This weekend is lining up to be a big one, as the club will head back to Target Field to take on the Twins, a team that beat them three of four there earlier this season.

The offense always seems to be the key, and while the Twins have had a lot of injury issues in the short 2020 campaign, they still can hit, and you can bet they will want to jump on Tribe pitching this weekend.

"I trust my team, every guy in there, we're going to have ups and downs, as I've said before we just had one of those games," Carrasco said of the offense.

"It's one of those games and we move on, tomorrow is another day and another game."

The formula for the Indians always seems to be the same, score four or more and you win - score less and it’s a dogfight in which a number of nights the Indians have found themselves on the losing end.

The team cannot afford to have their offense not produce as it’s done way too often in 2020, and they have to put Wednesday’s poor night of getting shutout behind them.

It’s the fourth time in 2020 the Indians have been shutout.

Let's Leave it on a High Note

Not much has been said this week about the recovery of Indians manager Terry Francona, but at one point Wednesday night he was caught on camera by the Fox/STO crew in a suite at Progressive Field.

Francona, as seen in the picture below, was sitting with president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff, and looked good after having a procedure at the Cleveland Clinic 20 days ago.

No word on when the team expects Francona back, but it's likely sooner than later with him being at Progressive Field.

To keep up with all of Cleveland Baseball Insiders’ coverage, click the "follow" button at the top right-hand corner of this page.

For more from Matt Loede, follow him on Twitter @MattLoede. Follow CBI on Twitter @IndiansonSI

Add us as a preferred source on Google