Indians Offense Comes To Life To Beat Padres 11-2; Three Takeaways

A few days before the All-Star break, and the Indians continue to look hot and cold; particularly on offense.

Tonight was the former.

Before the Tribe takes on the Detroit Tigers in a weekend series, they still had to finish off their series with the San Diego Padres.

After two days of stalled offense, the Indians successfully avoided the sweep topping San Diego, 11-2.

Josh Tomlin ended the night with six strikeouts, giving up four hits and two runs in seven-plus innings.

As the Tribe gets ready for their last series before the All-Star break, here are our three takeaways from Thursday's win.

1.Jose's Offensive Dominance And Edwin's Almost Cycle

Thursday was another great night for Ramirez on the offensive end.

Ramirez went three-for-five from the plate with three RBIs.

He notched his 16th home run of the year in the bottom of the first inning, a two-run shot over the center field wall that put the Tribe up, 3-0.

That homer ended a 66-inning homerless streak from the Indians at Progressive Field. Per our Matt Loede, the last homer before Ramirez's tonight was on June 25th against the Minnesota Twins, also from Ramirez.

Per the Indians, Ramirez now has 48 extra-base hits this season, the most by an Indians player before the All-Star break since Jim Thome's 53 extra-base hits in 1998.

Ramirez was on a hot streak at home coming into today as well. Over the previous 11 games, (not including today) Ramirez was batting .381 with five RBIs and 2 home runs.

Edwin Encarnacion joined Ramirez tonight with a stellar offensive game. He was one triple away from a cycle, and ended the night going four-of-five from the plate with two RBIs.

His homer to center came in the fifth inning as the lead-off batter. Encarnacion also singled in the third and eighth innings, and posted an RBI-double in the sixth.

With tonight's shot, in each of the last six seasons, Encarnacion has hit 18 homers or more leading into the All-Star break.

2. Josh Tomlin's First Four Innings

Through four innings on Thursday, Tomlin had a perfect game going.

Tomlin retired the first twelve batters he faced, striking out six in the process.

The importance of this start was two-fold. First and foremost, it gave Tomlin, who came into tonight with a 4-9 record, some much needed rhythm and confidence. His last win came on June 15 against the Dodgers, and coming into tonight his ERA sat at 6.17.

His work in the early innings prevented him from completely falling off the rails after giving up two runs in the top of the fifth inning.

"I finally gave my team a chance to win after a long drought," Tomlin said. "When you're not doing your job it affects you a bit. ... To know that I did what I could to help the team win was probably the biggest satisfaction I had."

Tomlin's start also allowed the Tribe to take advantage of an early lead, rather than needing their bats to fight from behind. This was especially important, considering the Indians were only batting .160 with runners in scoring position in this series heading into tonight.

Tomlin would get credit for the win, his fifth of the year.

3. More Consistency, Especially With Runners In Scoring Position

Throughout the 2017 season, the Indians have struggled to be consistent.

Whether it's bullpen issues or offensive slumps, at times this team has gone through stretches that leave us scratching our heads.

These struggles have manifested themselves at home in particular. Coming into tonight's contest, the Indians had gone just 18-23 at Progressive Field; the third lowest winning percentage in the majors.

They have 17 come-from-behind wins, but have 15 losses after holding a lead.

They're a team that can score two runs total against Minnesota in three games, but then come back and put up 15 runs against the Rangers the next day.

Corey Kluber can pitch five straight games with double-digit strikeouts, but the Indians can still lose three of them due to lack of run support.

This series was another prime example of these consistency questions. After going 4-for-25 with RISP over the previous two games against San Diego, tonight they were 4-for-14.

"Even though we had 14 hits last night, 14 hits tonight, the approach they had with runners on in scoring position was pretty nice," bench coach Brad Mills said.

Brad Mills talks about the Indians' offensive production tonight @NEOSportsInside pic.twitter.com/iWQTSsAJ5n
— Ashley Bastock (@AshleyBastock42) July 7, 2017

We're hardly sounding the alarms. After all, the Indians are still in first place in the division. When this team is on, they are on; the issue now becomes limiting the games where they are off, and getting more into a groove throughout the second half of the season.