Mike Clevinger and Indians Bullpen Shut Out the O's, Three Takeaways from 5-0 Victory

CLEVELAND, Ohio- On Friday night, the Cleveland Indians began a three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles.

Coming into tonight's game against the Orioles, the Indians have won 15 games in a row which set a franchise record for longest winning streak in franchise history.

Heading into Friday night's match up the Indians came in with a record of 84-56 on the season. The Indians lead the Minnesota Twins by 11 games for possession of first place in the AL Central. The Indians magic number was at 12 to start the game.

Baltimore came in with a record of 71-69 and trail the Boston Red Sox by 8 games in the AL East and are currently in 3rd place behind the New York Yankees. Baltimore is only 2 games behind the Twins for the second spot in the American League Wild Card race.

Following the Indians 5-0 victory, the team improved to 85-56 on the season. The Baltimore Orioles fell to 71-70 on the year. With the win the Indians knock their magic number down to 11.

Here's our three takeaways from the Indians 5-0 victory.

1.) Mike Clevinger with 3rd straight Scoreless Outing

Mike Clevinger earned his 9th victory of the season tonight and improved to 9-5 on the 2017 season.

Tonight, Clevinger threw 6 scoreless innings, gave up 3 hits, walked 3, and struck out 7. Clevinger has limited his opponents to four hits or less in 20 out of 29 career starts.

Clevinger became the first Indians pitcher on Friday night to work 6 or more scoreless innings in three consecutive starts since John Denny did it in three straight starts from August 28-September 6, 1981.

Clevinger also continued the trend that Cleveland pitching has maintained during their 16 game win streak. Indians pitchers are 14-0 with a 1.80 ERA (20ER/100.0 IP). The rotation since the All-Star break has the lowest ERA in major league baseball with a 2.91 ERA.

Mike Clevinger's ERA during his three consecutive outings with six scoreless innings has dropped from 3.97 (Aug. 21) to 3.30.
— Ryan Lewis (@ByRyanLewis) September 9, 2017

2.) Edwin Ignites the Offense for Second Straight Night For the second straight night, Cleveland Indians clean up hitter Edwin Encarnacion, hit a 3-run homer to help ignite the teams' offense. With Encarnacion's homer in the first inning, it allowed the team to jump to an early 3-0 lead up until the 6th inning when they scored once again. Encarnacion's homer in the first inning marked his 34th on the 2017 campaign. Edwin has hit safely in nine consecutive games and is batting .318 (14-34) with 4 home runs, and 12 RBIs during this stretch of time. He has also reached base safely in 31 straight games, which is the longest active streak in the Majors and is tied fourth-longest in MLB this year. Encarnacion's 31 straight games of reaching base safely is the second longest streak in his career, behind a 44-game stretch that was set from July 21-September 17,2015. The Indians scored only 2 more times following the Encarnacion long ball in the first inning. Carlos Santana hit a ground rule double down the right field line with two outs that allowed Yandy Diaz to score. In the seventh inning, Encarnacion was up with the bases loaded and one out. Following a wild pitch by Orioles pitcher Richard Bleier, Francisco Lindor scored off of the wild pitch and that would mark the 5th and final run for the Indians in the ball game. 3.) Indians Sizzling

Cleveland wins again! Indians become the 3rd team in the last 50 seasons to win 16+ in a single season. pic.twitter.com/XxgWAh5bS7
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) September 9, 2017

Following tonight's 5-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles, the Indians extended their current win streak to 16 games. Tonight was Cleveland's 17th shutout of the year, which leads the MLB, and is the most in a single-season since 1976 (also 17).

The Indians are now 29 games above the .500 mark which is the highest mark above .500 since 2008 when the team was 96-66. Cleveland is 9-0 to start the month of September and is the best start to any month since September of 1911.

The first place Tribe has scored first in all 16 games of the win streak and has outscored their opponents 56-11 through the first to third innings.

The team combined for 11 strikeouts tonight which makes 79 games this season that extends their Major League record to 79 games with double-digit strikeouts this season.

Tomorrow the Indians will be looking to add another game to their win streak when they send Josh Tomlin to the hill and will be opposed by Gabriel Ynoa.

First pitch is expected to be at 1:05 PM EST and will be broadcasted on FOX.