The Indians Are on Fire; Five Takeaways From the Latest 7-2 Homestand and What's Ahead

CLEVELAND-- The Indians are finally playing up to the potential that many felt they would when the season kicked off in Seattle in late March, and the team is firmly perched up at the top of the American League Central with a mark of 43-33 following seven straight home wins over the Twins, White Sox and Tigers.

The team is in St.Louis for an interleague series against the St. Louis Cardinals, a team that the Tribe does not see all that often.

Then they have an off day Thursday and head to Oakland for a weekend series with the A's and a series in Kansas City before coming back to Progressive Field.

It's hard right now to find many negatives in this team's game, but that doesn't mean there won't be some tough days ahead for the franchise as they get set for their final run before the All-Star break.

Here's a couple takeaways about the team as they head to St.Louis and get ready for a road trip.

1. Kip coming on

It's been no secret that Jason Kipnis hasn't had the season he wanted after a solid spring training when it looked like he was going to be a force at the plate this season.

Finally on June 18 Kip passed hitting under .200 with a 3-for-4 day that pushed his season average to .207, and after Sunday's game against the Tigers he's now hitting .212 on the season.

He has been pushed by Erik Gonzalez for playing time, but the team still likes what he can bring, and even pitcher Trevor Bauer, without being asked, brought up how hard Kipnis has been working to try and get his average up and hitting the ball better.

While he was pushed away from the top of the lineup earlier in the year, Kipnis looks finally to be settling in and has hit .381 with three homers in the latest seven-game win streak.

Now back on the road, it will be interesting to see if his hot hitting ways keep up.

For those who like numbers: @TheJK_Kid has hit .381/.458/.857 with 3 HRs and 6 RBI during our win streak.

For those who like emojis: 🎷🎷🎷🎷🎷🎷#VoteKipnis https://t.co/bXskMW0n70
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) June 25, 2018

2. A solid turnout

As expected with the summer and long days of daylight finally here, Indians fans are finally heading out to the ballpark, making Progressive Field the place to be.

Over the nine-game homestand the lowest attended game was Monday against the White Sox when 17,271 fans showed up to the game, but other than that, it was a solid nine games for fans through the turnstiles.

Against the Tigers this weekend over 95,000 fans showed up to Progressive Field, (Saturday was the team's second sellout of the season).

The Indians rewarded the fans with a solid 7-2 homestand, with the team coming on after losing the first two games against the Twins.

3. The young starters

With Josh Tomlin being sent to the bullpen and Carlos Carrasco trying to come back from injury after being hit by a line drive, the team has had to turn to Adam Plutko and Shane Bieber, and both have been solid in their time at the Major League level.

Plutko is 4-1 in his time with the Indians with a 4.65 ERA, and Sunday got the benefit of 12 runs and really only had one hiccup in the six innings he pitched.

Shane Bieber has been even better in his starts at the Major League level, going 2-0 with a small 2.45 ERA. In just three starts Bieber has been setting records and making heads turn at the MLB level.

Bieber after his latest start became the first pitcher for the Indians to record six or more strikeouts in each of his first three career MLB appearances since Luis Tiant did it way back in 1964.

These young pitchers have been a big addition to the team's rotation, and have proven they can handle being in one of the top rotations in baseball.

4. The top of the order

Name another three in baseball hitting as well as Cleveland's top of the order Francisco Lindor, Michael Brantley and Jose Ramirez.

I'll wait.

The threesome of Lindor, Brantley and JRam are tearing up the top of the lineup, and it's getting harder and harder to find complements to come up with as to how these three are playing.

They all deserve a spot on the American League All-Star team, and Brantley is hitting .316, while Lindor and Ramirez are both hitting .296.

They are getting the team off to big starts (they took the lead in all three games against the Tigers, scoring in the first inning twice), and coming up with big hits when the team needs it.

Sunday Ramirez extended his career-long on-base streak to 31 games, the 2nd-longest active streak in MLB. Lindor has 27 RBI this season against the AL Central, is tied with teammate Ramirez for the most RBI against the division this season.

5. Foot on the throat

After the Tigers started their latest road trip with a couple wins, they were talking about coming into Progressive Field this last weekend playing for the division lead.

They left Progressive Field eight games behind the Tribe after getting beat down to the tune of scoring just three runs in three games-- while the Indians scored 26.

It was the type of statement weekend that Indians fans have been waiting for, and as if they were not the pronounced best team in the division before the three games, they are now clearly the best of the bunch.

There was no doubt that the White Sox and Royals were afterthoughts to challenging the Indians, but now it looks like the Twins and Tigers will be playing out the stretch after this latest homestand.

You might as well start clearing out dates in October now for the postseason, as the Indians are headed for the third straight year to October baseball sitting 10 games over .500 and eight games up in the AL Central.