Can Terry Francona's Return to the Indians Bench Give the Tribe the Spark They Need?

The Indians have had to play more than half the season without manager Terry Francona on the team's bench, and the stress and lack of offense has caught up with the team in their latest four-game losing streak. Francona seems to be closer to coming back to the team, and the hope now is that a return can light a fire under the team.

The Indians offense has been as flat as a pancake the last few nights, once again Friday nearly getting shutout by the Minnesota Twins in a 3-1 loss.

The lack of offense comes a night after Royals rookie Brady Singer, who was sporting an ERA over five and a half entering Thursday’s contest, took a no-hitter into the 8th inning.

Why has this team fallen so badly when it comes to hitting the baseball?

When you look overall around Major League Baseball in this shortened season, pitching has been ahead of hitting, but then all you need to do is look at scores from games Friday night.

Five teams scored in double digits, and the New York Mets put up 18 runs on 19 hits in an 18-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

All this while the Indians were once again having issues getting anything going on offense, and it looked like they were well on their way to being shutout until Jose Ramirez hit a solo homer in the 9th to make it a 3-1 final.

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This team has the talent, all you need to do is go back and listen to Indians manager Terry Francona, who pretty much from the start of the season wasn’t shy in stating it wasn’t a matter of if the Indians were going to hit in 2020 - it was when.

That of course was at a different time. Francona’s health has been a major storyline in 2020, and while Sandy Alomar Jr. and the coaching staff has done the best job they can in keeping things afloat, it’s becoming almost apparent that the team needs Francona back sooner than later.

Alomar has seemed overwhelmed in trying to deal with the team’s latest failures on offense, and just about nighty he gets asked the same questions about the team pressing and what needs to change.

Friday the Indians tried something new with the lineup, putting Francisco Lindor in the leadoff spot.

The result didn’t produce much in the ways of producing runs, as they scored one run on six hits.

When Francona will be back is still up in the air, as dealing with health issues are always something that has to be handled with putting the Tribe manager first, and there’s no point in trying to rush him back.

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Alomar has done a very good job in Francona’s absence, going 18-13 in 31 games, but this latest stretch has been downright painful, and getting Francona back could be a major spark for this club.

You could sense Thursday that it’s even to a point where Alomar senses it would be a big lift to get Francona back on the bench sooner than later.

“I tell Tito all the time: ‘Man, right now, we’re a car going on the highway … and we’re looking for a gas station. You are the gas station. It’s time to show up,’” Alomar said.

“We miss him. We miss his presence. … As a student, you can only handle the substitute teacher for so long. You have to bring the real teacher [back]. It’s been fun, but I tell him all the time: ‘Get your butt back, bro.’”

To assume that Francona’s return would magically cure all ails is giving way too much credence to his return, but at this point having him back could be just the spark this team could use.

There’s a reason the Indians have won more games in the American League than any other team since Francona came aboard.

He knows how to push the right buttons, get players to respond, and there’s no question the team is better with him than without.

It was a positive sign when Francona was shown on television during the game the other evening with team president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff.

He’s getting closer to a return by the day, and the hope is once he’s back he can stay around and be as close to 100 percent than he’s been since the issues he started to have in March cropped up.

Can a Francona return be the spark this team needs right now to get the fire back under the offense?

There’s only one way to find out, and it looks like the team is hopefully going to find out sooner than later.

At this point, it can only help. 

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