The Cleveland Indians have been one of the top teams in the American League ever since their World Series appearance a few years ago.
While the Twins are leading the division, Cleveland continues to have steady pitching throughout the rotation but they are still struggling to produce offensively. One of their best hitters, Jose Ramirez, has batted under .200 for the entire month of April with just a couple of home runs.
Carlos Santana, another one of the Indians best hitters, has come through for the team by hitting for an average of over .300.
Other players, including Leonys Martin and Carlos Gonzalez, have lacked hitting over the last couple of games but will be showing signs of improvement as they face the White Sox soon.
Francisco Lindor has been their other best player for the last three years, and ever since coming back off of the injured list, Lindor has shown the power that most people refer to him as — a homerun hitter.
Although he does not call himself a homerun hitter, he has fully recovered to showing signs of performing to his fullest potential, which we might see in the next few games verses the Mariners.
As for the rest of the team, their lineup is hitting almost last in the league, but if they begin to improve, we may see Lindor get on a hot streak.
We may also see the Jose Ramirez we are used to seeing if other hitters begin to get on base more.
For the past couple of weeks, the Indians have been going on and off winning and losing games but to extremely good teams, including the Astros and Marlins.
They did beat the Marlins 7-4 the other day by manufacturing runs through a past ball and a sacrifice fly. But they just dropped a game to them with a final score of 4-2.
Their offense did not seem to come through when it needed to, especially with Cory Kluber getting hurt during a play and having to leave the game. Unfortunately, Kluber fractured his arm from the ball and will be unable to return anytime soon.
Kluber has been the Indians ace for several years now and still pitches at a high level, but their other pitchers have developed into replacing him as their next ace, whether it’s Trevor Bauer or Carlos Carrasco.
We will see how they perform over the next couple of games, but it is up to the Indians struggling offense to come through for them.
Recently, it has shown different strengths and weaknesses but with plenty of time for improvement. A recap of the last game may give us a glimpse into what will happen in the future.
When the Marlins ran away with the score with a couple of doubles, the Indians did show a significant sign of hope for the next game with Santana hitting a homerun in the 9th inning.
Despite the team losing to the Marlins, the team can go back home to Progressive Field with confidence that their offense will begin to shine.