5 Notes on Cleveland Indians’ Home Opener

It was a day almost six months in the making and the Indians did not disappoint.

Playing off the high emotions and success of last season, the Indians took one more day to relive the memories of the 2016 season that pushed the Tribe to the brink of a World Series title.

Embrace the Rings- We’re not talking about participation trophies, the Indians won the American League pennant for goodness sake. Beating out Boston and Toronto after winning the Central, this should not go down as any small feat. With an embrace of the staff, coaches and players at a ring ceremony with Tom Hamilton on the call, the Indians put forth an awe-inspiring banner raising ceremony for the first time since 1997. Be proud of what the Indians did, now it’s time to move on and focus up on 2017.

Carrasco Locked In– After working with a pitch count in his first start of the season in Texas, Carlos Carrasco was taken off the leash and dominated the Chicago White Sox for seven strike outs over seven innings of work on 95 pitches and allowed just one run off the big bat of Todd Frazier. Despite not getting the win, which the Indians had every opportunity to give him, Carrasco was sharp and located the ball well in the child’s maze that was home plate umpire Will Little’s strike zone. Just like Michael Brantley, it would appear Carrasco is back as well.

Frank’s Red Hot– Never being known as a power-hitting short stop, Francisco Lindor must have eaten his Wheaties this offseason as the face of the franchise blasted his fourth home run of the year to give the sold-out crowd a lot to cheer about in the home half of the first. Tying the American League lead for home runs, the gold glover has looked more like a silver slugger through the first week of the season.

Pressing Edwin– There’s an old saying that goes “eventually, you are the guy on the back of your card”. For Edwin, that guy is a pretty spectacular player averaging 39 homeruns over the past five years and 110 RBIs. While Edwin impressed us all with a dinger in his first game in a Tribe uniform, he has struggled since then and left two big changes on the table yesterday with the bases load. Pressing a bit, Edwin will be that guy we’ve seen make pitchers pay, these early season trouble will soon be forgotten when he gets comfortable in his new park.

Offensive Wakeup Call– Since scoring 21 runs in Texas, the Indians have scored just nine runs since then. Leaving runners on left and right, it looked liked the Indians had wiped away some offensive troubles with Lindor’s homerun in the first, but the offense stayed stagnate. Getting the game winning run they needed from the bat of Brantley, the Indians will need to show some life in the coming days as Salazar takes the hill tonight.