The Cleveland Indians came into Ohio Cup action losing four of their last six, failing to take either series against the Houston Astros or Minnesota Twins.
The Indians had no idea where they were going to get runs from and it felt like the pitching had to be perfect in order for the team to have a chance at a win.
The Tribe entered their annual four game series against the Cincinnati Reds looking to get back on track after falling back to .500 at 17-17, and did they ever.
In the four game sweep of the Reds, the Indians looked like an offensive juggernaut that had been waiting to explode and there were many good things to come out of the week against their in-state rivals.
HELLO, RUNS
In the aforementioned six game stretch before the battle for the Ohio Cup the Indians scored only 19 runs while getting outscored by 10 in the process.
On Monday night the lineup started clicking and didn’t look back.
Heading into the series this looked like a team that had to scratch and claw for every run that crossed the plate. The Tribe turned that around by putting up a blistering 43 runs in four games against the Reds, outscoring Cincinnati 43-16.
With 43 runs in four games the Indians are now second in the American League and eighth in all of baseball with 187 runs on the year. Mostly all of that offensive output has come without their All-Star left fielder Michael Brantley as he’s still working his way back from offseason shoulder surgery.
The lineup now has the look of a confident group with the “next man up” mentality. With table-setters such as Jason Kipnis and Francisco Lindor at the top of the order the opportunity to drive in runs will be there and we’ll see if the Tribe can start producing with more consistency moving forward.
Are they going to score 43 runs every four games? No, but this week against the Reds was a good start.
RAJAI DAVIS IS ALIVE
Rajai Davis got off to a solid start this season hitting .318 in the month of April. The same cannot be said for his month of May heading into the Cincinnati series.
Entering action on Monday Davis was hitting .105 (4 for 38) in the second month of the year and was making it hard on Terry Francona as to when and were to play the veteran outfielder. During that stretch Davis collected only one extra base hit (a double) and walked just once.
Apparently all Davis needed was a nice little four game set with the Reds.
Davis sparked the Tribe offense all series long on his way to a nine for 16 showing. The right handed outfielder belted two home runs in the process and drove in 11 of the 43 runs for the Indians in the four games.
Davis is a key to an Indians offense that has been without outfielder Brantley for all but 11 games to begin the season. The majority of his time has been spent filling in for Brantley in left and after a hot start he really struggled and the team was hurt by his lack of offensive production.
Davis is a guy that can really change a game when things are going well with the versatility to be placed at the top or bottom of the order and the ability to reek havoc on the base-paths.
The Indians are hoping this week was the turnaround the 35 year-old was looking for to start swinging the stick more consistently in the near future and beyond.
DANNY SALAZAR IS ON FIRE
To the surprise of few Indians pitcher Danny Salazar has been very good to begin 2016. It’s how good Salazar has actually been that may surprise many more.
On Tuesday night Salazar continued his stellar play by throwing 7.1 innings for the Tribe. In the process the flame throwing righty allowed only one run on five hits and one walk while striking out eight Reds batters. He picked up his fourth win on the young campaign.
So far this season the 26 year-old from the Dominican Republic has pitched 50 innings with a 1.80 ERA on his way to a 4-2 record. That 1.80 ERA is good for third in the AL and is the fifth best mark in Major League Baseball. In the 50 innings Salazar has tossed he has struck out 61 hitters he has faced which is tied for the third most strikeouts in the AL.
Salazar’s brilliant start comes at a time when the Tribe really needed it. Indians’ ace Corey Kluber has struggled and their number two, Carlos Carrasco, has been sidelined since April 24 with a hamstring injury.
Watching Salazar grow throughout the past three seasons in the organization you knew he had the stuff to be a big time starter for a long time. While he has struggled with walks (23), his ability to get hitters to swing and miss and not allow many hits at all (27) has given him the formula to success the team is looking for.
Of course the club would like to see the number of walks drop in the coming weeks but opponents are hitting just .157 off of Salazar and that is something they’d like to see continue.
The Tribe faces a tough stretch of games coming up in their next 21 beginning with a three game series in Boston on Friday night against the Red Sox.
Kluber will look to right his own ship while attempting to extend the Indians’ win streak to five against Boston’s Clay Buchholz.
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