The Cleveland Indians bounced back from losing three in a row earlier in the week by winning five straight games, four of which came against the Kansas City Royals.
The Tribe’s potent offense scored 30 runs in the five wins, while their elite pitching staff allowed only ten runs in the five games.
When the Tribe began a four-game series against the Royals on Thursday night, Cleveland sat 2.5 games back in the Central Division standings behind first-place Kansas City.
The only possible way for the Tribe to move up to first and maintain the lead in the division by the time the series ended was to pull off a difficult four-game sweep.
The Indians did just that, sweeping the Royals in a four-game series for the first time since August of 2006.
It began on Thursday with the long-awaited return of Indians starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco, who was sidelined for over a month with a hamstring injury.
Carrasco was on a pitch count and although it was clear he was a bit rusty compared to his normal ace-caliber self, the right-hander kept the team in a position to win, and Mike Napoli came through with a game-winning sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth.
This was just one night after Yan Gomes delivered one of his biggest hits of the year, a game-winning single in the 11th inning against the Texas Rangers, to give the Tribe their first walk-off win of the season.
On Friday, Danny Salazar continued to show why he is deserving of All-Star and even Cy-Young Award recognition.
Salazar was lights out, holding the Royals to just three hits over eight innings of work, allowing one run and striking out nine.
By the end of the game, Salazar moved up the American League leaderboards to second in both ERA and strikeouts.
On Saturday, Josh Tomlin added on to his great season, earning his eighth win of the season in a 7-1 blowout.
On Sunday, the Tribe had a power surge, as four different players homered, three of which came in the fifth inning.
Corey Kluber pitched six shutout innings, striking out six, and after a three hour rain delay, the Tribe went on to win 7-0.
Cleveland heads off on a ten-game road trip with a record of 31-24, riding a five-game win-streak, and sitting atop the Central Division with a 1.5 game lead on Kansas City.
It won’t be an easy task for the Tribe, as now they will have to face the Seattle Mariners (31-25,) Los Angeles Angels (26-30,) and Kansas City Royals.
The Mariners are second-place in the AL West and if the Tribe can split the four-game series at Safeco Field, that would be considered a successful series.
The Angels on the other hand have been struggling this season, so if the Tribe is able to take two out of three in Anaheim and come back with a 4-3 record on the West Coast, it’s reasonable to expect they’ll still be on top of the division by the time they get to Kansas City.
Then, it’ll be an interesting battle between the two top teams in the division at Kauffman Stadium.
This Indians’ team has a tendency to go hot and cold, so we’ll see how the road trip treats them.
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