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Cleveland Indians: Three Reasons the Tribe Will Beat Toronto

By Benno Martens

Oct 13, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; General view of the ALCS logo on the field one day prior to game one of the ALCS between the Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 13, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; General view of the ALCS logo on the field one day prior to game one of the ALCS between the Toronto Blue Jays and Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports /
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Home-field Advantage

Oct 7, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Indians hold up signs in the sixth inning against the Boston Red Sox in game two of the 2016 ALDS playoff baseball series at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 7, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Indians hold up signs in the sixth inning against the Boston Red Sox in game two of the 2016 ALDS playoff baseball series at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /

The Indians won 53 games at Progressive Field during the regular season, along with the two games played there during the division series. This is a team that thrives in front  of its home fans.

Cleveland is a completely different offensive team at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario:

  • Home: .288/.359/.469, 5.58 runs per game, 120 OPS+
  • Away: .236/.300/.391, 4.06 runs per game, 90 OPS+

The atmosphere inside Progressive Field during Games One and Two of the ALDS was electric, there’s no other way to describe it. Several players remarked about it, and it’s clear the Indians feed off the energy of the home crowd.

“I couldn’t even hear myself think at the end of the game,” Mike Napoli said of the crowd noise after Game One. “We’re going to need that. We feed off of them.”

Sweeping the final regular season series at Kansas City may not have appeared at the time to have been an overly big deal, but it can’t be stressed enough how vital having home-field advantage is to the Indians. Not simply in terms of comfort and familiarity, but in terms of production, which will be needed against a powerful Toronto offense that just bludgeoned the top-seeded Texas Rangers.

The regular season goes out the window once the playoffs get started, as the small sample size makes truly anything possible. But it’s difficult to argue that the Tribe doesn’t benefit in some way, no matter how small, by opening the ALCS right here in Cleveland.

Next: ALCS Position-by-Position Breakdown

“In terms of the crowd, the red towels were out just like last time, and they were loud when they needed to be, and loud when they didn’t need to be,” Kipnis said. “And that’s just exactly what you want out of a hometown crowd.”

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