Cleveland Indians: Pitching remains solid in yet another loss

Cleveland Indians fans saw a familiar sight on Friday as the pitching staff played great, while the offense was nearly nonexistent.

What happened Friday night is becoming a familiar sight for Cleveland Indians fans. The pitching staff allowed just three runs, but the offense made it seem like a victory was never within reach.

The Indians managed to scrape across four hits Friday night, with two coming from Edwin Encarnacion and two from Jason Kipnis. That meant a lot of 0-for nights from those expected to carry this team.

The bright spot is that Encarnacion hit a home run, but it is hard to get excited when it ends up being the team’s only run of the game.

The most frustrating part of losses like this one are that it essentially wastes a great performance from the pitchers. It is not every day that the staff is going to allow just three runs and keep the team in the game, but when it does happen this supposed prolific offense must capitalize.

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The game becomes even more frustrating when fans remember that the Kansas City Royals have the worst record in the American League Central by far.

They do have a home record of 8-7 but the Indians shouldn’t be shut down by the Royals if they are going to be serious contenders this season.

Along with Encarnacion, Danny Salazar‘s performance was encouraging. He only made it 4.2 innings, but he allowed just two runs and struck out seven.

The performance of the bullpen was great once again, even though Boone Logan allowed an earned run to end the streak of 12 games without allowing a run. But a 3-1 deficit was not something fans thought was insurmountable, until the final out was made.

The Indians are back at it this afternoon and fans are just hoping for some sort of life on offense. The team has scored a combined seven runs in the last four games, which is simply inexcusable.

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I am in the camp of assuming the group will turn it around soon, but the confidence in that idea is beginning to fade with each one-run performance.