The winning formula of Kluber, Miller and Allen

The Cleveland Indians picked up a win Friday night using a familiar formula that gave the team a great deal of success a year ago.

Friday night was a wild one for Cleveland sports fans.

Progressive Field was packed, Quicken Loans Arena was the same and the area in between was no different. The best news of all? The city saw two wins.

The Cavaliers may have overshadowed their local counterpart last night, but Cleveland Indians fans in attendance and watching at home saw a return to winning baseball.

The offense showed up and put up seven runs, but the best sight from the game was the pitchers used by the Indians.

Corey Kluber started it off, and was relieved by Andrew Miller and finally Cody Allen to finish up the job. It sure has been some time since that trio has had a chance to appear in the same game.

Kluber went six strong innings, allowing three runs but leaving the game with a 4-3 lead. That was enough for Miller, who went two full innings and struck out four on just 30 pitches. Allen came in with a four-run lead so he didn’t pick up a save, but it was nice to get him some work in a competitive game.

This trio needs to become a regular sight for Indians fans once again. It all starts with how Kluber performs, but a lot of the pressure lies on the offense. The team was able to push seven runs across last night, but reaching that mark hasn’t been easy all season.

But if just a few runs can be scored in the first six innings, as was done last night, Kluber is great enough to keep the lead and send it to the bullpen.

Andrew Miller is capable of going multiple innings, as he showed again last night. He can’t do it every night, but it may become a more regular occurrence if Terry Francona loses trust in other members of the bullpen as the season goes on.

Last night’s win had a playoff feel to it. Whether it was because of the packed stadium or the pitching trio, the team needs more games like that to bring back that confidence and swagger that was seen last October. We need more pictures of Jose Ramirez mean-mugging catchers and Edwin Encarnacion rounding the bases with his trusty parrot perched on his arm.

Next: Minor league review for May

The only way for this team to achieve long-term success is to be carried by the pitching staff, so it was nice to see that be the case Friday night. Let’s hope it continues tonight.