Cleveland Indians: Corey Kluber can fix things right away

The Cleveland Indians started the second half of the season with a boring loss, but Corey Kluber can quickly come in and make things right.

The 2017 version of the Cleveland Indians are a team skilled in crushing any newfound optimism.

That continued Friday night as the Indians began the second half of the season with a 5-0 loss against Sonny Gray and the Oakland Athletics. Gray is one of the better pitchers in the game, but he only went six innings on a night when the bats were silent.

The good news is the team has also been skilled at breaking out of small slumps, thanks in part to the pitching of Corey Kluber, who is on the mound tonight to hopefully continue his great stretch of baseball.

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He is looking to continue a brilliant stretch in which he has struck out 82 batters since June 1, allowing just eight earned runs in 56 innings. It led to a selection to the All-Star Game, even though he was ineligible to play in the game due to pitching last Sunday.

But no matter how great Kluber does, it is up to the offense to wake up. The team has scored three or fewer runs in three of his last four starts, going 1-3 in that stretch. This happened even though he allowed only three earned runs total in those four games.

The lineup tonight is identical to the one that recorded just four hits Friday night, and features a bottom three of Yan Gomes, Tyler Naquin and Erik Gonzalez. Not exactly a dominant trio, but it’s the best the team has right now with injuries to Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall.

This team has enough talent to be just fine on offense if everyone can get going at the same time, but the front office may look into some surprising trades if the struggles continue and the division lead either remains close or goes away altogether.

Next: 5 players who must step up in the second half

One game doesn’t define a season so Kluber and the offense can erase the memory of Friday night’s loss and get rolling in the second half with a great outing tonight.