Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from the eventful series against Colorado

The Cleveland Indians split the recent two-game series against the Colorado Rockies, but the series easily could have been a sweep for either side.

The series lasted less than 24 hours, but the Cleveland Indians and Colorado Rockies provided plenty of excitement for fans at Progressive Field. Unfortunately, the Indians only came away with one win.

The two-game series saw both teams blow ninth-inning leads, with the Indians’ walk-off win Tuesday being one of the most memorable moments of the season. The Indians had a chance to get another walk-off Wednesday after blowing a ninth-inning lead, but the offense disappeared as it has done so many times in 2017.

Splitting the two games wasn’t the best outcome, but the Indians could have easily lost both these games if not for the late-game heroics on Tuesday, along with another Cy Young-worthy outing by Corey Kluber.

Yet getting at least one win was better than when the Indians headed to Colorado in June and left with two embarrassing losses.

Let’s now take a look at three main things that stood out from the short series in Cleveland.

Kluber and Bauer look like a legendary duo

Indians fans expect Corey Kluber to have a great game every time he takes the mound, but that didn’t make his start Tuesday any less surprising.

Related: Gomes salvaged Kluber’s dominant outing

Kluber picked up his second straight complete-game, and got the win thanks to his offense waking up at the last possible second. He recorded 11 strikeouts in the game which means he hasn’t struck out less than eight batters in any of his 13 starts since returning from the disabled list. That happens to be an elite stat.

While fans expect dominance from Kluber, Trevor Bauer has not had the same confidence from fans during his time with the Indians.

That may be changing if he keeps up his current pace, as Bauer had himself his third straight amazing start even though the offense let him down.

Bauer went seven innings of one-run baseball in Wednesday’s game, allowing seven hits and striking out seven batters. For a sense of his consistency as of late, here is his line in his past three starts:

August 9: 7 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 9 K

August 4: 7 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 7 K

July 27: 8 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 6 K

Bauer may not be held to the same standard as Carlos Carrasco and even Danny Salazar, but he is making a strong case to be included in a potential postseason rotation. Now it’s about getting there.

Zimmer’s blunder

To sum it up, Bradley Zimmer hit a fly ball in the infield Tuesday night, which was allowed to fall to the ground to turn a double play. How did the double play happen? Zimmer didn’t run out his fly ball, something we all learn to do in little league.

The Indians won the game so it is easy to gloss over this and call it a rookie mistake. I am in this line of thinking, as there is only so much punishment a player deserves for such a mistake. As long as it doesn’t happen again, there is no need to let this reflect on his character.

I am not trying to sound like a Zimmer apologist, but Terry Francona gave him an earful after it happened and that alone should mean it will never happen again. If the team lost the game because of this mistake, it would be a bigger deal. But thanks to Yan Gomes, Tuesday night left fans with happy memories.

Kipnis still hitting leadoff

Terry Francona has his reasons for putting Jason Kipnis in the leadoff spot, but it may be time for a change.

To be fair to Kipnis, he returned to the team after just a few minor league games and was thrust back into the leadoff role after missing nearly an entire month.

But when seeing he went 1-9 in the two games against the Rockies, it makes more sense to put him down in the latter half of the order until he finds his stride on offense, if he ever does.

Next: Indians draft recap

Kipnis is a veteran leader on this team, but having his .225/.285/.386 line in the leadoff spot is not helping an already inconsistent offense. The veteran can always turn it around, but there is no reason to force it to happen in the leadoff spot when others on the team are capable of holding down that role until Kipnis is a logical option for the job.