Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from Thursday’s marathon doubleheader

The Cleveland Indians played into the night on Thursday as part of a doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays. Here is what stood out from the two games.

I admire the brave Cleveland Indians fans who spent all day Thursday at Progressive Field. After a two-hour delay to start the doubleheader, the teams responded by playing for five hours. And that was only the first game.

The Indians and Blue Jays split the two games. After a long day of baseball, here are a few things that stood out.

The offense never got tired

The Indians combined to score 24 runs in the two games, beating the Jays 24-17 on aggregate. If only that mattered.

Francisco Lindor had five hits and six RBI on the day, along with two home runs in the first game. He led the way for the offense as the group combined for 31 hits on the day.

All this production should have meant two easy wins, but some bad pitching from both the starter and the bullpen led to a loss in the first game. The offense did leave eight men on base in the game, but 11 runs is a lot for this offense. It should also be enough to win any game, given the pitchers don’t collapse.

A Columbus staff in the second game

Adam Plutko made his 2018 debut for the Indians in the second game, logging 7.1 innings of three-run baseball in a winning effort. All three runs came via home runs, but he limited the damage and also had the luxury of having a nice lead throughout.

He was then relieved by Evan Marshall, who was making his Indians debut after being called up. Marshall has experience in the majors and was put into action right away after Nick Goody hit the DL and the team needed a reliever.

Marshall was then relieved by Jeff Beliveau, who also began the year in Columbus. It is only one game, but perhaps the Indians should be considering all the internal options before trying to make a trade for a new pitcher.

And when it comes to that fifth starting spot, Plutko certainly put his name in the running.

Cookie has another bad day

Carlos Carrasco allowed six runs in 5.1 innings in the first game. This came after he only lasted three innings in his previous start.

There is no reason to panic but this does show that Carrasco, and others on the staff, may be poised to cool off a bit after dominant starts. We saw it with Mike Clevinger, but we also know he is still green when it comes to be a starter in the majors.

Next: Some good and bad prospect performances from April

This also shows just how crazy good Corey Kluber is. Carrasco has two bad starts and we can chalk it up to him leveling out. We are still waiting to see Kluber look completely human.