Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from the daytime victory over the Tigers

Baseball is fun again and the Cleveland Indians are once again in the win column as they escape with their lives against the ferocious Tigers.

Baseball is a lot more fun to talk about when things go well. On a beautiful 70 degree day in downtown Detroit, the Cleveland Indians gave fans a chance to breathe easy as the cruised to a 6-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

This game was played as every other game in the series should have been played. The Indians took the lead in the first and never looked back. In fact, Trevor Bauer pitched such a great game that there weren’t too many stressful moments in this game.

Sure, anytime the Indians have to turn to their bullpen anymore fans have to hold their breath. But today Bauer pitched eight shutout innings and Cody Allen closed out the ninth. This gave the remainder of the bullpen some much-needed rest. It also gave them a chance to watch what can happen if they don’t  blow five and six-run leads.

Now the Indians will head south to take on the defending champion Houston Astros in a series that definitely won’t generate any hot takes. But lets wrap up this series with some takeaways from today’s game.

The Indians still have really good starting pitching

There have been tough losses from the likes of Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer of late. But today was not one of those days. Today’s start from Bauer showed just how great the Tribe rotation really is. Bauer worked eight scoreless innings with only four hits and 10 total strikeouts. He was throwing 96 MPH fastballs at times which goes to show that when Bauer has command with his velocity he is deadly.

The Indians starters have found themselves having to work deep into games given the recent struggles of the bullpen. Most of the time they’ve stepped up to the task of going seven or eight innings. Today should give fans hope that if the bullpen finds out how to fix their issues, they’re in good hands with their rotation.

Michael Brantley is on fire

Anyone who complained about the Indians re-signing Michael Brantley feels pretty silly right about now. Brantley is batting .338 with a .376 OBP and he isn’t showing any signs of cooling off. Today, Dr. Smooth went 3-5 and hit his sixth home run of the season in the fifth inning to extend the Tribe lead.

He currently has 28 RBIs, good for second on the team, and continues to make contact with only 10 strikeouts on the year. Brantley has certainly earned his number two spot in the batting order and proves to be a powerful 1-2 punch with whomever is leading off for the Tribe.

The offense has found rhythm

The Indians have given fans headaches recently with how poorly the bullpen and defense have played. But the Tribe offense is certainly giving opposing teams headaches. The Indians have scored 5+ runs in six of their last 10 games. Cleveland also leads all of baseball with 63 home runs; the next closest is 58.

Today the Indians once again jumped to an early two-run lead in the first inning. Only today they retained that lead. Games like this show that if the pitching staff can put it all together then this team has some amazing potential.

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The Indians will have an off day tomorrow before taking on a gauntlet by facing the Astros seven times in 10 days, and facing the Cubs two days in between.