Cleveland Indians: A quick look back at last night’s loss to the Angels

It was a loss that we may benefit from forgetting, but there are still some things to take away from the Cleveland Indians loss to the Angels.

I think it’s safe to say the Cleveland Indians are happy they likely won’t have to face Shohei Ohtani in the playoffs. Sho-time has made a living off beating up on the Indians. He is nine for 14 with four homers and eight RBIs. I can’t imagine the damage he’d do pitching against the Tribe.

As for the Indians pitching, Mike Clevinger‘s struggles continues. He wasn’t responsible for last night’s loss but the Indians have lost in his last five starts now. Clevinger is experiencing a rough sophomore slump but we’ve seen what he’s capable of when he’s on his game.

Something that doesn’t seem on its game is the Indians offense. Yes, they scored four runs but they struggled to get runners in scoring position. They only had RISP six times and got hits twice. The score is a bit misleading from the way the offense played.

The production came from Michael Brantley, Jose Ramirez, and the new guy in the clubhouse, Leonys Martin. In his two games with Cleveland he has a .600 batting average with two RBIs. He’s likely earned himself the primary centerfield spot.

The loss was planted on Oliver Perez for allowing the winning run, but Adam Cimber allowed three runs. It’s a bit disheartening to see that Cimber allowed the game to get away, but what wasn’t disheartening was the appearance of Andrew Miller. Miller made his first appearance since may and it was incredible.

He worked an inning allowing a walk but with a strikeout, he retired the side without allowing any damage. If we can see Miller return to form along with the work of Brad Hand this bullpen should terrify opponents. But the performances from the remainder of the bullpen wasn’t all that inspiring.

This was a game to forget for the Tribe but it’s not very pleasant to think of how the Indians play against teams above .500. The Indians will have a chance to turn this series around tonight and hopefully last night can give them a wake up call.