Cleveland Indians: Another crazy stat from Trevor Bauer

Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer has already set himself up as a Cy Young contender in 2018. One stat that stands out only helps his case.

Trevor Bauer is having a crazy season for the Cleveland Indians. His stats right now would constitute a successful season for most pitchers.

The main headlines surrounding Bauer right now has to do with the fact he reached the 200-strikeout mark. He finished with 196 in 2017 and reached 200 on August 6 in 2018. Just insane.

He now sits at 206 with nearly two months left to go.

The strikeouts stand out but a statistic shared on Twitter by ESPN Stats & Info shows that his dominance can be traced back to last season as well.

The last time Bauer allowed more than four earned runs came on May 1 of last year when he allowed seven. Since then, Bauer has given his team a chance to win every time he has taken the mound.

And with the way he is pitching now, at a Cy Young Award level, it seems like this streak should continue on throughout the remainder of the season.

Along with his 206 strikeouts, Bauer has only allowed seven home runs this season and only 40 total earned runs in 159.2 innings of work. That gives him a 2.25 ERA which is good for third in the AL.

There was some controversy last year when Bauer opened the ALDS but he would be a logical choice to do so this year, especially if Corey Kluber isn’t pitching at his normal elite level. What a nice situation to have.

The tricky situation for Bauer’s Cy Young case is if the Indians lock up the division with three or four weeks left to play. Bauer will still get his work in but he may not be going deep into games as he does now. But knowing him, he may be able to convince Terry Francona that taking him out early is actually bad for him.