Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from the annoying loss to the Twins

Whatever you do, don’t look at the Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter replies on the Cleveland Indians pages. They will only be roasts of Cody Allen following the loss.

Well, that was awful. Looks like the Cleveland Indians used all of their runs in their win on Tuesday over the Twins, because the offense wasn’t present for very long in the loss on Wednesday. Meanwhile the Twins looked like the unstoppable force that gave the Tribe headaches for much of 2018.

The Twins are back within 13 games of the Indians in the AL central. Everybody panic. While the Indians are certainly making the playoffs. Dropping games like this are just annoying at this point. Instead of getting a magical walk off moment, we finish the day with Francisco Lindor grounding out to end things.

Thankfully the Indians play early on Thursday, so we don’t have to sit on this loss for long. But regardless, there are things to talk about from this disaster of a game. So let’s get to it.

Cody Allen is the elephant in the room

It’s not news at this point when Cody Allen causes the Indians fan base to panic, but he’s looking just plain bad at this point. Allen allowed two hits, walked two batters and allowed the winning run in this game.

He was saved by a great play by Yonder Alonso to end the inning, but the damage had been done. This is now Allen’s fifth blown save of the season, the most of any season in his career. This is certainly not the time for Allen to be slumping. The team is without Andrew Miller and they need the rest of the bullpen to step up.

Adam Plutko deserves a hand

I’ve had a lot of anxiety watching Adam Plutko pitch. He just hasn’t found his groove in the MLB. But, give him credit; this was a good game for Plutko. Yes he did allow two runs, but it’s an improvement on his recent play.

I’ve loved watching Plutko in Triple-A Columbus but he just hasn’t made a great transition to the MLB. But he showed up to play in this one. Plutko gave the Tribe 5.1 innings of work with five strikeouts.

Two runs from a young pitcher fresh out of Columbus is a pretty good look for Plutko, but he has his work cut out for him if he is going to continue filling in for Trevor Bauer. Hopefully the bullpen will give him some help next time.

I’d like to buy clutch hitting

This game wasn’t a complete disaster on the offensive side of things, but it certainly wasn’t great. The Indians big bats came through with their hits as you would expect. Lindor, Jose Ramirez, Edwin Encarnacion all had hits, and the team went 2-7 with RISP.

But they just didn’t have it tonight. After the fifth inning the Indians had nothing to show for their hits and they looked half-asleep on offense, going out quietly in the ninth inning, and ran themselves out of the eighth.

It’s unclear if the Indians will make a move at the deadline at this point. But if they do, hopefully it will give them a boost. The offense comes up big on nights where they have a lead, but struggles to close out close games at this point.

The Indians will be back at things early in the rubber match against Minnesota. Their final matchup of the season will determine who wins the season series.