Cleveland Indians: Thoughts after another victory over the Royals

The Cleveland Indians picked up the win in both the game and the series against the Kansas City Royals on a hot afternoon downtown.

The magic number is down to nine after the Cleveland Indians took care of the Kansas City Royals this afternoon as the 90-degree weather continued.

Just like with last night’s game, this is how games against the Royals should go.

Corey Kluber allowed only two hits in 6.2 innings of work to pick up win number 18 on the year. His ERA is down to 2.75 and he also helped my fantasy team with his outing. An all-around great day.

Oliver Perez, Cody Allen and Brad Hand combined to throw 2.1 innings of shutout baseball in relief of Kluber, striking out a total of six batters.

At the plate, Jason Kipnis had himself another nice game going 2-3 with a run scored and a RBI. It was his second straight game with two hits.

Kipnis remains the most interesting story on the roster as he is fighting for playing time once Josh Donaldson joins the club. The problem is that even with a nice few days, he is still slashing .231/.314/.378. Donaldson may have missed a lot of time this year but his reputation will still earn him playing time over Kipnis with numbers like that.

This was another game in what I will deem the boring part of the year. The Indians are now 79-60, close to clinching another division title and are practically out of reach of the second seed in the American League.

The goal now is to not be embarrassed against teams like the Royals. Picking up a series win helped achieve that goal after a rough game on Monday.

They now head to Toronto for four games against a Blue Jays squad that is 33.5 games out of first place in the AL East. Playing in that building always brings back some fun 2016 postseason memories, but this will be another series against a team focusing on the future.

The next milestone to focus on is a third straight division crown that can either be wrapped up in a few days, or in just over a week. Just like the greats teams of the 90s, division titles are expected with this group. The goal is to win the World Series.

But just like the players, fans (and writers) need to take things one day at a time. And this day is one filled with positivity after win No. 79 in 2018.