Cleveland Indians: A look back at the division-clinching win

The Cleveland Indians dominated the Detroit Tigers on the bat of Jose Ramirez and the arm of Mike Clevinger to clinch their third straight division title.

So that’s what winning baseball looks like. The Cleveland Indians trounced the Detroit Tigers 15-0 Saturday and everything is okay until it’s not again.

The Tribe dominated this game from start to finish as they put up 11 of their 15 runs in the first two innings thanks to Francisco Lindor starting things off with his franchise-record eighth leadoff home run this year.

Mike Clevinger and the bullpen shut the Tigers offense down and the Indians cruised to an easy win.

V-Mart honored

Before the game former Indians player Victor Martinez was honored by the team as it is assumed to be his final game played in Cleveland. Martinez is expected to retire at season’s end and this is Detroit’s last trip to Cleveland this season.

Victor Martinez started his career in Cleveland and was with the Indians from 2002-2009. He publicly noted he wanted to stay in Cleveland and was very emotional when he was traded in 2009.

The Indians had a tribute to him before the game where Martinez again became emotional.

Jose out of the slump

Jose Ramirez was unstoppable (except for the one time he didn’t reach base but hush). Obviously, everybody on the Indians was unstoppable but Ramirez was exceptionally good.

He reached base on four of his five at-bats and was just a home run away from the cycle through four innings.

Ramirez has been struggling mightily recently. He’s batting .224/.356/.358 in September and has just one home run and seven RBIs (two of which came Saturday).

He’s essentially taken himself out of the MVP race but if he can get hot like this to end the season he could surge back into MVP talks and more importantly perform in the playoffs.

Division clinched

The Tribe’s win clinched the AL Central for the third straight year, also making them the first team in MLB to clinch their division.

This is the most consecutive division titles the Indians have won since winning five in a row from 1995-1999.

While most will point to the other teams in the division being quite terrible, it shouldn’t take away from Cleveland’s accomplishment and they will still be a big threat in the postseason.