Cleveland Indians: Is the Tribe’s offense turning the corner?

Is the offense of the Cleveland Indians turning the corner?

There’s no question that the Cleveland Indians offense had a slow start to the season, but now riding a three-game win streak is it possible that the Tribe’s offense has turned a corner? Not only is Cleveland scoring runs, but they are coming in mass quantities at times and aren’t solely made up of home runs. There’s still a lot of season left, but the early flashes of improvement is a great sign.

Over the last week of games, the Tribe have scored at least three runs in six of their last seven games, despite being 3-4 over the span. While the runs didn’t always translate to wins, the production has been a vast improvement from the seven games prior when they scored four runs or more just twice.

It should come as little surprise that the outburst of runs has turned into more wins for the Cleveland Indians. Over the course of the season, the Tribe stand at 11-11 for a .500 winning percentage. Of the 11 wins, Cleveland has scored four runs or more in 10 of them. As for the losses, they’ve tallied four runs just once in those contests. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that scoring more runs translates to more wins, but the rather significant shift in outcome with the difference of just one run is an interesting aspect to track.

Looking deeper at the last seven games, Cleveland is right on pace with their opponents with the grand total score being 31-31, which rolls right into the near .500 record. However, over the current three-game win streak that number shifts to the Tribe outscoring the opposition 19-10. While the wins have been team efforts, there’s been three players spearheading the offensive resurrection.

At the forefront has been Franmil Reyes who has three home runs over the last three games, including two in the most recent victory. Over the last three games, Reyes has been 7-for-12 (.583) with three home runs and six RBI as well as a triple and stolen base. Reyes was also a double away from the cycle in the series finale against the Yankees. The uptick in production has also pushed Reyes’ season average above .300 to this point.

Not far behind Reyes is Jose Ramirez who also has multiple home runs over the win streak as well. Ramirez has knocked a round-tripper in each of the last two games for the Tribe to go along with four RBI as well. Ramirez is also in the midst of a six-game hitting streak on top of having a hit in 10 of the last 11 games.

The third player that has really helped spark the offense is a bit of a surprise in Jordan Luplow. While his average might not be as impressive as Reyes or Ramirez, Luplow has come up big when the team needs him to, like hitting a walk-off home run to start the series against the Twins. Over the three games, Luplow has been able to log four RBI thanks to a double against the Yankees, the walk-off against Minnesota in game one and then a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded in the second game against the Twins.

We expected Reyes and Ramirez to go off eventually, but the addition of Luplow is a promising sign and one that might result in additional playing time for him in the outfield. If other players in the lineup can start drifting back to the versions we’ve previously witnessed, like Cesar Hernandez who’s batting .190 and Eddie Rosario at .220, then this offense could really get rolling again.

Going into the season we knew that the strength of the Cleveland Indians would be the pitching, but the success of the team would be reliant on the offense. At first, the offense looked like it would cripple the team this season, but now there seems to be some new life forming. Improvements were expected, but this near 180 flip from just a week ago has come as a bit of a shock.

The hot streak could be coming at the perfect time as the Tribe have one more against the Twins before heading on the road to face both the Chicago White Sox and the Kansas City Royals, being the two teams ahead of Cleveland in the standings. If the offense can stay hot the Tribe could make a sizeable dent against key division teams early in the season.