Cleveland Indians: Three keys to victory against the Kansas City Royals

Clutch hitting

This was a key to the series in Chicago, but it remains apt for the four-game set versus the Royals. The Indians remain among the worst hitting teams in baseball and do not get on base very often, so they need to take advantage of the few chances that do come their way.

They showed they can do it in games one and two of the White Sox series when they went 3-for-4 w/RISP, over both games. Yes, that’s how rare these opportunities are. But that performance tumbled back to the standard we have become accustomed to when the Indians hit a pathetic 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position on Sunday, and left eight men on base.

As a team, the Indians are hitting .217 w/RSIP, which puts them third from bottom in baseball. But not all Tribe hitters are hopeless with their situational hitting. Franmil Reyes and Jordan Luplow are hitting .300, or above, with runners in scoring position. The other Tribe hitters would do well to study their approach a do better in these moments at the plate.

The poor situational hitting is why such a high percentage of runs have been scored by the Indians via the longball; a tactic that is not sustainable for the long slog of a 162-game season. Of all the teams to make the playoffs last year, none had a higher percentage than 36% (LA Dodgers) of their runs being scored via the home run. The Indians are well above 50% so far this year.

If the Indians are to win this series, they need to make every at bat count when there are runners in scoring position. And if they want to make a return to the postseason in 2021, they will need to learn to hit well in the clutch, consistently.