Cleveland Indians: Three things that went right in April

Three things that went right in April for the Cleveland Indians

The Cleveland Indians wrapped up the first month of the 2021 Major League Baseball season with hard-fought victory over the Chicago White Sox on Friday night. Shane Bieber broke an impressive record, formerly held by Hall of Famer Randy Johnson, after recording eight or more strikeouts in 18 consecutive starts. The Indians lineup did as much as they needed to do to earn the win in the third inning. With the win, the Tribe secured a .500 record (12-12) in the month of April.

It has not been a particularly awe-inspiring 24 games for the Tribe to start the campaign, but as the old adage goes, ‘It’s a marathon, not a sprint.’ The season is still very young and a lot happens throughout the long slog of a 162-game campaign. However, the on-field product has already offered glimmers of hope for an Indians team that is a perennial slow starter.

It’s those hopeful rays that will need to start burning brighter if the Cleveland Indians wish to stay relevant in an American League Central division that promises to be one of the most competitive in baseball. The Kansas City Royals have gotten off to a hot start as they have positioned themselves at the head of the pack. The Chicago White Sox have been surging as of late, while the current division champion Minnesota Twins have had a difficult first month, but are too talented to not be in the mix come September. Against much more well-rounded teams, the Cleveland Indians will have their work cut out for them to remain in the hunt.

In many ways, the Tribe’s 2021 campaign has gone as expected. The starting pitching, while experiencing some shakiness at the back-end, has been solid; the bullpen has, for the most part, put up zeroes and held onto leads; and the offense, after losing two of their best hitters from 2020, remains the team’s Achilles heel.

However, the focus of this article is on the positives from last month, so let’s take a look at three things, in particular, that have gone right for the Indians, so far. If you want to go down the rabbit hole of the negatives, take a look at our article highlighting the three things that went wrong in April.

The three ‘R’s

A lot has been made of the Tribe’s offensive limitations by fans and Cleveland media alike, but there have been early successes from the lineup in April. That success has largely been confined to the heart of the order where the bats of José Ramírez, Franmil Reyes, and Eddie Rosario reside.

Together, the three have smacked 17 home runs, which is half of the team’s total, and driven in 49 of Cleveland’s 99 runs batted in. There should also be an honorary mention for Jordan Luplow who has hit his way into additional playing time after launching six dingers in April to go with 15 RBIs in just 60 at bats. (It’s just unfortunate, for the purposes of this article, that his name doesn’t begin with the letter ‘R’).

Reyes and Ramírez both hit above .273 for the month and owned an OPS above .900. Their prowess with the lumber made up for the constant struggles at the top and bottom of the order, which are littered with guys hitting well below the Mendoza line. The free-swinging Rosario hasn’t been as consistent as the other two, hitting just .225, but has made his at bats count by driving home an efficient 14 runs on just 20 April hits.

Ramírez and Rosario were already well-established names in the game, and what they offer to a lineup is a known quantity. The former is one of the best hitters in the game in the prime of his career, while the latter is a guy, also in his prime years, who gave his previous team 20+ home runs and 70+ RBIs a season, on a consistent basis while hitting for a decent .275 career average.

Reyes, who welcomed the birth of his second child this weekend, had fewer than a thousand career at bats going into 2021, but he has shown his long-term potential with a gargantuan 62 home runs over that span. On current performance, the kid is on pace to hit around 42 home runs and collect 110 RBIs this season.

With these three doing damage in the middle of the lineup, the teammates ahead of them in the order should begin to see plenty of good pitches. This should, in turn, translate into better results at the plate which will see the Indians start to score more runs.

Clase dismissed

It wouldn’t be fair to right an article on what went right for the Cleveland Indians in April without mentioning the tremendous effort by the bullpen.

The relief corps is headlined by the relief tandem of James Karinchak and Emmanuel Clase. Neither pitcher has allowed a run in the 24 innings they have pitched, collectively, while amassing 38 strikeouts between them. Karinchak also owns an obscenely tiny 0.34 WHIP. They have shared save opportunities in the early going, but Clase has begun to emerge as the team’s first-choice closer with Karinchak setting up in the eighth.

Even with the lofty expectations that Karinchak and Clase had foisted upon them, they have managed to surpass them. Late-game leads haven’t felt this safe since 2016, when the Indians acquired Andrew Miller to pair with Cody Allen, or during the heyday of Chris Perez, Vinnie Pestano, and other members of the vaunted ‘Bullpen Mafia’ a decade ago.

Almost forgotten in dominance of the Tribe’s late-inning duo, is the triumphant return of Bryan Shaw who enjoyed a great first month back in a Cleveland uniform. Shaw threw 10 innings in April, giving up just one run and striking out 11.

If the Tribe starters can continue to toss quality starts, then the wins will become automatic with such lights out relievers available to finish games.