Cleveland Indians: Three things that went wrong in April

Poor clutch hitting

Going into the 2021 season Cleveland Indians fans weren’t expecting an offensive juggernaut to entertain them for the 81 games scheduled at Progressive Field in Cleveland. But the hitting has been even more horrendous than anticipated, barring a couple of standouts who have started the year very well.

One particular bugbear for the Tribe faithful has been the result with runners in scoring position. The Indians hit .216 with RISP, in April, which was fourth-worst in the AL. The ineptitude at the plate in this situation is made more irksome by the fact that the opportunities to hit with runners in scoring position have been so rare.

To illustrate the point, the Indians are second-worse in team batting average in all of baseball (.207), and third-worst in OBP (.283). If those numbers don’t pick up, hitters will need to take more advantage of the few chances they have at the dish to drive a runner home.

Other Tribe hitters might do well to study the approaches of Franmil Reyes and Jordan Luplow who have had great success hitting with runners in scoring position this season. Reyes is swinging at a .300 clip, while Luplow leads the team with a .357 average in such situations.