Cleveland Indians: 3 things that went right in August for Cleveland

Amed Rosario, SS, Cleveland Indians

In a similar point to Emmanuel Clase’s strong month of August, Amed Rosario‘s performance was just as intriguing. While this isn’t the first time we’ve talked about Rosario’s August – and it shouldn’t be given how great of a month it was – it’s hard to look at the month and not mention what Rosario was able to accomplish.

Leading up to August, Rosario had been steady. He wasn’t exactly jumping off the stat sheet and his fielding had been questioned. However, he silenced basically every critic out there in August, both offensively and defensively.

Starting in the field, Rosario had just one error in August, coming in the first game of the month. Since then, he’s been perfect, carrying that stretch into September. We’ve known already this season that his bat was solid, but his glove had some concerns. Now, it’s seemingly like he’s settling in at shortstop and could find a home there moving forward.

As for the plate, Rosario was one of the best hitters not only for Cleveland, but in all of baseball. Rosario was able to slash .372/.397/.584 with eight doubles, two triples, four home runs and 20 RBI. The only downside is that he struck out 21 times with just six walks.

While August was an explosive outing at the plate, it isn’t exactly an anomaly for Rosario. He hit above .300 in May and fell just shy of the mark in June as well. That means we’ll probably see him fall back to Earth a bit to close the season, but it might only be a handful of notches below what we saw in August.

The Cleveland Indians broke even

It seems odd to say that a .500 record in the month of August was a huge positive for the Cleveland Indians, but after the month of July it truly was that important. July saw Cleveland go 9-15, nearly destroying the club’s season. However, August saw Cleveland bounce back a bit and finish out 14-14.

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While record is just wins and losses, the overall picture of August was an overall bright sign. For the first time this season, Cleveland’s run differential for a month was greater than just +1. Cleveland scored 136 runs in August while allowing 117 for a +19 margin. The only other month with a positive run differential was June and that was only +1.

While finishing out exactly .500 shouldn’t be a big accomplishment, it was more than what was expected from the team. After the deadline moves and Terry Francona stepping away, Cleveland could have very easily withered away the rest of the season with focus on 2022, but that wasn’t the case.

Hopefully, the .500 record and strong performances will spiral into a strong finish to the season for Cleveland. Hope for any postseason berth is insanely slim this year, but this is setting the stage for a more hopeful 2022 campaign.