Cleveland Indians: shaky with tremendous potential
The Cleveland Indians are fighting hard this season and are just one game shy of the top notch in the American League Central Division. Their win-loss record in 52-48, just two wins less than division leaders Detroit Tigers who have a win-loss record of
54-48. The Indians got to a winning start in the three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels and would hope to eradicate the one game deficit they face to top the AL Central in the next two games.
Although the Indians have been strong in the season, their performance against the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox has been below par. In 16 games played against the two teams this season, the Indians have managed to win just four while 12 have resulted
in disappointment. Their last win against the White Sox came on April 3 this season.
Cleveland has not been able to register a series win after the All-Star break. They opened the second half by splitting the four-game series with the Baltimore Orioles and then replicated the same result against the Minnesota Twins.
The White Sox won the three-game series against the Indians after blanking them in the first game and defeating them 4-2 in the third. The second game of the series was postponed to a later date.
The Indians have been even after the All-Star break. They have won five of the 11 games after the break and need to increase this percentage if they have to give Detroit a tough time or at least sustain their own position. They did well to recover from three
consecutive losses before the break but more needs to be done to prolong their stay at the top of the division table.
Asdrubal Cabrera has been their sole hope in the batting line-up. He has played in 99 games this season and has connected 116 times, yielding 61 runs with 17 home-runs at an average of .289 and a slugging percentage of .490. Cabrera has been the backbone
of their line-up and the Indians will want the short-stop to stay fit and in form as the season enters the critical race for the playoffs.
Behind Cabrera in run scoring is Michael Brantley with 56 runs thus far. He has a batting average of .281 and a slugging percentage of .393. Brantley needs to inflate these figures and that too pretty soon if the Indians want to aim for the playoffs this
season.
Other than these two, run scoring has been a problem with the Indians. Their offence continues to have problems in situational hitting and the batters succumb to pressure.
The starting rotation for the Indians is getting unstable as well, with only Josh Tomlin and Justin Masterson proving their mettle consistently at the mound.
Josh Tomlin has been the pick of their pitching staff with a win-loss record of 11-4 in 20 starts. He has had 14 quality starts which have enabled the Indians to a formidable position in the season.
Justin Masterson has been another class act for Cleveland. His win-loss record in decent at 8-7, but managing 16 quality starts out of a total of 21 is astonishing, to say the least. He is the only pitcher for the Indians to bag more than 100 strike-outs
this season and will be looking to continue with his hard work for an improved showing by the team.
With the lowly ranked Kansas City Royals to play after the series against the Angels, it will be interesting to see how well the Indians cash this opportunity to eradicate their one-game deficit from the Tigers and subsequently top the AL Central.
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