The Cleveland Indians entered the night coming off a 4 game series against the Chicago White Sox. A series in which they only managed one win. The task does not get any easier against the AL-leading Minnesota Twins. The Tribe kicked off the 8-game homestand facing the division leaders. Cleveland came into the night 11.5 games back of first place despite being the favorites entering the season. Sure, anything can happen, but let’s face it: if the Indians want any chance of taking their fourth straight division championship, they need to take at least two out of three games. They started the series strong Tuesday night, with a 5-2 victory to take the opener. This gets them halfway to their goal.
Shane Bieber continued his impressive season
Shane Bieber was excellent in the win. Bieber went 7.0 innings allowing only 5 hits and punching out 7. He did give up two home runs on the night. One to Marwin Gonzalez and one to Eddie Rosario, but they were both only solo shots.
Bieber has been excellent this season, as he’s needed to be with injuries to Corey Kluber and Mike Clevinger. He’s 5-2 with the win against the Twins, with a 3.57 ERA and 92 strikeouts. While he’s been inconsistent at times, Bieber has mostly been excellent this season. It certainly appears Cleveland has a great future piece with Ace potential.
The offense came alive in the series opener
Offensively, it was the Francisco Lindor show early on. After Marwin Gonzalez got the Twins on the board with a homer in the second, Frankie blasted a homer to left in the third inning to tie the game and open up the scoring. After a controversial walk to Leonys Martin in the fifth inning, Lindor then crushed another blast to left to put Cleveland up 3-1. Eddie Rosario did hit a solo shot of his own in the sixth, but then it was Roberto Perez in the moonshot home run to center in the seventh. This is Perez’ eighth of the year. On the very next pitch, we saw Jake Bauers pull a line drive to right field that just cleared the fence to put the Indians up 5-2.
After that, Oliver Perez would come in. Perez would shut down the top of the Twins order in the eighth inning. In the ninth, Brad Hand notched his 17th save of the year that was sealed with a game-ending double play.
Beating the Twins has got to feel good for the struggling Indians squad, but there’s much, much more work to be done. They have two more games against the division leaders, and if they win both they can come within 8.5 games of first place in the central. Carlos Carrasco will be on the mound tomorrow, who will look to follow the lead of Shane Bieber and shake off some of his struggles this year.
