The Aftermath: Four Takeaways from the Indians’ 3-1 Win Over Chicago

The Cleveland Indians pulled out a 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night. What can we take away from the win?

A few timely hits, another solid start by Corey Kluber, and more bullpen dominance enabled the Cleveland Indians to take the first game of a three-game series at Progressive Field from the Chicago White Sox last night. With the win, the Tribe improved its record to 68-49 and extended its lead in the American League’s Central Division to six games.

Coming off Monday afternoon’s loss to the Boston Red Sox in a makeup game from a rainout at the beginning of the season that broke the club’s four-game winning streak, Cleveland bounced right back against the reeling Pale Hose, 56-62, who have fallen to 12.5 games back in the division race.

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Back-to-back doubles in the first inning by Jason Kipnis and Francisco Lindor put the Indians ahead 1-0 right out of the chute, a scenario that has worked well for the team throughout the season. The Tribe is now 49-15 in games in which it scores first.

An RBI single by Mike Napoli off Quintana in the third inning scored Rajai Davis to push the lead to 2-0, and Kipnis’ third hit of the game in the seventh inning against Dan Jennings brought Roberto Perez plateward for the final tally.

A solo home run by Chicago’s Justin Morneau on a hanging breaking ball from Kluber in the sixth was all the scoring the visitors could muster, as the bullpen combination of Andrew Miller and Cody Allen effectively shut the door in the final three frames.

The two sides will be back on the field for game two of the series tonight, but first let’s have a look at a few takeaways from last night’s ballgame.

Klubot set to destroy

Kluber’s performance since the all-star break is beginning to look eerily similar to the second half he put up in his Cy Young 2014 season. While the Indians’ ace labored slightly more in last night’s outing than in his previous six, he still held the Sox to just the single run, striking out seven and walking a pair. As pointed out by Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, In his last seven starts Kluber has a 1.65 ERA, a 0.98 WHIP and yielded just a .213 opponents’ average in 49 innings of work, with 49 punchouts to 11 free passes. As Cleveland’s starting rotation has struggled a bit over the past month and had to deal with the absence of Danny Salazar, the righty has allowed no more than three earned runs in any game, and the team has won four of his past six starts. The Klubot appears to be locked in.

Sneaky good

It may seem difficult for a two-time all-star to fly under the radar, but that’s exactly what Kipnis has done this season. As Lindor and Napoli have received the lion’s share of the attention (deservedly so), the Indians’ second baseman has been quietly putting together his best season as a professional. Kipnis has a slash line of .294/.354/.503 with 26 doubles, a career-high 20 homers, and 66 RBIs, and his 116 OPS+ and 3.2 bWAR are both third-best on the club. Perhaps more importantly, his performance against lefties has improved significantly:

2016: .287/.336/.471 and 116 OPS+

Career: .253/.314/.368 and 77 OPS+

While Terry Francona is notorious for his platoon usage against lefties elsewhere on the field, Kipnis has proven there is no black hole in the two spot in the lineup in those situations.

Miller Time

If you’ve been watching the games, there’s little to say about Miller’s performance since he arrived in the Tribe bullpen that will do it justice. Despite giving up a couple of longballs, the lefty relief ace has been light’s out, with an ERA+ of 182 and 13.5 strikeouts per nine innings. In his last three outings, he’s struck out five, walked one, and not allowed a hit in five innings of work, needing just a grand total of 54 pitches to retire 15 batters. Paired with the existing back end of the Cleveland bullpen with Allen and Brian Shaw, Miller has provided Francona with the kind of flexibility in high-leverage situations that the club was missing throughout the first four months of the season.

Toddfather not needed

Remember back in spring training when the baseball world was unified in the belief that the Tribe needed to make a trade to acquire Todd Frazier from the Cincinnati Reds? And then remember the outrage when that acquisition not only didn’t happen, but Frazier ended up on the South Side of Chicago? How’s that looking after Frazier’s golden sombrero on Tuesday night? It’s been a long time since March, and with his move from utility man to everyday third baseman, Jose Ramirez has made the Indians’ brass look awfully smart. While Frazier may have the gaudy home run total, his value compared to that of Ramirez isn’t even close:

Frazier: .210/.296/.460, 104 OPS+, 2.0 bWAR

Ramirez: .311/.367/.453, 111 OPS+, 3.0 bWAR

Ramirez is hitting 100 points higher and has a nearly identical slugging percentage as Frazier, and brings more to the table overall to impact the game. Throw in JRam’s gaudy 153 OPS+ and .385/.435/.510 line with runners in scoring position, and it’s clear that Cleveland has been vindicated in not making a move for the Toddfather.