The Aftermath: Three Takeaways from the Indians’ 11-4 Win Over Detroit

The Cleveland Indians claimed a resounding victory over the Detroit Tigers in game one of their series on Friday night.

That’s what September baseball is supposed to feel like, and how fans of the Cleveland Indians hope the final score looks like for the next month and change as well. The Tribe was unrelenting in its offensive assault on Friday night at Progressive Field, beating the Detroit Tigers 11-4, pushing their lead in the American League Central Division out to seven, and shrinking their magic number to clinch said division to nine.

Cleveland scored in six of the eight innings in which it came to bat, putting up runs on four of the five Detroit pitchers it faced on the night, and continued the home cooking that has been so fruitful all season long.

Mike Napoli had a big, if bizarre, night at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a home run, a double, four runs batted in, and two runs scored. The slugging first baseman got the Indians on the board in the first inning with might have been the first ever ground rule double to hop over the 19-foot left field wall in the stadium after Justin Upton had no idea where the ball had gone off the bat.

The Tribe also got two RBIs apiece from Carlos Santana, Jose Ramirez, and Roberto Perez, withstanding every run the Tigers made to come away with the big win. Starter Corey Kluber was magnificent if you discount the two balls Upton hit out of the ballpark, and the club improved to 12-1 against Detroit on the season.

Cy Worthy

Kluber’s final line for the ballgame doesn’t look as impressive as he actually pitched, with four runs on five hits with three walks and seven strikeouts in seven innings of work, but take away Upton and it’s a whole different story.

After his blunder in the first on Napoli’s moonshot ground rule double, Upton hit two homers, driving in all four of the Tigers runs, and was the lone member of his team to show much of a spark. Kluber held the first five hitters in the order – Ian Kinsler, Cameron Maybin, Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, and J.D. Martinez – to a 1-for-16 night, allowing just one hit, one walk, and one hit batsman.

Cleveland has now won 46 straight games when it scores four or more runs in a Kluber start, and the right-hander made a little bit of history as well, moving into 11th place on the franchise’s all-time strikeout list. Kluber now has 924 career punchouts, which moved him ahead of Hall of Famer Addie Joss (920). Luis Tiant is next in his sights at 1,041, but that may have to wait until 2017.

Pretty Sure He Hit the Parking Garage

Napoli has become renowned in baseball for his prodigious home runs, and tonight’s was no different. Though he didn’t threaten the scoreboard, John Adams’ drum, or a lunchtime stroll through the left field plaza this time, it seems a good bet that his fifth inning bomb off Detroit starter Michael Fulmer left Progressive Field entirely and may have hit the Gateway parking structure on a couple of hops.

Already having surpassed his career-high for longballs, Napoli just keeps climbing the Indians’ record books, now finding himself within one of tying Juan Gonzalez’s 2001 mark of 35 homers for the most by a right-handed hitter since the turn of the century, and amassing the most any Tribe player has had since Travis Hafner’s 42-home run season in 2006.

Each Napoli homer is bittersweet, though. While his blasts have been wholly entertaining for fans and vital to the team’s success, every time he leaves the yard, he’s tacking a few more dollars onto his contract for next season, and it’s certainly possible he will price himself out of the Indians’ 2017 budget.

Home Sweet Home

With the win, the Tribe improved to 48-25 at home in 2016, the second-best mark in the American League, and now has a magic number of just nine. It’s statistically possible that the club could clinch the Central Division, a first since 2007, during this homestand.

Cleveland has now won the first game of series 30 times this season, which is a pretty solid recipe for getting series wins and handling business. The 85 wins have already surpassed last year’s mark by four, and this is a hungry team that wants more.

Next: A Second #CyKluber in Three Years?

To say that the Indians have the Tigers’ number is a bit of an understatement. After years of Detroit dominance in this matchup, the Tribe has now outscored their rivals 26-2 in the first three innings of their 13 games to this point, and holds a 90-40 overall advantage. With two more games left in the series, it could turn out to be one hell of a weekend at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.