Cleveland Indians: Cody Allen and Andrew Miller are as dominant as ever

The Cleveland Indians have won the first two games of the season, thanks in large part to the dominance displayed by both Cody Allen and Andrew Miller.

It only took two games, but the Cleveland Indians did enough to get fans’ hearts racing at the end of a game in 2017.

The Indians held on Tuesday night for a 4-3 victory over the Texas Rangers, and will be going for the sweep tonight when Danny Salazar takes the hill.

And while the offense showed up again and provided four runs, a main storyline was once again the dominance out of the bullpen.

The dominant pitching started with a great game from Carlos Carrasco, who went 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs while striking out seven. He did this all on 78 pitches, 53 of which went for strikes.

He handed the ball off to Boone Logan with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, with his side holding a 3-2 lead. And for the second night in a row, the bullpen did its job.

Logan, Bryan Shaw and Andrew Miller combined to go 2 1/3 innings, allowing one hit while only throwing 18 pitches. The three did not record any strikeouts, but the efficiency was fun to watch.

Enter Cody Allen, who got a nail-biter save after giving up a run in the ninth inning. That run was driven in by Mike Napoli, but there are no hard feelings. That is because three consecutive strikeouts to end the game did the job, one night after Allen recorded three strikeouts in the team’s 8-5 season-opening victory.

The entire pitching staff did great, but the work from Miller and Allen stands out.

Miller has only thrown 21 pitches in two innings of work, striking out two and allowing no hits. He was also rewarded with a win in the first game of the season.

Allen has notched two saves to begin the season, striking out six batters in two innings of work. Things got tense in last night’s victory, as the winning run came to the plate three times, only to go down on strikes all three times.

Indians fans know that Miller and Allen cannot do this every night, but it is great to see both players shine so early in the season. Postseason hangovers are real, but not for those two, or for the rest of the bullpen thus far.

Allen may not be ready to go tonight if needed, but Miller should be just fine, given his low pitch count and the travel day on Thursday.

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A full season of Andrew Miller is going to be fun, and it will only be more rewarding knowing Cody Allen is behind him ready to continue what his counterpart started.