Cleveland Indians: 3 storylines to follow before series against Seattle

The Cleveland Indians look to continue improving their record at home as the Seattle Mariners come to town for three games.

While a lot of Cleveland sports fans were watching the NFL Draft Thursday night, the Cleveland Indians pulled off a comeback victory over the Houston Astros.

Francisco Lindor hit a powerful home run that gave the Indians the go-ahead runs, while Cody Allen came in to close out a series victory.

The competition gets a bit easier starting tonight when the Seattle Mariners come to town, but that doesn’t mean the Indians can let up at all.

Let’s take a look at a few storylines to keep track of as the series begins tonight:

1. Getting over .500 at home

The two recent wins against the Astros gave the Indians a 4-5 record at home, and the team will now look to jump over the .500 mark, or at least reach it, with two or three wins against the Mariners.

Nine games is no time to really hone in on the home record, but it would be nice to get over the .500 mark early and bring back some confidence to the either team.

2. Will Edwin Encarnacion break through?

Edwin Encarnacion hit his fourth home run of the season last night, but is still hitting just .213 on the season.

His batting average is not the main focus for fans, but if he is not hitting home runs he would at least need to get that average up to around the .250 mark.

Just like Jose Ramirez had a few weeks ago, Encarnacion needs one big night to turn things around. Even just one 4-for-4 performance with a home run or two could help him get back to his old ways.

3. An offensive ourburst

The Indians picked up two victories over the Astros, but made it interesting as both of the wins came by one run.

Next: Brantley and Ramirez, fast starters

The two runs against Dallas Keuchel was excusable, but the offense needs to put up some more runs earlier in games to help ease the stress on both the starting pitchers and the bullpen. This is obviously an ideal situation, but the lineup has the talent to do it.