Cleveland Indians: Trevor Bauer getting better with time

Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Trevor Bauer had a great outing Wednesday night, continuing what has been a solid month for him.

As the second half of the season approaches, Cleveland Indians fans are well-aware that there are major questions about this starting rotation.

Corey Kluber is the ace, while Carlos Carrasco is supposed to be second-in-command, yet an awful start Monday night may have had some worried. Then there is Trevor Bauer, who has had his own share of struggles all year.

But as of Wednesday night, Bauer seems to be settling into his role as the third pitcher in this rotation.

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Bauer capped off a successful month of June with 6.1 innings of one-run baseball, allowing just four hits in the win. This came one night after Mike Clevinger also allowed only one run, bringing some sense of stability to the rotation, at least for now.

Bauer has only gotten better as the season has gone on, and June was his best month. He allowed 13 runs in 30.2 innings after allowing 22 in 34 innings of work in May. His strikeouts decreased from 45 to 23 in that span, but the runs are what matter the most.

Like a fine Northeast Ohio wine, he is aging well as time goes on. There was a point earlier in the season when it appeared Bauer or Josh Tomlin would be leaving the rotation in favor of Clevinger, but Bauer has cemented himself in a full-time role.

With Kluber as the ace and Carrasco in that second spot, Bauer has the chance to finally live up to his first-round potential and be a key piece in this rotation. With the way Danny Salazar has struggled all year, Bauer will be needed to establish some consistency in the rotation.

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It is too early to say Bauer will be in a potential postseason rotation, but he sure is making a case that he is capable of pitching in high-leverage games against some of the better teams in baseball.