Cleveland Indians: Trevor Bauer limits the damage in a great outing

Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Trevor Bauer had two bad starts to begin the season, but turned things around on Thursday with a great game.

After two poor outings to begin the 2017 season, Trevor Bauer needed a great start today.

He provided just that as the Cleveland Indians picked up a third straight win and a pseudo-sweep in what was supposed to be a four-game series.

Things were going great until the bottom of the fourth, when Bauer loaded the bases and proceeded to slip off the mound, which was a balk that allowed a run to score. A sac fly then gave the Twins a 2-0 lead in what looked to be the makings of a long inning.

But Bauer stayed under control and struck out the next batter and was locked in for the rest of the day. He finished with 6 1/3 innings of work, allowing just those two runs on three hits while striking out seven.

It was by far his best outing of the season, and hopefully a sign that his slow start is behind him.

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Bauer followed Josh Tomlin‘s lead after Tomlin followed up a slow start with a solid outing on Tuesday at a point when some fans may have been wondering if Mike Clevinger deserved a chance with the big league club.

But both pitchers put any talk of losing their jobs to rest with some great pitching in Minnesota.

The win puts the Indians back over the .500 mark at 8-7, with the only bad news being Francisco Lindor‘s hitting streak ended and thus my Beat the Streak run stops at five games.

But back to good news, Yan Gomes has now hit in two straight games and upped his average to .143, which is not great but is much better than the .067 he was rocking earlier this week.

Edwin Encarnacion also picked up a hit in each of the three games against the Twins, including a home run, which was a welcome sight after his slow start.

Not everyone is playing great right now, but winning is what matters and taking all three games against the Twins when some players are struggling shows why this Indians squad is primed for another postseason run. Just wait until everyone is playing their best baseball.

Next: Josh Tomlin had his first solid start of 2017

Jason Kipnis is expected back for the series against the Chicago White Sox that begins tomorrow, meaning this team is only going to get better over the next 24 hours. White Sox fans beware.