Cleveland Indians: Hanley Ramirez saves another poor offensive outing

Hanley Ramirez saved the Cleveland Indians in Game No. 2 with an offensive punch for a lineup that’s been anemic at the plate.

It’s March, it’s 40 degrees, it’s Minnesota. Nobody expects the Cleveland Indians to be an offensive juggernaut.

But nobody expected them to be two-hit, which they were in their Opening Day defeat against the Twins.

The Indians totaled four hits in their 4-2 victory over the Twins Saturday. Can you say hit parade? OK, the Tribe’s offense mostly sputtered again in Game No. 2, save for two-out, solo home run from Hanley Ramirez in the fourth inning.

Carlos Santana‘s hit in the top of the ninth ending up making the difference. The Tribe’s clean-up hitter took second, and then third thanks to to wild pitches from Minnesota reliever Blake Parker.

Terry Francona pulled Jordan Luplow to sub in Greg Allen, who was able to hit a deep enough sac fly to score Santana.

• Speaking of Luplow, the second game offered more more performances for the Indians’ outfield. Leonys Martin, Tyler Naquin, Jake Bauers and Luplow (pinched hit and had one at-bat for Bauers) combined to go 0-10. Naquin struck out three times.

• This performance makes the signing of Carlos Gonzalez and most recently, Cameron Maybin, all the more significant.

Maybin’s recent stats aren’t easy to defend, but at the very least, he gets on base (.326 on-base percentage last season). A Martin, CarGo, Maybin outfield sure seems a heck-of-a-lot better than Martin, Luplow, Bauers/Naquin.

The offense needs something, anything, really. The Tribe’s lineup in the first two games is 6-for-59 (.101) with 26 strikeouts.

• Trevor Bauer‘s first start was Cy Young Award-esque. He went seven innings, struck out nine and allowed one run on one hit.

Corey Kluber was excellent on Opening Day, but Kluber was better in Game No. 2. The media probably make more of a rivalry between Bauer and Corey Kluber than actually exists ever since Bauer told Sports Illustrated he was better than Kluber in 2018, but who cares. Two ace worthy performances in a row for Tribe fans to enjoy.

Fortunately, Bauer was on point because his offense sure didn’t give him any room for error.

He debuted his new and improved change up during the contest and threw the pitch 25 times, according to Ohio.com’s Ryan Lewis. The pitched induced five swings for a miss and it also totaled for four called strikes.

• Francisco Lindor‘s getting a second opinion on his sprained ankle and will travel to Green Bay to visit a specialist on Monday.

The Indians seem willing to take as along as it needs so that what happened to Michael Brantley, doesn’t happen to the superstar shortstop, according to Tito, via Cleveland.com.

Max Moroff and Erik Stamets are a combined 0-5 at shortstop this season in Lindor’s absence.