Cleveland Indians lineup going cold highlights teams inconsistency

The Cleveland Indians offense continues to be an issue as the team wastes great pitching.

The Cleveland Indians fell to the Chicago White Sox 2-0 on Friday night, just 24 hours after putting up 13 runs on the Cinncinati Reds. The Indians came into the weekend series against the White Sox and started off by mustering only four hits. Despite the four hits, the team did get eight additional base runners. Making things even more frustrating was that the White Sox didn’t outperform The Tribe.

The White Sox had only two more hits and seven less base-on-balls. The difference tonight was that the White Sox capitalized on more opportunities than the Indians had. The Sox only scored two runs, while the Indians failed to capitalize on any potential opportunities. This just hours after hitting coach Tyler Van Burkleo opted out for the rest of the season over concerns regarding the COVID-19 outbreak.

The loss shows the Indians are still in need of help, despite such a dominant showing the night prior. Changes need to be made to the lineup, with Jordan Luplow still yet to register a hit this year, with Oscar Mercado hitting a whoppingly bad .122 for the year. Carlos Santana and Franmil Reyes are starting to get hits, but not in key situations. Sandy Leon went hitless again and is now sitting at an awful .0.80 since replacing an injured Roberto Perez.

This would be bad enough if the team was losing games by giving up six runs, but that’s not the case. Look at Aaron Civale, who had another great outing, and has an ERA of just 2.84. He’s just 1-2 on the season, however, and all of his starts have been decided by two runs or less.

That’s been the case for the season, the pitching goes out and throws a fantastic game but the offense either barely shows up, or fails to at all. If the pitching wasn’t as good as it was, the team would be out of playoff contention already.

Among teams who’ve completed at least 13 games this season, the Indians are 29thi n batting average and runs scored. While under Terry Francona, it usually takes the team some time to start clicking during a season, the team doesn’t have 60 games to get correct like any other season. The Indians only have 45 games left. There is no way the team can win the AL Central, let alone make the playoffs if they don’t get consistency out of their offense.