Cleveland Indians: Bats hit new low as Carlos Rodon throws no-hitter

The Cleveland Indians offense proved just how lousy it can be, hitting a new low in this early  season, as White Sox starter Carlos Rodon threw a no-hitter to top the Tribe, 8-0.

Rodon, who underwent Tommy John surgery in 2019, was two outs away from a perfect game. An errant slide caught Roberto Perez on the the foot, so the the sixth-year veteran settled for the no-no.

The Indians have scored a whopping two runs in their last 19 innings. The two runs they scored Tuesday night need the aid of extra innings, when a runner starts on second base to begin the frame.

Fans in the know knew the Tribe would be offensively challenged and that runs would be hard to come by on some nights. Well, go ahead and count hits as a rare occurrence for this version of the Indians, as these ugly numbers will remind you of just how cold Clevelands’ bats can be.

1. The team is slashing .195/.277/.369. Their batting average ranks 29th of 30 clubs. Their on-base percentage ranks 28, while the slugging percentage ranks 22nd, according to The Athletic’s Zack Meisel.

2. Tribe Twitter is calling for the club to fire hitting coach Ty Van Burkleo. You’ve got to laugh, because you’re just not picking up low hanging fruit by calling for his job, you’re finding a rotted apple with worms crawling out of it and taking a big ole’ chomp.

3. Nobody wanted his resignation when the Tribe was going to the World Series in 2016, or winning 22 straight in 2017. Those teams had Francisco Lindor, Edwin Encarnacion and Michael Brantley. Good players make a difference.

4. This roster has Jordan Luplow batting leadoff and includes Ben Gamel, who is batting .000 in 12 at bats. Jake Bauers made the club because the Indians couldn’t risk making him available to all the other clubs who were surely going to beat each other up to get in front of each other to procure his .111 on-base percentage.

5. And why Andres Gimenez isn’t starting at shortstop every day perplexes all of us. He’s beaten Amed Rosario for the job twice, yet Tito’s slow brew continues to drip.

6. I think fans, including myself, would be a tad more understanding if MLB-ready prospects such as Daniel Johnson and Bobby Bradley were on the roster. Do they make a different against Rodon? Probably not, but they deserved to make the club out of spring training because this is clearly a transitional year for the offense  as the organization tries to figure out who can play.

7. What’s left to find out against Bauers? He’s a first baseman who can’t hit. Yu Chang looks like a utility guy capable of running into some home runs as a pinch hitter.

8. OK, you want to find out about Luplow, because he does have a history hitting lefties. Fine. Platoon him with Amed Rosario in center. The fact that this experience takes away from Daniel Johnson doesn’t make it easy to digest, though.

9. Rodon’s no hitter was the 11th thrown against the Tribe in franchise history, since Cleveland was a charter member of the American League back in 1901. It was the first time the Tribe’s been unable to land a hit since July 27th, 2011, when Ervin Santana struck out 10 and walked one in a 3-1 victory (runner scored on a wild pitch).

10. The part that’s hard really hard to swallow about this no-hitter? They’re rare…unfortunately, who would be surprised if the Tribe got blanked again this season?