Cleveland Indians: Edwin Encarnacion must repeat Friday’s success

Edwin Encarnacion had a great Friday night in a big win for the Cleveland Indians, and must make that type of performance a regular thing.

Friday night was a relief, but Cleveland Indians fans are too wise to automatically assume the offense is back to being dominant.

The Indians put up 13 runs Friday night, four of which were driven in by Edwin Encarnacion, who finished the night going 3-4 along with one walk. It was the second time this year he has driven in at least four runs in a game, with the first time coming back on June 18 when he drove in all five of the Indians’ runs in a win over the Minnesota Twins.

He also had a home run Friday, nearly hitting a second one late in the game that looked gone off the bat. Well, at least it did on television.

It is impossible to expect Encarnacion to put up numbers like that on a nightly basis, but it is fair to say he has not had enough of these great nights in 2017. His slash line of .261/.372/.485 isn’t terrible, but it is nowhere near the level of play fans expected when he was signed at the end of last year.

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I am a major proponent of not judging a player’s season until the final game. An amazing month of August or September, or even October, could make Encarnacion a hero and lead fans to forget all about his slow start.

But for that to happen, big nights like the one he had Friday must become a regular occurrence. The RBI mark isn’t easy to achieve when the rest of the offense is struggling, but Encarnacion can still be a weapon by getting on base to be driven in by the great Jose Ramirez.

The game on July 6 against the San Diego Padres is a great example, as Encarnacion had four hits and came around to score four times.

Some fans solely look at home runs and RBI as a measuring stick for power hitters, but Encarnacion will indeed have big power numbers at season’s end. What matters now is him getting on base and becoming a focal part of this lineup. Fans saw last year with Mike Napoli that power is fun to watch, but what matters is consistency and not striking out and having empty at-bats.

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The power will come, but more three-hit nights in which Edwin puts himself on the bases and doesn’t strikeout is what this team needs out of him going forward.