Cleveland Indians: Has Edwin Encarnacion broken out of his bad start?

Cleveland Indians fans have been waiting all year for Edwin Encarnacion to have a big game, and he finally had one last night in Cincinnati.

There was a lot of focus on Edwin Encarnacion‘s return to Toronto earlier this year, but he saved his best performance for his return to his first MLB home.

Encarnacion began his career as a member of the Cincinnati Reds back in 2005, and gave fans a reason to remember him last night as he helped his Cleveland Indians beat the Reds.

The Indians put up one lousy run on Monday night, but that changed on Tuesday when the Indians put up eight. Encarnacion drove in three and came around to score three times, which included two home runs that spawned my new favorite GIF to use.

If that doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what will.

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So after all the fuss about Encarnacion’s numbers this season, he is now just one home run behind Francisco Lindor for the team lead, and four RBI behind Jose Ramirez for the lead in that category. He also has the third-best on-base percentage among qualified hitters.

The problem is his 55 strikeouts and .215 batting average, so some disappointment surrounding Encarnacion makes sense.

But if he can consistently drive in runs and have nights like he did last night, the strikeout total will lessen in importance. Just no golden sombreros, please.

He has now picked up hits in each of his last three games, raising his average up to .215 from .199. It may not seem like a big feat, but after such a bad start it is these small accomplishments that build into something much greater.

The key will be to limit the strikeouts, as he has struck out at least twice in five of the last ten games. But last night’s performance should be enough to give him a spark and hopefully help him turn his season around and become the player we all expected him to be.

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We won’t call it a fluke just yet, and let’s hope Encarnacion proves it wasn’t one with a string of great games.