Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from the 5-4 loss on Easter Sunday

The Cleveland Indians made it close but ultimately dropped the series finale to the Seattle Mariners by the score of 5-4 on Sunday.

The Cleveland Indians didn’t have an ideal start to the season in Seattle, but still made it out of there with a 1-2 record.

The Indians are now heading to Los Angeles and fans are hoping the offense has a bit of an awakening against the Angels. But I hope no one is panicking this early in the season. Everything will be fine.

Since it’s Easter, let’s take a quick look at some takeaways from Sunday’s 5-4 loss.

The bullpen isn’t perfect

So much for another perfect season from Tyler Olson.

Olson didn’t allow a single run in 20 innings in 2017, but allowed two in his first 0.2 innings of his 2018 campaign. That came after Dan Otero also allowed a run, giving the Mariners three in the seventh inning.

This will lead to some hot takes about how the Indians are doomed without Bryan Shaw. Alas, it was one game where the bullpen allowed three runs and the offense struggled. It is not ideal, but it is also not a reason for mass panic.

Edwin shows off his power and his parrot

After a slow start to the 2017 season, Edwin Encarnacion seems to want to get off to a better start in 2018.

The slugger hit two home runs in the loss, accounting for three of the team’s four runs. His second one resulted in a bit of him admiring his work, although no one seems to get too upset about Encarnacion considering he rounds the bases with a fake parrot on his arm. But don’t you dare steal a base with a five-run lead! That would be against the rules.

Bauer has a familiar outing

Trevor Bauer always seems to run his pitch count up high early in games, and that continued against Seattle. He only allowed two runs in five innings, but had to come out of the game after finishing the fifth at 101 pitches.

This was a nice sight to see, and finished what was a solid series for Indians starters. Surprisingly enough, Carlos Carrasco gave up the most runs but was the only one to win a game thanks to the offense showing up on Saturday.

Next: How much time will Rajai Davis actually see?

The Indians are back on TV late Monday night for another series near the Pacific Ocean. Let’s hope the team is able to come together and pick up some stress-free wins to start the week.