Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from the late night win against the Angels

The Cleveland Indians allowed fans to get some much needed rest and relief in a dominant win over the Angels.

If any of you early birds missed the Indians late night opener against Los Angeles, you missed some fun in the early innings. On Monday night the Indians beat the Angels 6-0 with Mike Clevinger on the mound. Clevinger’s win marks the first credited win of the season for a Cleveland Indians starting pitcher

The Tribe hit three homers last night between Edwin Encarnacion, Yonder Alonso, and Tyler Naquin. To make things even more exciting, Edwin was running too fast for the parrot to fly along with this home run. The Indians were finally able to get the offense going and managed to shut out an Angels lineup that scored 22 runs in their first four games. Here are the three biggest takeaways from last night’s win.

Clevinger proves the doubters wrong

After Mike Clevinger’s incredible 2017 season we all wondered if he would even make the rotation with the return of Danny Salazar. Well, Salazar started the season on the DL and Clevinger earned the fourth spot in the rotation to start the year. He didn’t disappoint in his first start of 2018. Clev pitched 5 1/3 innings and struck out five while allowing four hits. He didn’t allow any runs on top of all of that.

He used his fastball effectively and even struck out Mike Trout on three pitches. Clevinger has the tendency to lose his control after getting ahead in the count on occasion. This led to his two walks and resulted in longer pitching battles in the early innings. In the end it was still an impressive start for Clev, and should give fans confidence in him going forward.

Lindor, Kipnis and Ramirez still can’t find a groove

The top of the Indians order didn’t inspire us too much tonight. The trio of Francisco Lindor, Jason Kipnis, and Jose Ramirez combined for one hit in 12 AB’s. Ramirez did walk twice and Lindor once, but they have to give a big thanks to the middle and back half of the lineup for picking up the slack.

Considering we aren’t even five games into the season, it is hard to let the slow start for the top of the order be a big concern. We all know the trio can carry the Indians deep into the season. But when we look back at how the season started it will be interesting to see how little they contributed on offense

Edwin Encarnacion has the fastest home run trot of the night

Edwin Encarnacion hit a home run tonight. That seems like a pretty average sentence unless I bring up that it was an inside the park home run.  A stand up home run for the slow moving DH at that! Edwin hit a fly ball that looked to be foul (at least it did to Justin Upton) but it stayed inside just enough to hit the foul line on the wall and stay fair. The misplay by Upton allowed Edwin to score. And it may have been the most majestic run of his career.

It may have only been the fourth game of the season for the Tribe, but that might be the best homer of the year.

Next: Top of the lineup needs a bounce-back series

The Indians will face the Angels in one more late 10:07 PM EST start tonight in hopes to take a 2-0 series lead.