Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from an interesting 3-1 win over KC

It wasn’t pretty, but the Cleveland Indians found a way to win the first home series of 2018 with a wild 3-1 win over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.

The Cleveland Indians seemed destined for another shutout loss on Sunday afternoon before Jose Ramirez tried to check his swing and ended up driving in a run.

That single run in the eighth inning tied the game at 1-1 and gave the Indians their first run since the first inning of Friday’s home opener. Alas, hot takes aside, the Indians won the series against the Kansas City Royals.

Let’s take a look at some takeaways from the frustrating, but ultimately rewarding win.

Clevinger caps off a great series for the pitching staff

Mike Clevinger went 7.1 innings of one-run baseball, striking out four and keeping his offense in the game when the bats were seemingly dead.

This came one day after Trevor Bauer was given a loss after allowing only one run in eight innings, and two days after Carlos Carrasco picked up a win in the home opener.

The weather was certainly a factor, but this series helps show fans and other teams alike that this staff is for real once again. Josh Tomlin is the only question mark, but he deserves another chance to show that his first start was just a fluke. If he can’t do that, he may be out of a job soon.

Is the Yan of 2014 back?

Yan Gomes hit a walk-off home run to send the fans home after braving record low temperatures at Progressive Field.

Gomes has now played in six of the team’s nine games to start the season, seemingly holding the edge over Roberto Perez when it comes to playing time. His walk-off and defensive gems from Sunday should only help.

Gomes is still only 3-for-21 in 2018, but he does have five RBIs and two home runs. A .143 batting average isn’t something to rave about, but maybe this is the year Gomes gets back to his 2014 ways. I have no evidence of this being likely, but I can dream.

Win by any means necessary

This was a frustrating series for Indians fans. The offense provided a few flashes of excitement, but no consistent stretches of sustained offense.

The freezing weather surely played a role as did the fact it is still early in the season. That isn’t an excuse for professional baseball players, although we have seen these slow starts often with this team.

Next: Chisenhall injury a terrible setback for Tribe

All that matters is that the team starts winning and a record of 4-5 is pretty good when considering just how inconsistent things have been.