Cleveland Indians: Corey Kluber remains on another level

Cleveland Indians ace Corey Kluber only has one win this season, but has been as dominant as ever in his first three starts.

Corey Kluber’s start to the 2018 season is a great argument against pitcher wins being a meaningful statistic.

Kluber has now started three games, but sits with a record of 1-1. That comes after logging a combined 23 innings in which he has allowed a total of four earned runs on 11 hits. He has gone at least seven innings in each start and has already racked up 27 strikeouts, including 13 in his dominant start against the Tigers on Monday night.

The Tigers offense never stood a chance.

Kluber is currently dueling with Max Scherzer atop the MLB pitching leaderboards, while Baltimore’s Dylan Bundy is also pitching at an elite level. Whether he can sustain that remains to be seen.

Here is how Kluber and Scherzer compare:

IP: Kluber (23), Scherzer (20)

K: Kluber (27), Scherzer (27)

ERA: Kluber (1.57), Scherzer (0.90)

WHIP: Kluber (0.65), Scherzer (0.80)

Record: Kluber (1-1), Scherzer (2-1)

The two 2017 Cy Young Award winners don’t appear to be slowing down at all, and that is great news for both Indians and Nationals fans. Specifically for us here in Cleveland, it appears as if Kluber is already on pace to be a three-time Cy Young winner.

Kluber genuinely gives his team a great chance to win every time he takes the mound, and fans are spoiled to the point where him giving up a run is so unexpected it is almost shocking.

He is at the head of what is arguably one of the best rotations in baseball, if Josh Tomlin can figure things out, but he needs to start getting help from his offense. I am still waiting to figure out the proper timeframe to start worrying about the offense’s slow start, but I know now is still too early.

It is just frustrating to see the team lose when Kluber dominates, but luckily a lackluster record shouldn’t hurt his chances of another Cy Young. There are still some voters who fail to use logic, yet that trend seems to be diminishing with each passing year.

Next: 3 takeaways from the 2-0 win over the Detroit Tigers

It is April and I am already talking postseason awards. However, it is hard not to when witnessing Kluber’s outings every five games.