Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from 2-1 win over Baltimore

The Cleveland Indians took down the Baltimore Orioles, 2-1, on Monday night for their third win in a row, clinching a series win against the Orioles.

The game was decided on the bat of Yonder Alonso who, on one swing, put a crooked number on the board for the Indians early and they never looked back.

Carrasco still owns the road

Over the past three years, Carlos Carrasco has been considerably better in road starts than home starts.

He’s had 87 starts in that span, 43 at home and 44 on the road. In those home games he is just 17-15 with a 4.42 ERA but on the road he posted a 26-11 record with a 2.52 ERA. For whatever reason, Carrasco thrives in opponents ballparks, and he continued that trend in Baltimore.

Carrasco went seven and a third spectacular innings as he fanned seven Orioles while holding them to just one run. He also moved up in the Indians history books as his fourth strikeout of the game passed Addie Joss for 12th on the Tribe’s All-Time strikeout list.

He improved his season ERA to 2.31 and he is now tied for the most wins by a pitcher in MLB, albeit a statistic that has no bearing on a players ability.

Yonder > Carlos

Yonder Alonso won the game for the Indians off of his home run, but what was even more impressive was that it put him above Jose Ramirez to lead the team in RBIs.

After the Philadelphia Phillies coaxed Carlos Santana away from Cleveland on a $60 million deal, the Indians found his replacement with the much cheaper Alonso. With Alonso, the Indians were getting virtually the same type of player, but with less of a track record and less defensive ability.

But with the small sample size that’s been provided through 2018, it’s shown to be a great choice to let Santana walk.

While Alonso has been a part of the hitting woes that have struck the Indians early this season, he does lead the team in RBIs and is second in home runs with five long balls. However, his batting average is only .225 and he has an OBP of under .300.

But Santana has been much, much worse. Through 21 games he is worst on the Phillies in batting average with .151, and has just two home runs. He has less hits on the season than Alonso has RBIs.

Santana was great to have during his time in Cleveland, but here’s hoping Alonso continues to make sure the Indians don’t regret the change.

One run ballgame

This win for the Indians was like many other games they’ve had this season. It was a close game with great pitching and a lack of offense.

The Tribe only managed four hits in the game, and all of their runs came off of one of them. But what was especially in line with the script that is a 2018 Cleveland Indians baseball game was the score being decided by one run.

Monday night’s win was the ninth time this season that the Indians have had a game decided by one run. They are just 4-5 in such games.

Just as with every statistic this early in the season, the sample size is small. But in the spirit of hot takes, this 4-5 record is concerning.

You want your ball club to be able to win tight games. This is important because games will be tight in October. Big double digit barrages against teams are few and far between in the postseason.

Next: Starting pitching is strong, but lacks depth

The Indians need to be able to not only hold on and win when they’re up one, but even more so they need to be able to jump ahead when they’re down in these close games.