Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from Saturday’s ugly loss

The Cleveland Indians looked to follow up two close games in this series with a win in their favor. It did not exactly work out for the Tribe on Saturday.

The Indians answered Friday night’s fun win with an ugly outing against the Mariners on Saturday. The Tribe dropped the game against Seattle 12-4 in a contest that wasn’t close after the first inning. Home runs were the story of the game on Friday. On Saturday, they were the story of the game for the Mariners. Seattle took an early 3-0 lead in the first inning against Cleveland and never looked back.

There weren’t too many positives to take from this game for the Tribe. Zach McAllister didn’t look good, and Jeff Beliveau faltered in relief. But it’s one game out of many. Despite a bad loss, the Indians are still a good team. And on the bright side they only have to play Seattle one more time.

Carrasco pitched his worst game of the year

Carlos Carrasco had one of the best starts to the year of any pitcher. He was 4-0 and looked to beat the team that he got his first win of the year against. That was not the case today. Carrasco allowed two home runs on 14 pitches. He struck out the side in the second and for a moment it looked like he settled in. But after allowing three more runs in the third his day was over.

Carrasco’s home and road splits have heavily favored the road in recent games. After a 4-0 start it was only a matter of time before the odds went against him, but games like this are the kind that keep him in the shadow of Corey Kluber. Carrasco will likely be a 10+ game winner this year, but games like this will keep long-suffering Cleveland Indians fans on edge.

Cleveland has a scoring problem

The Indians are third in the MLB in team home runs. They are also the most home run reliant team in baseball. It is still early in the season, but the Indians have had a lot of problems scoring runs outside of the long ball.

Yonder Alonso leads the team in RBI’s with only 16. As a whole the Indians BA is just .224; good for only 27th in the league. This is an Indians team full of proven hitters, and the cold midwestern weather doesn’t help. While it is only April the Indians need to find other ways, outside of the long ball, to score runs.

The Indians bullpen needs Andrew Miller

It is a bit of a stretch to say a bullpen needs one person to succeed, but Andrew Miller‘s presence changes the attitude of this bullpen. The Cleveland Indians bullpen allowed 5 more runs on top of Carrasco’s in this game.

Yes, the younger players may develop and come around. But this year the bullpen needs their stud. It will likely be Miller’s last year in Cleveland, the Indians need to take advantage of having him in the ‘pen, because without him, along with Cody Allen, the future can be scary.

Next: Looking at the rest of the AL Central

The Tribe will look to rebound on Sunday after losing the season series today against Seattle. But it won’t be easy with a struggling Josh Tomlin on the mound.