Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from the dominant win over the White Sox

The Cleveland Indians were able to breathe easy tonight in spite of the bad weather to cruise to an easy win over the White Sox.

It feels good to be able to recap a dominant wins again. The Cleveland Indians took care of business against their struggling opposition with a 6-2 win over Chicago. The night went from an 89 degree game-time temperature to a rain soaked seventh inning that resulted in a 35 minute delay.

In the end, it was a pretty easy-going win for the Tribe. The Indians, oddly enough advance to 6-2 on the year against the White Sox. Here are the takeaways from a nice, non-panic-attack inducing game.

Trevor Bauer got a little revenge

Trevor Bauer wasn’t able to get the job done against these White Sox in his last outing, but today he was brilliant. Bauer worked seven innings with eight strikeouts and only three hits. His outing was shortened by the rain delay but he was at 100 pitches and didn’t allow a run. Even with the shaky outing in his last game, Bauer has been pitching out of his mind.

Yeah. That’s pretty good. Bauer only got eight strikeouts tonight, meaning that his streak of games with 10+ strikeouts ends at 4. Corey Kluber beat him to that mark this year but the two pitchers join Bob Feller as the only Tribe pitchers to accomplish such a feat.

It’s fun when the Indians have clutch hitting

The Indians bats were on fire tonight. They had four hits with runners in scoring position. That surpassed the total that they had the last time they faced the White Sox. The Indians have struggled to get clutch hitting of late, but recently they’ve taken advantage of it to score 10 runs in the last two games.

The Tribe got to the White Sox early and hard. Roberto Perez managed to double and lodge the ball in the right field wall to score two runs in the second, and Francisco Lindor followed that up with a RBI sac-fly. Lonnie Chisenhall also had an RBI and two walks, oh and he almost gave a truck away. Indians radio network listeners know what I’m talking about

Kipnis and Perez found some rhythm

This is something that Tribe fans have longed to see. Jason Kipnis and Roberto Perez have both had forgettable seasons to this point. I’ve talked continually about their sub-par performances thus far in 2018. Tonight, they both showed signs of improvement.

Jason Kipnis was 3-4 with two RBI’s and a homer to top it all off. Kipnis had shown signs of improvement but after seeing the continued use of Erik Gonzalez, he maybe felt his role as the starting second baseman was at risk He was on the bench for Sunday’s outing and was batting .143 in the last week. Regardless, it was a big night for Kipnis and could help boost his confidence.

Next: A short preview of the series vs. the White Sox

Perhaps an even bigger; and much welcomed surprise, was Roberto Perez’s remarkable game. Perez went 2-3 with a walk tonight. He also had two RBI’s and scored a run and  he threw out an attempted steal in the first innings for a strikeout-throwout double-play. Perez needed an outing like this badly. He’d been in one of the worst slumps of his career and it’s lasted all year.

The combined performances of these two helped give the Tribe their big win. With an off night for the Tigers, they were able to cushion their lead in the AL Central. The Tribe will look to win another pitchers rematch tomorrow night with Mike Clevinger on the mound.