Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from the blowout win over the Tigers

The Cleveland Indians made sure to let the Tigers know who the king of the AL Central is as they stomped Detroit 10-0.

Boy is this fun or what? The Cleveland Indians have won their fifth game in a row and this one wasn’t even close. The Tribe demolished the Tigers 10-0  and it was never close. The Indians jumped on the Tigers early. In the third inning, Francisco Lindor sent one way out of the park and the Indians never looked back.

For the Indians, this is their 8th straight win at home against the Tigers. The Indians advance to 7-3 against the Detroit and and have outscored them 50-27. They are now, a season-best six games in the lead of the AL Central and eight games over .500.

There was a lot of offense from the Tribe in this game, but they had some notable pitching performances. There’s a lot to cover so let’s get into it.

The Tribe offense was explosive

Obviously when you score 10 runs in a game you know the offense is doing something right. It was home-run heaven for Cleveland fans as Lindor, Edwin Encarnacion, and Yonder Alonso all sent balls out of the yard.

It was Alonso who hit the nail in the coffin however. In the bottom of the seventh, before the bullpen entered the game Yonder Alonso left the team without any doubt as he hit a grand slam to give the Tribe a 9-0 lead.

Alonso, Encarnacion, Lindor, and Tyler Naquin all had multi-hit games and Encarnacion had three RBI’s himself. The Indians were able to make Tigers pitcher Mike Fiers pay for hanging too many pitches in what was an inconsistent strike zone tonight. But everything that could go right for the Indians offense, went right.

Shane Bieber is dealing

Just when you thought the Tribe rotation couldn’t get much better, Shane Bieber joins the fold. Just four years after he was drafted by the Tribe, he is slowly finding his role in the team’s rotation. Bieber is a strike throwing machine, but he’s able to utilize that for a ton of strikeouts.

Tonight was more of the same from Bieber as he worked seven innings without allowing a run. He struck out nine and walked just one. Bieber isn’t throwing a crazy high speed fastball. But his 93 MPH heater has an element of deception to it that Tigers pitchers had not chance of catching up to.

Bieber may have earned himself a permanent role in the rotation, at least for the remainder of the season. On top the Tomlin staying in the bullpen, he has a good chance of staying once Carrasco return from the DL.

Jason Kipnis is coming alive

We’ve talked ad nauseam of how poorly 2018 has been to Jason Kipnis. But the month of June has been kind to Kipnis. Tonight Kipnis had another hit that raised his total to six in the last week. He’s batting .316 in the last seven days with two homers and five RBI’s.

Kipnis was benched last Sunday and it looks like it lit a fire under the second-baseman. As trade rumors begin to swirl, Kipnis is making sure he shows the team that he can still hold down the fort at 2B in Cleveland.

Next: The impact of Zimmer's injury

The Tribe will be back at it tonight at 6:10 with Trevor Bauer on the mound. They’ll look to make it six in a row with another Bauer outage.