Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from Monday’s easy win in Kansas City

The Cleveland Indians got off to a shaky start but came around to put away the Kansas City Royals on a night when a rising star went off.

The Cleveland Indians entered the second inning of Monday’s game against the Royals trailing by the score of 2-0. Corey Kluber was on the mound and it seemed like fans could be in for a frustrating game.

Francisco Lindor had other plans and drove in seven runs in the 9-3 victory to send the Royals home for the night with a record of 25-59. Going for the big 6-0 tonight!

Some star players stepped up in a big way in the win so let’s look at that and more in the takeaways from win No. 46.

Kluber recovers for the win

Corey Kluber gave up two runs in the first inning and it looked like he may be on track for another rough outing. That was not the case as he ended up logging six innings, striking out five and only allowing three earned runs.

June was an odd month for Kluber. He finished the month with an ERA of 4.08 in June and only lasted 1.2 innings during his start on June 26.

This had some fans worried that he may be injured, but he was simply being human. He is allowed to do that once in a while.

Kluber has fallen to ninth overall in the American League in strikeouts with 120, but his 2.64 ERA is still good enough for eighth in the AL. He has been so solid that a few bad outings weren’t enough to have him fall out of Cy Young contention, although Trevor Bauer may have a stronger case right now.

Lindor the legend

Francisco Lindor must have heard that Jose Ramirez is getting more MVP consideration than him. The shortstop responded with a 7-RBI night in which he hit a grand slam and a three-run home run. Not bad.

Lindor now has 23 home runs on the year, which is just one fewer than Jose Ramirez. J.D. Martinez leads the AL with 25. Lindor also has 55 RBIs on the year, which is tied with Ramirez for eighth in the AL and second overall on the Indians behind Edwin Encarnacion.

This man should be starting the All-Star Game and it is not even close.

Dominating the Royals

This win gives the Indians a 5-2 record over the Royals in 2018. This is only the second time in the seven games in which the Royals have scored more than two runs. The other time came in a 10-9 Royals victory on May 11.

The Indians are dominating the Royals and that should be the case. The Indians cannot lose games to the bottom of the AL Central during a year when the Royals and White Sox have no intention of winning baseball games.

Next: Danny Salazar not returning in 2018

The dominance will hopefully continue tonight as the Indians send teen heart-throb Shane Bieber to the mound.