Cleveland Indians: 3 takeaways from another loss against the Twins

The Cleveland Indians have struggled against the Minnesota Twins in 2018. That continued Monday night with a 5-4 loss in Minnesota.

The Cleveland Indians are now 3-7 against the Minnesota Twins in 2018. The good news is that the Twins are struggling against most other teams.

The latest Indians loss against the Twins came in a game that saw the Indians leave 10 men on base. 10!

Shane Bieber went 6.1 strong innings but the offense couldn’t get big hits when people were actually on base. Three runs came via solo home runs, while the fourth was on a double that scored one runner.

The loss was frustrating but the focus today will be all about the impending trade deadline. Let’s take a look at the loss and some trade rumors as July is set to come to a close.

Jose keeps raking

The offense struggled last night but one positive was that Jose Ramirez hit two home runs. The problem was that both were solo shots.

Ramirez is now tied with J.D. Martinez for the league lead in home runs with 32. Just like everyone expected before the season began. Francisco Lindor isn’t too far behind with 27.

Jose is currently a favorite for the AL MVP award and continues to bolster his case with each passing day.

The other Ramirez

The other Ramirez on the roster didn’t have the best game. To be fair, Neil Ramirez probably shouldn’t have been pitching in the ninth inning anyway.

He came in to start the ninth in a 4-4 game. A walk started it all and next thing fans knew, the game was over on a walk-off double.

This came after Cody Allen pitched a scoreless eighth inning. Yet Brad Hand and Adam Cimber were both available. It is easy to second-guess any decision that goes bad and this is obviously one of them.

Ramirez has now allowed at least one run in four of his last five appearances and may slowly be losing his status as a go-to guy now that Hand and Cimber are here and Andrew Miller is close to returning.

The Harper rumors

While this game was being played there was some insanity taking place on Twitter. The Washington Nationals have reportedly listened to offers for Bryce Harper and the Indians made a call.

Shane Bieber is reportedly being asked for and the Indians don’t want to trade him. All of this is coming from sources and as we all know, crazy things can still happen before the deadline.

The deadline will pass before tonight’s game, so perhaps we will have a new player to talk about before August officially begins.