The Cleveland Indians are not swinging the bats in June. This was very much in evidence over the weekend in Washington where the Tribe bats were asleep for all but the ninth inning of Saturday’s game when Victor Martinez’ three run homer salvaged one game against the lowly Nationals. Outside of that one mighty swing, the Indians scored one run in each game against a pitching staff which was just raked over the coals by the Tigers earlier in the week. Someone should pick up an alarm clock for the bats.
Despite the sleeping bats, the Indians are still 10-12 in the month of June. The offense reminds people of last year’s edition, scoring large numbers in some game, and struggling to cross the plate in others. The biggest culprit? The lack of extra base hits. The Indians are usually a doubles machine, but since June 1st have hit just 30 two baggers in 22 games. Their opponents have banged out two per game in the same period. Ryan Garko, Travis Hafner, and Trot Nixon all have just two extra base hits for the month. It appears the team has become too patient at the plate, taking a lot of strikes instead of driving the ball. Look at yesterday’s game when Jason Simontacchi fanned six Tribe hitters in six frames. This is the same pitcher who was bombed in his previous start on Tuesday night.
The left handed hitters in particular are troubled. Hafner is SLUGGING .227 for the month with just two doubles, and Nixon is at .188. In terms of average, both are below the dreaded Mendoza line, Pronk at .197 and Trot at .146. Among the right handed swingers, Garko has followed up a great month of May with a .164 average and two home runs. The failure to get any offense out of this trio is causing the lack of pop. Hafner and Nixon both hit into key double plays in the National series, the former’s with the bases loaded.
These are the times when the manager earn his money. Manager Eric Wedge needs to bunch the players who are hitting together and hide or limit the playing time of those who are not. Josh Barfield is hitting .338 in June, Jason Michaels is at .341. Victor Martinez remains consistent at .329 in June. Wedge needs to start giving Michaels more time while he is swinging the bat well. Although Michaels has platoon tendencies, he is hitting righties better than Nixon at this point. Since the right handed hitters don’t have the pop of the lefty swingers, the skipper should be playing some small ball, using the bunt and the hit and run a little bit since the three run bombs won’t be as plentiful.
The Tribe lead the division by 4-1/2 games early in the month, and now trail the Tigers by two games. Where the Indians’ bats have gone cold, Detroit’s have gone white hot with seven hitters sporting OPS of over 900. Michaels, Martinez, and backup catcher Kelly Shoppach are the only Indians in that lofty range. However, it’s a long season and the Tiger bats won’t stay that hot for the rest of the season. Nor will the Tribe sticks stay this cool.
When a team goes through this kind of period, it has to get great starting pitching and manufacture some offense to get through it. The fact the Indians are still 10-12 for the month is a good thing. But, the bats need to get going, a task made more difficult by playing the A’s in a four game series this week. Oakland has one of the game’s best pitching staffs. Look for Michaels and Gutierrez to play the outfield regularly to get more defense in play to help the hurlers, and also because Gutierrez is swinging the bat well. Eventually, Hafner will start hitting. His track record is too good to expect anything else.
The key is to finish strong going into the All Star break. With the Tigers and a huge series looming on the Fourth of July, the Tribe will need to start hitting. Hopefully, they can create a few runs against Oakland. Sometimes doing the little things leads to bigger and better things.
KM
Cleveland Sports Perspective 