There is an old baseball axiom that say to be a contending team, you have to beat up the “bums” and split with the contenders. That would explain why the Cleveland Indians aren’t really in the playoff mix.
Outside of the White Sox, who the Tribe has the familiarity of playing 19 times because they are a division foe, Cleveland has had huge problems with the best teams in the American League.
If the season ended today (it does not, of course), the five teams that would advance to the post-season would be Tampa Bay, Houston, Chicago, New York, and Boston. Take out the splitting of the 14 games vs. the Pale Hose, and the Indians’ record against the other four teams would be 4-19. What is amazing is that eight of the losses have been by one run, and two more have been by two runs.
Two of the wins have also been by one run.
And if you add in Toronto and Oakland, teams very much in the wild card mix, the record is 8-28.
That means against everyone else, Cleveland is 59-38, which is really, really good.
They have been outscored in those contests, 125 to 79 against the Rays, Astros, Yankees, and Red Sox meaning they have been averaged less than four runs per game against those top tier teams. Overall, they average almost 4.5 per contest. It’s tough to win without putting runs on the scoreboard.
It’s not a stretch to say the Indians can dominate the lower class teams in the American League, but have been totally outclassed by the big boys. And that has to change is they want to be contenders next season.
Jose Ramirez and Franmil Reyes have been productive against the upper echelon teams of the AL. Ramirez has hit .322 (19 for 59) with four home runs and 13 runs knocked in. Reyes has hit .324 (23 for 71) with seven dingers (remember he had a great series vs. Tampa) with 19 ribbies.
On the other hand, Amed Rosario has struggled against these teams, hitting just .193 with 3 RBIs, and Harold Ramirez is 10 for 51 with four runs knocked in. Some of the younger Indians have struggled as well. Bradley Zimmer is just 9 for 52 (.173) and Bobby Bradley has gone 9 for 56 with a single home run.
All the losses by one run shows that for the most part, Cleveland has been competing with the good teams, mostly because their starting pitching keeps them in games early.
The Tribe is a very young team, so it might just be a part of the growth process, learning to win against the better teams. One good thing to take away from this is in each of the series, the Indians have won one game in the set, the last game. The early losses, some of them tough to take, haven’t bogged the team down.
Cleveland has gone 23-8 against the Royals and Tigers, but have struggled slightly against Minnesota, who is having a down season. They still have seven games left against the Twins to improve that mark.
Playing much better against the good teams has to be a goal for next year. We understand the mindset of Terry Francona is taking things one day at a time, but getting wins against good teams is needed to make the playoffs.
It’s been a struggle to do that for the 2021 Indians.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 