Keys to the game (5/12)

Keys to the game:

1.) Get in sync. (No. Not Nsync…. unless you want to them to help us wave our recent struggles Bye Bye Bye… anyway). Tribe fans, we have seen what happens when our pitching is on, but our offense is off. We have also seen what happens when our offense is on, but our pitching is off. It is hard to win games when the team is not in sync, and it is also very frustrating for players and fans alike. The good news is we do have all of the elements needed for a great baseball team… we just have not seen too many games where all the elements work together for the win. This has go to change. We need everyone to get on the same page and start working as a complete team for the win.

2.) Time to cowboy up! After a rocky start, we have a real reason to be optimistic as Josh Tomlin takes the mound. His last start was brilliant- giving up just 1 run on 3 hits in 7 innings of work against KC. Recognizing that Josh Tomlin throws a ton of strikes, the league began to make adjustments to him. So in turn, he needs to do the same. Quality pitches are needed, and working ahead in the count will lead to success. He will make his bread and butter by jam jobs. Getting plays to swing out of desperation and jamming them up. So our defense needs to be ready for a lot of ground balls. The Twins are a team that (somewhat surprisingly) knows how to put runs on the board; but perhaps their most lethal offensive weapon is Miguel Sano. Sano is leading the team in batting average (.304), home runs (9), and runs batted in (29). Tomlin needs to make sure he does not miss his spots when Sano is at the plate.

3.) Don’t get discouraged. Probably the most frustrating thing about Wednesday’s loss (other then the fact that we lost to the worst team in baseball) was that the offense finally showed up. Scoring 7 runs, and scoring them early in the game, was what we had been waiting to see all week. But our pitching was unable to hold on to the lead. The offense took a step in the right direction- we do not want them to take a step back. We are facing Minnesota right-hander (Yes!!! A right-hander!), Ervin Santana. Santana has started the season off really well, going 5-1 with a 1.72 ERA. We have faced him once already this season (back on April 20^th) - and he was good. We were able to score just 1 run on 4 hits in six innings. The Indians were able to win that game (6 to 2) because once Santana was taken out of the game our offense was able to score 5 runs off of the Minnesota bullpen. Ranking 25^th out of 30, their pen is an obvious weakness we can exploit. So if nothing else, work Santana’s pitch count up! He has not had too much success against us historically (other then the one time that he threw a no hitter back in 2011… but lets not think about that). In 22 matchups, he is just 5-11 with a 4.22 ERA against Cleveland. Let’s get score some runs early and give Josh Tomlin some room to work.