Keys to the game (5/10)

Keys to the game-

1.) If they are going to give you a free base, take it! Last night the Indians offense had 7 hits, and 6 walks against a struggling Toronto pitching staff. No, you read that right, 6 walks. Francisco Liriano takes the mound tonight for the Blue Jays. Here are some of his 2017 stats- see if anything about these stats sticks out to you: Liriano has a 2-2 record, a 4.44 ERA, a 1.75 WHIP, 30 strike outs, and 20 walks in 26 1/3 innings of work. Did you see it? 20 walks in 26 1/3 innings of work! Liriano has the ability to strike a lot of batters out, but he also is known to give free passes to first as well. We need to make sure we take him up on that. This may mean we have to be disciplined at that plate, shrink the strike zone and be patient. Once we have base runners, we need to make sure we capitalize.

2.) Keep the K’s, lose the walks. Danny Salazar enters into tonight’s game with a 2-3 record and a 4.28 ERA. He has done really well racking up the K’s (has 49 in 33 2/3 innings of work). But he has struggled with his command, especially in early innings, which has caused him to not be able to pitch deep into ballgames and walk quite a few batters himself. He has walked 16 batters in 33 2/3 innings of work. Tonight we want him to come out ready with his command.

3.) Be ready bullpen. Salazar has been averaging 5 or 6 innings, which means that there will more then likely be some innings left for our bullpen to eat up. The good news… our bullpen is literally the best in baseball. Maintaining that dominance is very important, they have proven to be the backbone of our team. The have a 1.75 combined ERA, in 92 1/3 innings pitched. That’s a reliable, consistent, and downright filthy stat. I have to believe that they strike fear into the hearts of every batter they face. With a bullpen like ours, we are never out of the game till the 27^th out is recorded.  So basically… they need to keep doing what they have been doing! Let’s win tonight’s game and win another series.

Keys to the game (5/9)

Keys to the game-

1.) Rise to the occasion. With Cory Kluber sidelined with a sore back, we look to Carlos Carrasco to step up and lead until Kluber can return to the rotation. The good news, Carlos Carrasco is exactly the guy we want to fill in. He currently has a 3-2 record with a 2.18 ERA and a 0.82 WHIP. He has been our most reliable pitcher, and he has consistently made quality starts. His last start was 6 innings of solid pitching, giving up just 2 runs on 5 hit. Pretty good, right? But he did that while sick, fighting a fever. He is one tough cookie (see what I did there J). With our struggling offense, we need him to keep Toronto off the board and give our guys a chance to put some runs on the board. Look for him to shut them down.

2.) Score some runs. Yep, it was a key yesterday… and it was more then likely one the day before. Our offense has done well with getting hits, but they have struggled to convert those hits into runs. Clutch hits have been pretty much nonexistent lately, and base runners have been left stranded. I don’t have to tell you all that though, because you know all that. You have seen the double plays that squash offensive momentum. You have seen the over-swinging and expansion of the strike zone. It is frustrating. But I have seen that sometimes all it takes is one. One player that breaks out of their funk with a clutch hit that is a game changer… and it opens the floodgates. Michael Bolsinger takes the mound for Toronto tonight making his very first start of the 2017 season. He was acquired by the Blue Jays last season from LA, and has an 8-16 record with a 4.61 ERA in his 37 game Major League career. He gets the start because the Toronto starting rotation is all kinds of beaten up. Between Sanchez’s blister, and Happ’s elbow… what was once a pretty solid rotation is now struggling to have any sort of consistency.

3.) One game at a time. I am going to say something that may ruffle a few feathers…. But hey… I am feeling feisty today. I have noticed that there are some that are putting the cart before the horse. Guys, there is no guarantee that we will go back to the World Series this year. The truth of the matter is that the odds are stacked against us to do so because it has been proven to be difficult to repeat a post season run. Difficult, but not impossible. Why? Because the post season is 100% unpredictable. The team with the best record in the regular season could get knocked out in the first round. A team that just squeaks in with a wild card spot could end up winning the whole thing. It is truly all about who gets hot at the right time. But one thing I am absolutely certain of… if you don’t make it into the post season, there is absolutely no way to win the World Series. So our focus should be on winning the series we are playing right now, one game at a time. We are struggling right now offensively, and if this were September/October, I would be worried. But it is not October, it is May. We are still managing to win games, we are still an above .500 team. So we need  focus on winning one game at a time. When we lose, don’t panic. Don’t give up on the rest of the season. We try to do better the next game. Keep things in perspective, Tribe fans. Nobody said it was going to be easy!

Keys to the game (5/8)

Keys to the game:

1.) Break their hearts! Tonight marks the first time Edwin Encarnacion enters the Roger Center wearing something other then a Blue Jays uniform. After spending 8 seasons with Toronto, it has been reported that he is excited to go back and play at his old stomping ground with his new team. I would have to assume that Toronto has a level of comfort and familiarity after so many productive years spent there. He currently holds the third place spot on the Blue Jays all-time home runs list, 6th place for RBI's, 10th for runs, and 12th for most games played. You would think the home crowd would give him a nice, welcoming reception... but it is (classless) Toronto. So you never know. Either way, he needs to come out tonight and break hearts. The stage is set; I look to him to set the tone.

2.) Attack down in the zone!!! Trevor Bauer enters tonight's game with a 2-3 record, and a 7.67 ERA (yuck!). He is coming off of a terrible start where he gave up 7 runs on 7 hits in 4 innings of work against the Tigers. From the very first inning of that game Bauer looked out of sorts. He was falling behind in the count, he has leaving balls up in the zone, and he was missing his spots. Now, the questionable strike zone was causing him a bit of frustration... but as a Major League pitcher, he has got to figure out a way to maintain his composure when things are not going his way. When Bauer is not getting himself all worked up, when he is attacking down in the zone, when he is throwing first pitch strikes... he can be pretty good. Let's hope he does that tonight.

3.) Score. More. Runs. Look, we took the KC series. That fact that we only scored 5 runs in 3 games made for some stressful baseball, but we won the series. A win is a win, and I will take it. But we will not always be so fortunate. We are going to need to break out of our offense slump, so why not break out of it tonight?  Marcus Stroman takes the mound for Toronto tonight with a 2-2 record, and a 3.89 ERA. I am interested to see how he pitches tonight because he left his last start early due to armpit tightness (first time I have heard that one!)?!?! The bigger cushion we can give Bauer, the better! Let's get to him early and score some runs!

Keys of the game (5/7)

Keys to the game-

1.) Looks are not everything. The win we saw yesterday was not a "pretty" win. In fact, with the 9 runners left on base, and the 1 defensive error, it was down right ugly. The only bright spot was Josh Tomlin, who pitched 7 innings, giving up just 1 run on 3 hits. Other then that, yesterday was an ugly game. But as my mama says, looks are not everything. A win is a win no matter how we get it. We are naturally going to play some ugly games; it is the nature of the beast that is the 162 game season. But if we win at the end of those ugly games... well then it was a good day. So no matter how the box score looks, don't give up on the game.

2.) Give Mike Clevenger some early run support. In order to do this we are going to have to figure out how to do damage against a left-hander. Danny Duffy takes the mound today for KC, and he is looking to bounce back after struggling in his last start against the White Sox. He is 2-2 on the year, with a 3.89 ERA. He has been struggling with maintaining his velocity throughout ballgames. The more he throws, the slower his velocity becomes, the easier it is to hit off him. So battle at the plate!

 3.) Make your case! Mike Clevenger makes his first Major League start of the 2017 season today. He has been tearing it up in Triple A, where he is 3-1 with a 1.50 ERA and racked up 32 K's in 30 innings of work. He has been working hard at commanding his fastball and has completely reworked his delivery (we won't see him throwing across his body anymore!), and all that work has paid off. He has the opportunity to face off against a struggling KC offense, to prove he is worthy of a more permanent spot in the rotation. His one area of concern is he doesn't typically go deep into ballgames, so our bull pen better be ready to do what they do best- shut them down. A win today means we win the series- which is our goal going into every series! Let's do it in dominating fashion!

Keys to the game (5/6)

Keys to the game-

1.) We need table setters. This means our 1-3 batters have got to get on base. Last night I saw a lot of over-swinging, a lot of pressing. There was a lack of confidence, which led to a lack of productive at bats. We have got to get back to the basics of small ball. Stop trying to hit the ball to the moon, and start trying to get on base. Tonight we face Jason Vargas. Vargas is probably the silver lining in the Kansas City Royals gloomy 2017 season thus far. He is 4-1 with a 1.42 ERA, and has struck out 29 in 31 2/3 innings. For the most part, he has been very consistent. Vargas is going to try and capitalize on the obvious frustration our offense is feeling. So we need to come out and put yesterday behind us and have productive at bats. If push comes to shove, work his pitch count up and get into the KC pen, which has a 4.86 combined ERA.

2.) Go for three in a row. Josh Tomlin enters tonight’s game with a 2-3 record, and an 8.87 ERA. Those stats are a bit deceiving because he is coming off of two quality starts. Look, Tomlin is not going to have the same sort of outings as Kluber or Carrasco. He is not going to rack up the K’s, he is typically not going to strike out the side. He is going to have a lot of balls put in play, with solid defense needed to back him up. He is going to be prone to giving up long balls because he pitches for contact, and sometimes they make good contact. I would not call him a Rembrandt; he is more of a paint by numbers kind of pitcher. Mixing and matching pitches based on who is at the plate. He is going to need to make sure he is careful when facing Perez (who is 16-29 against him) and Eric Hosmer (who is currently on a 9 game hitting streak).

3.) As Taylor Swift would say, “Shake it off!” Yesterday was frustrating game all the way around. The fans were frustrated. The offense was frustrated. The team as a whole was frustrated. But guess what? Yesterday is over. Done. Today is a new day, and a new game waits to be played. Make no mistake, the worst thing we could do is carry over the frustrations from yesterday into today. We need to shake it off and start new. We are a better team then the one we saw last night. So, come out tonight and be the team we know you can be!