Kyrie wants his daughter to idolize WNBA players, not himself
June 26, 2017Taking the Party at Napoli’s to Texas
June 26, 2017Weeeeee! The Cleveland Indians season so far has been one heckuva rollercoaster. Through 74 games, injuries, peaks, valleys, streaks (both losing and winning), and fluctuations between first place in the AL Central and second and even third place have come and gone.
Heading into this past weekend, the club had just concluded a dominating 7-1 road trip that saw them take a 2.5 game lead in the Central. After getting swept by the Minnesota Twins at home, they are now a half-game back of Minnesota. There’s still plenty of time for the Indians to figure it out, 88 games in fact. They may be struggling- or dominating- depending on the week. But, the strangest part about the Indians so far is how important it is for them to have an early lead. To be specific, how important it is to have a lead following the second inning.
When having a lead or tied going into the third inning, the Indians are 33-15 (18-3 when leading); when trailing, they are just 6-20, including just 1-13 when behind after two innings at Progressive Field. So far this season, the starting rotation has been somewhat of a disappointment while the bullpen has done an outstanding job, at least the majority of the time. Having guys like Andrew Miller and Cody Allen, among others, shortens the game. Opponents know that if the Indians are leading when the bullpen comes into the game, specificially those two hurlers, it isn’t good news for them. Even so, the fact that there’s such a disparity in the club’s record following what the score is after the second inning is really incredible.
Later in the game, a record that dramatically different is understandable, but following just two innings?
Luckily for the Indians, the rotation should see their results improve as their profile is still better than their results, which will only make the team better. Coupled with the dominating bullpen, the Indians should be the scary team we all thought they would be.
Maybe the Tribe should just sell out to score first though. The Indians are just 3-8 when trailing after the first inning. They are 13-2 when leading after the opening inning. You know, to play it safe.
Records courtesy of Baseball Reference.
3 Comments
Weird especially looking at the spread of runs per inning scored
http://cleanuphitter.com/mlb/stats/mlb_sortable_scoring.php?parse=inningrunsscored
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a090976b3162f33e4dd5645d2de26c8ba8ccc6ec7b3bd1de510350399895dea6.jpg