Cleveland, OH (92.3 The Fan) – Franmil Reyes has two triples and his first career stolen base in his last two games, but it was his 3-run homer in the fourth inning that gave the Indians a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
In desperate need of some offense after losing their last four games in a row, five Indians drove in runs on Sunday afternoon to avoid being swept by the Yankees. The Tribe snapped their longest losing streak of the young season with a 7-3 win over the Bronx Bombers, who previously came to town as one of the surprisingly worst teams in the league.
I’m not sure he’ll be auditioning to be the new leadoff hitter after his sudden showcase of big-man speed, but it sure was nice to see Reyes put the team on his back. He plays as hard as anyone on the roster.
“I’ll tell you what, I know he probably won’t lead the league in triples, but when he hits it he runs,” Francona said of his team’s biggest power threat. “He keeps his head up and he knows where the ball is and it’s kind of inspiring. It is for me, I hope it is for everybody. I know it makes me feel better when I see him do that. He give you a pretty damn good effort.”
Reyes finished the game 3-for-4 with 3 RBI’s. He batted in the eighth inning with a chance to hit for the cycle, but grounded out to shortstop.
Triston McKenzie had an up-and-down day. He struggled with his command earlier in the game and was taken out after 87 pitches over four innings. The lightweight right hander struck out five and walked four during his four innings of work. He also allowed a pair of homers – the first back-to-back jacks that the Tribe has given up all season.
“I wasn’t attacking the zone consistently,” McKenzie said afterwards. “I feel like I threw close to 30 pitches in that first inning and a lot of them were just mistakes made by me. I wasn’t in the zone enough. I felt like I was getting ahead of guys 0-1 and then I would immediately follow that up with a ball and I wasn’t pounding guys into the ground.”
Sam Hentges came on in relief of McKenzie and earned his first Major League win on Sunday. He was running a few minutes behind schedule for his press conference because of a beer shower, which he laughed and told the media “that was pretty cold.” Considering all that he has been through the last few years, it was nice to see him pick up the win today.
First Baseman Offensive Inefficiencies
The Indians first basemen have had a brutal year so far at the plate.
Josh Naylor made just his second start of the season at first base on Sunday. 18 of the 19 games before Sunday had been split evenly between Yu Chang and Jake Bauers, who obviously have struggled offensively.
Naylor has a ton of raw power, but hasn’t shown it consistently enough yet through his big league career.
Will he earn more opportunities to play at first base? On one hand, he made what could have been a costly mistake when trying to barehand a flipped ball on Rougned Odor’s seventh inning bunt. The Tribe had scored three straight innings and built a nice lead, but Odor reached on Naylor’s error. On the other hand, the very next batter Gleyber Torres laced a line drive at Naylor, who caught the ball and alertly dove to tag the bag just ahead of Odor to complete to double play.
“He made a real nice stab at a ball early in the game and it looked to me like late in the game where, on that bunt, it looked like Cal was pretty close to him and he didn’t know whether to catch it with his glove or with his bare hand,” Francona said.
I think the decision on who plays first base will vary a bit, but if Naylor can get his bat going with any consistency (he went 0-for-4 on Sunday afternoon with a looking strikeout and three groundouts), I think he’s got a great chance to see consistent time there. The Indians can’t afford to keep running out Bauers and Chang, who are a combined 10-for-66 with just three extra-base hits this season.
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Indians reliever James Karinchak continues to be a slam dunk option for Terry Francona. In 8 1/3 innings this year, the flame thrower has racked up 18 strikeouts. He struck out the Yankees in order in the eighth and 10 of the last 11 outs he’s recorded are via the strikeout.
He and Emmanuel Clase are an awfully dynamic weapon at the back end of the bullpen, with Clase throwing nearly 50 percent of his pitches this season at 100 mph or faster.
Four Runs is the Magic Number
The Tribe fell to 1-10 when scoring 3-or-fewer runs with last night's defeat...is 7-1 when scoring 4-or-more runs in the first 20 games with the lone defeat coming on April 20 against Chicago-AL in an 8-5 loss.
» CLE is outscoring opponents 48-24 (+24 run differential) when scoring 4-or-more runs in a contest but is being outscored 49-21 (-28 run diff.) when plating 3-or-fewer runs in a ballgame.
» The Indians followed a similar trend in 2020, going 8-19 when driving in 3-or-fewer runs (-54 run diff.) and 27-6 when scoring 4-ormore (+93 run diff.).
Next Up
The Indians open a 3-game series with the Minnesota Twins on Monday night. RHP Zach Plesac (1-3, 6.75) and RHP José Berríos (2-2, 3.00) are scheduled to open the series at 6:10 p.m.
Reyes stole his first career base, hit another triple, and lifted a 3-run homer in Sunday's win over New York
