CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – We’re just four games into the 2021 season and alarm bells are being rung by fans over the Indians offense, or lack of.
Considering they’ve scored two or fewer runs in three of those games, it’s somewhat understandable, but in the grand scheme of things there’s a lot of baseball to be played.
It was a point that Indians designated hitter Franmil Reyes tried to drive home following a 3-0 shutout loss to the Royals.
“There’s nothing [to worry about],” Reyes, who doubled Monday, said. “We’re having really good at-bats since day one. We are fighting. When everybody starts hitting and those balls start dropping, we’re going to be good.
“I trust my teammates. I trust myself. I trust our pitchers and the pitchers are doing a very good job so when those balls start falling, we’re going to be good.”
In Monday’s home opener they collected just three hits, had a total of seven baserunners with two reaching base in the same inning just twice, including the bottom of the ninth.
“We’re not stringing them together,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “We did hit some balls hard. And I don’t ever want to talk down our offense, because that’s not what we’re here for, but we’re going to have to string some [hits] together.”
Only six teams – Detroit, Seattle, Oakland, Milwaukee, the Cubs and Atlanta – have lower team batting averages than Cleveland’s .205 team average and four teams who have played at least four games – Arizona, Oakland, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee – have scored fewer than the Indians’ 13-run output.
“Those things are going to happen,” Reyes said. “We’re going to lose games, we’re going to win but, that [ninth inning rally] we showed there, we’re going to do until the last day of the season.”
Sunday’s 9-3 win over the Tigers in Detroit that saw the Indians pound out 10 hits, including three homers, is the glimmer of hope Reyes and his teammates can point to.
The thought remains, as the weather warms up, so should the Indians offense.
