CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The 2021 Indians remain an enigma 60 games into the season, yet they keep winning.
Friday night Aaron Civale was spectacular striking out a career-high 11 and allowing a career-low one hit to pick up his ninth victory of the season, best in the American League, while the offense pounded out 14 hits in the 7-0 win over the Mariners.
Injuries to Franmil Reyes, Roberto Perez and Zach Plesac have been contributing factors, but doesn’t explain the consistent inconsistency – especially offensively – in its entirety.
“There’s some nights we show up and we don’t hit the ball and some nights we do,” manager Terry Francona said prior to Friday night’s series opener against the Mariners. “For a number of reasons, we’re not the most consistent, but the one thing our guys can hang their hat on is they don’t quit playing. Because of that, we stay in games. It would be really tough if guys were inconsistent, and guys didn’t play.
“I think there’s a lot of reasons for that [inconsistency]. I hope that gets better as the season progresses. That would be the hope.”
One constant this season has been the winning formula – just score four runs.
The Indians improved to 28-5 when scoring 4-or-more runs this season and they are just 5-22 when scoring 3-or-fewer runs.
Fuller house – Friday night’s game marked the first time the Indians opened the gates for full capacity at Progressive Field since 2019.
The team sold 22,970 tickets for what they dubbed ‘Opening Day 2.0’ after being limited to just 30% capacity in April and 40% in May and the start of June.
“Having people here made a huge difference,” Francona said.
“I’m guessing [having] more people here, it certainly helps the atmosphere. The ups and downs of a game become more up and down when you have fans.
“The energy of a game or the emotion of a game you kind of had to make it last year, make it up, and now part of what’s so cool about it is it happens when it happens.”
Chants of ‘Jose Jose Jose’ for Jose Ramirez filled the air, the wave returned and the crowd erupted with every hit, run scored and Civale strikeout.
“The energy was awesome, so that’s something that I felt on the mound several times,” Civale said. “There were several instances on the mound where I just kind of used that as extra adrenaline and that’s something that’s been missing from this game the past few years.
“It’s really nice to have that back. Just have awesome fans here. That’s what we play for.”
The crowd looked a bit larger due to rainout exchanges, but tickets sold are the official attendance figure announced for revenue sharing purposes.
The Indians have sold over 20,000 tickets for Saturday’s game.
Party of 4 – Amed Rosario collected four hits Friday night marking the third time this season he’s done it. In fact, he’s the only Indian to do it this season.
Rosario has hit safely in 10 of his last 11 games going 16-for-42 at the plate over that span.
The Indians are now 13-8 with Rosario hitting second in the lineup this season.
Scary moment – Catcher Austin Hedges appears to be OK after getting hit in the temple of his helmet in the third inning Friday night by Mariners starter Justin Dunn.
Hedges laid on the field near home plate for a few minutes before finally sitting up and then walking to first base with a trainer.
He remained in the game before being pulled for precautionary reasons in the fifth.
“He’s passed all the tests,” Francona said. “We’ll certainly monitor him through the night and when he comes in, but so far we think he’s OK.”
Plesac progress – Plesac was on the field doing conditioning work Friday afternoon prior to batting practice and began a throwing program this week while the team was in St. Louis.
“He’s doing really well,” Francona said. “Knowing Zach, we’ll probably have to have help [to] pump the brakes with him a little bit but that’s not the worst thing. Kicking someone in the rear end is a lot worse than having to slow him down a little bit He’s getting after it really well.”
Up next – Series continues Saturday afternoon at 4:10. RHP Triston McKenzie (1-3) will be recalled from Triple-A Columbus to start against Seattle’s Yusei Kikuchi (3-3).
