The Cleveland Indians offense came out like a winged insect-eater out of heck today.
Heeding the words of Terry Francona a day earlier when he was about as scathing as a coach can be without demoralizing his team in public, the Indians had effort, talent, and everything required to win. They even overcome their arch-nemesis: rain delays.
After a relatively calm first inning, highlighted only by a Francisco Lindor double, the Indians turned it on in the second. With two on and two outs, Roberto Perez opened the scoring with a double and Daniel Robertson followed two batters later with a double of his own. The moment was here, the offense was finally on track, nothing can stop us now, IT’S WORKING IT’S REALLY WORKING.
SUDDENLY QUEEN BLASTED OVER THE KAUFFMAN STADIUM STEREO SYSTEM AS THE INDIANS COMEBACK TOUR BEGINS.
THE INDIANS ARE FINALLY UNSTOPPABLE
THIS IS FINALLY THE WORLD SERIES TEAM WE SAW LAST YEAR OH MY GOD YES. TAKE ME NOW.
Then it rained.
Then it kept raining.
And it rained some more.
It rained so much that Trevor Bauer couldn’t even grip the ball on the mound. It took a few glares and new ball requests before the home plate umpire realized a pitcher not being able to grip a ball is a good enough reason as any to call a rain delay, but it did happen eventually.
The phrase "rain delay" should trigger something sinister repressed in the psyche of every Indians fan. Even if you can’t pinpoint why it hurts to see the Indians in good shape then suddenly rain stopping everything, don’t Google it. Be glad you can’t remember.
— Let's Go Tribe (@LetsGoTribe) June 4, 2017
Anyway, the Indians managed to keep it up after the rain this time. They scored four more runs after two hours of sitting around doing nothing. Dan Otero was brilliant in 2.1 innings, as he came in for a high-pressure situation, finishing up the second inning scenario left by Bauer: two on, two outs. He didn’t allow a single hit, and three of the seven batters he faced were out on ground balls.
After a quiet third inning of their own, the Indians again remembered the fiery words of their skipper the day before and, oh, oh no Jose Ramirez why would you do that. More accurately, why did Mike Sarbaugh put him in such an awful spot rounding third and tell him to run home with Alex Gordon and his Chisencannon of an arm in left field. The relay, of course was perfect. The throw, of course, was rocketed and Jose was out by a good foot or so. As one final reminder of why that was an awful call to run, Jose’s face slammed into the dirt as he slide in the general vicinity of home plate.
Jason Kipnis was absolutely robbed in the fourth as well. The box score will call it a sacrifice fly, but in reality it was highway robbery where the thief is nice enough to leave your wallet after he takes your phone, car, kids, and wife and leaves for Canada. The point being, he was robbed by Jorge Bonifacio with the bases loaded. He would get redemption in the sixth with a solo shot to add the eighth and final run of the game.
The Indians can leave this game, and Kansas City, on a high note, which is all you can hope for when you enter a game being down 2-0 in a series against a division foe. Now tomorrow’s off day can be used to look ahead to the Colorado Rockies, and not a constant study of what the hell went wrong down south.