Cleveland Sports Forum

149 games to go. That's what makes baseball bearable. or unbearable if the team stays lousy!

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- In Thursday's afternoon chat, we touched on a slew of topics, including what changes to make to ignite the Indians' offense and defense, whether the team needs a starting pitcher, who might provide leadership and Detroit's best food spots.

A succinct answer to the latter topic: Slow's Bar-B-Q and Mercury Burger Bar.

A deeper explanation on the first few topics follows in the form of five thoughts, as the Indians commence a three-game set in the Motor City on Friday night.

1. O Captain: Imagine a silent, motionless locker room. No blaring music. No chatter, no buzz. No heaving of a football from one end to the other. Picture a hushed group of 25 players, meeting behind closed doors, without the presence of coaches or front office executives. Who does the talking for the Tribe in this situation? If a players-only meeting is eventually a necessary avenue for the team to select -- and for many teams, it is at some point during the year -- who leads the way?

Jason Giambi filled that role for the last two years. The veteran with a beard as gray and white as the sky and ground, respectively, during a Cleveland winter -- or spring, apparently -- helped guide the team through rough periods with his expertise. Giambi has since retired. Corey Kluber and Michael Brantley, two of the teams' leaders on the diamond, are quiet by nature. They tend to lead by example, not by offering state of the union addresses.

2. My Captain: Jason Kipnis is one of the more vocal players on the team, but performance matters in this regard. "Do as I say, not as I do," might not work in this setting. Kipnis batted .240 with six home runs last season. He has compiled a .224 average and .501 OPS in 14 games so far this year. It will be interesting to see who inherits the leadership roles on this club as the season unfolds.

3. Catch-22: When Michael Bourn rested on Monday evening, Kipnis batted leadoff. He has reached base at a .242 clip so far this season. Jose Ramirez, another potential leadoff option, owns a .174 batting average and .224 on-base percentage through the season's first few weeks. Should Bourn continue to scuffle at the plate, the team lacks ideal leadoff hitters. Carlos Santana reaches base as much as anyone on the team. Manager Terry Francona even identified him over the offseason as a guy who would, based on his propensity to draw walks and reach base, make a productive leadoff hitter. Of course, the Indians need his bat in the middle of the order because he also drives in runs. Granted, he can't drive in runs when the guys at the top of the order don't reach base. It's a vicious cycle, a Catch-22 and a challenging conundrum for Francona as he attempts -- eventually, perhaps -- to construct an imposing nine-man order.

4. Center of attention: Color me surprised that Tyler Holt has yet to play an inning for the Indians this season. Holt, 26, appeared in 36 games for the Tribe last season, as he saw time at all three outfield spots. The Indians could use his defense and athleticism. Brandon Moss, Jerry Sands, David Murphy, Ryan Raburn and, at some point, Nick Swisher are not the most graceful with the glove in right field. Holt also could have filled in for Bourn in center field on Monday night, when Francona instead turned to Mike Aviles, who had logged a grand total of 6 2/3 innings at the position in his eight years in the league. At the least, Holt could serve as a late-game defensive replacement or pinch-runner. He also bats right-handed, always a welcome attribute in Cleveland.

5. It's early: The Indians have completed 8.6 percent of their regular season schedule. Another week or two of uninspiring baseball should trigger some alarms, but the team has yet to reach the juncture of the season in which panic is a warranted course of action. That said, the widespread offensive slump is quite concerning. The Indians are batting .220 as a team, with a miserable .619 OPS. All 11 of the club's home runs have come on the road and have been solo shots.

Indians found a way to make room on the roster. House is apparently suffering from a hanging curveaball and will need some rehab time

After a strong showing as a rookie last season Indians left-hander T.J. House has been a mess this year with an 0-4 record and 13.15 ERA in four starts and now he’s been placed on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation.

House had a 3.35 ERA and 80/22 K/BB ratio in 102 innings last season, but had more walks (12) than strikeouts (7) while allowing 19 runs in 13 innings this year. His velocity was also down a couple miles per hour, so something clearly wasn’t right with the 25-year-old lefty.

Rather than add another pitcher to the roster in House’s place the Indians have called up 26-year-old center fielder Tyler Holt, who could see some action in place of struggling veteran Michael Bourn.

Something for KenM to get excited about.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Manny Ramirez Jr.’s hair looked a tad long when University of San Francisco coach Nino Giarratano offered a good-natured wisecrack about his dreadlocked dad.
“Probably just a hint I need to cut the hair,” Ramirez said with a smile.
At times when Ramirez might need a little lift, some guidance on his swing, Giarratano need go no further than pulling out some old highlight videos of the first baseman’s famous father. Yes, the slugger with 555 career home runs.
“It’s a great reminder of everything,” said Ramirez, whose USF team began the year 0-10 and is now in the postseason chase. “I have so many AB’s on my computer and have always seen it, always heard it. He was a great hitter, so it’s not a bad example to look at.”
While he has the bloodlines, Ramirez is eager to prove he can be a clutch hitter and play professional baseball. He is expected to be drafted after his junior season a year from now. He will be USF’s projected starting first baseman in 2016 batting in the middle of the order.
By now, he’s more than used to the hype surrounding his name.
Yet other than those occasional instances, there’s not a lot of talk about Ramirez’s lineage. That’s by choice.
Manny Jr. is just being Manny.
“It’s not easy being known as Manny Ramirez Jr. He handles that really well,” said shortstop Nico Giarratano, the coach’s son. “Every time he hits, they announce his name and everybody goes crazy, like, ‘Oh, man, it’s Jr.’ He’s got a good shot. He works hard at it.”
Ramirez decided as far back as he began playing baseball to create his own path, separate from his dad — who became famous for home runs and notorious for drug suspensions.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do since I started playing the game, starting from high school, through college now, just starting to have my own identity,” he said. “It’s hard to do, just with my name and who my dad is. I might as well just go with the flow. I don’t really pay much attention to it. Just accept it, I’ve been dealing with it for so long. It’s nothing new to me.”
And when father and coach offer different direction? Ramirez tends to go with Giarratano’s guidance.
Ramirez, 19, insists he won’t take advantage of situations just because of his recognizable last name. He is determined to earn everything he gets in this game.
“I just try to be myself and whatever happens, happens,” he said.
Giarratano is used to producing high draft picks and first-rounders and expects Ramirez to have a great season as a junior next year and get his chance. The 17th-year coach had hoped to get Ramirez 200 at-bats this season, but that didn’t happen given he is playing behind an experienced senior.
Ramirez is batting .214 with five RBIs and no home runs with 27 strikeouts in 26 games and 15 starts going into a weekend series at Dallas Baptist. The Dons bounced back from their tough start with an impressive run. They are in third place in the West Coast Conference and must finish in the top four to make the conference tournament — and it’s likely to come down to the final weekend.
Ramirez first met Giarratano as a high school sophomore and is thankful for this chance.
“Experiencing him this whole year just made me realize there’s so much more to baseball and the importance of culture,” Ramirez said. “It’s just his drive, you can just relate to him because he’s just like you, a regular human being. He loves the game of baseball.”
He wound up at USF after playing with pitcher Mack Meyer at the IMG Academy in Florida. Ramirez joined the Dons after one season at Central Arizona College.
It didn’t hurt to be playing a few miles away from the World Series champion San Francisco Giants. He will be around to see the Dons’ Benedetti Diamond get a major facelift by next year, too.
Ramirez, 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, still hopes to pack on another 15-20 pounds before next year’s amateur draft.
“He has a great influence in his baseball life,” Giarratano said. “It’s great to be able to teach him, because he absorbs everything that I give him. It’s only a matter of time before it clicks into place for him and he takes off.”
Giarratano knows a thing or two about father-son dynamics. Every Monday, when the baseball team has an off day, he hits grounders for Nico, then throws him batting practice before going to lunch together.
Family is a big part of Giarratano’s focus leading these young men.
“That’s my extension, to teach them about life and to be here in these moments,” said Giarratano, who in 2011 donated a kidney to his ailing father, Mickey, now 84. “That’s the piece I feel most comfortable teaching all the time, just life.”

was that meant for Kenm?

KANSAS CITY -- When the Indians arrived at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday, the starting lineup that was displayed in the visitors' clubhouse had a new look, but it yielded the same old results.
In an effort to boost the Tribe's struggling offense -- one that has labored against left-handers all season -- manager Terry Francona shook things up and altered the batting order. Royals lefty Jason Vargas then proceeded to stymie the Indians for six innings, sending the club to a 5-3 loss to open this three-game road series.

The players know that Francona is doing his part.

"Tito's doing everything he can," veteran Mike Aviles said. "He's putting guys in situations where he feels like they're going to succeed and hopefully it can get us rolling in the right direction. Right now, it hasn't clicked, unfortunately. We've got to get it going soon, because you can't be here all year saying, 'We can't get it going.' It's about time where we start making it go."

The biggest change made on Tuesday was moving switch-hitter Carlos Santana from the cleanup spot to the No. 2 hole. With the left-handed Vargas on the mound, Ryan Raburn was slotted into the fourth spot. Nick Swisher came off the disabled list, served as the designated hitter and batted sixth. Center fielder Michael Bourn -- recently pulled out of the leadoff spot -- was moved to the bench.

Francona offered a simple explanation for his decisions before the game. "I just think that we need to try to do everything in our power to win as many games as we can," he said. For one inning, the tweaks at the top paid off.

After leadoff man Jason Kipnis popped out, Santana worked a seven-pitch walk against Vargas, giving Cleveland's first baseman a team-leading 23 free passes this year. That set the stage for No. 3 hitter Michael Brantley, who drilled an 89-mph fastball down the right-field line for the outfielder's second home run of the season.

That sequence showed the idea behind moving Santana to the two-hole.

"I told Carlos before the game, I said, 'Don't change a thing you're doing at the plate,'" Francona said. "We don't want him all of a sudden to turn into a guy that's trying to move runners. That's not who he is, but his at-bats, just through the course of his normal at-bats, he's going to get on base. He's going to walk. That pretty much, right away, showed what can happen."

After that, Vargas settled in and shut the offense down.

Following Brantley's blast, the Indians went 1-for-18 against Vargas, who picked up his second win in as many starts against the Tribe. With the loss, Cleveland fell to 2-9 against left-handed starters this season. The only other hit allowed by Vargas came in the sixth, when Kipnis led off with a double, which was slashed to deep left field, just beyond the glove of Alex Gordon.

With Cleveland trailing 4-2 at the time, Kipnis' hit presented an opportunistic situation for Santana. The first baseman worked into a 3-0 count against Vargas and then hacked at an 87-mph fastball, which Santana beat into the infield grass for a groundout.

"It was a good pitch. I tried for good contact," Santana said. "I don't want to say I was trying for a home run, but on 3-0, we're losing by two runs, I tried to go for good contact to get an RBI." Francona -- an advocate of swinging on 3-0 in certain situations -- defended Santana's approach.

"I wanted him to hit a home run," Francona said. "Our rule of thumb pretty much is, if you can tie the game with one swing, especially if you're one of our home-run hitters, [go for it]. The results obviously weren't what we were looking for."

The next two pitches from Vargas resulted in two more outs: a popout from Brantley and a groundout from Raburn. "It's a shame, because the inning looked like it had a chance, and then it was quick," Francona said. "But again, when you have a runner on base, if guys get a pitch they like, that's what we're trying to do. Sometimes, you make outs."

It was a new-look lineup, but similar results.

"You go up there and you feel like we have a good matchup," Aviles said. "And then it doesn't play out the way we want it to play out. It hasn't actually this year at all."

Jordan Bastian is a reporter for MLB.com.

It was at the beginning of last season that Indians closer Cody Allen realized hitters had made an adjustment against him, and he needed to catch up.

As a relief pitcher, Allen doesn’t have the type of seven-pitch repertoire that starting pitcher Trevor Bauer boasts. Allen throws a fastball and a curveball and relies on his velocity, movement and location to get hitters out. He can’t be too predictable.

His strategy to most hitters was to get ahead with his fastball and strike them out or at least induce weak contact with his curveball. Hitters began to catch on and started swinging earlier in counts.

“Early last season, you could start to see it, guys were swinging earlier,” Allen said. “I got hurt a few times, just trying to get ahead with a fastball and they couldn’t miss it. The breaking ball is such a feel pitch. So if I’ve got a pretty good feel for it that day, especially teams in the division, they know I want to try to get to my breaking ball late in the count.”

To combat that, Allen has begun throwing a higher percentage of curveballs, and he’s doing it in all counts. Dating back to 2013, Allen’s percentage of curveballs thrown has increased from 28.3 in 2013 to 37.7 last season to 41.3 this year. He was able to do that because he has been able to throw his curveball for a strike a higher percentage of the time, from 57 percent in 2013 to 62.5 percent in 2014.

“I feel like I got more consistent with the pitch,” Allen said. “In 2013, it was a pitch I would bounce more often than throwing for a strike so I could only use it in advantage counts.”

Last season, the strategy worked. Allen posted a 2.07 ERA and 1.06 WHIP and, after taking over the closer’s role, converted 24-of-28 save chances. He also struck out 91 batters in only 69⅔ innings pitched.

This year, things haven’t gone as well. Allen has been solid in eight outings but was hit hard in two, allowing four earned runs each time. The worst was April 20 against the Chicago White Sox when Allen entered the ninth holding a three-run lead. One out, seven consecutive batters reaching base and four runs later, he had his first blown save of 2015.

But Allen knows it’s going to happen eventually. It was an ugly performance. It doesn’t mean his entire month was poor, even though his ERA is still 10.00 because of it.

“I’m not going to sit here and beat myself up and say I had an awful month because two [appearances] were bad,” he said. “Those two games were really, really bad. It stinks, but it happens. Would I have loved to have won those games? Absolutely. But it’s in the past and those won’t be the last losses I’m going to take and hopefully I play long enough to where I’ll have a few more.”

He’s tried to learn from it. When Allen comes out for the ninth inning, he says he’s normally simply trying to keep himself calm so he doesn’t get too amped up to pitch. Against the White Sox that night, he was potentially one pitch away from getting the game-ending outs for most of the inning. He just needed to follow his own mantra and take a step back, but he got caught up in the moment.

“Not breaking up the rhythm of their offense,” Allen said. “They were racing up to bat, swinging early in the count. I was one pitch away the whole time so I just wanted to get it and maybe get a double play instead of stepping back, peeking over a few times, breaking up their rhythm. You learn some things about yourself when you go out there.”

Allen will take the mound each time in May trying to learn from April. It’s another set in a long line of adjustments that started with his curveball and has included his demeanor on the mound.

That's not who he is, but his at-bats, just through the course of his normal at-bats, he's going to get on base.

If I could play with somebody else's money my first iteration of a batting order would be the players in the lineup in decreasing order of OPS or some other similar metric, perhaps with a tweak to count OBP more than SLG and perhaps look at lefty-righty ordering.

Just for fun, here's how that batting order would look, with a nice L/R pattern until the bottom

Brantley LH 414 CF or LF
Raburn RH 400 LF or DH
Santana L/R 398 1b
Aviles RH 373 ss
Kipnis LH 336 2b
Perez RH 298 c
Moss LH 298 RF
Chsnhl LH 283 3b
Murphy LH 269 DH or
Bourn LH 258 CF

KANSAS CITY -- The Indians are hoping that some veteran savvy will help shore up the back of their rotation.
On Wednesday, the club announced that it will promote 37-year-old left-hander Bruce Chen from Triple-A Columbus on Saturday to start the second game of the upcoming three-game home series against the Twins. The Indians will need to make corresponding moves in order to vacate a spot for Chen on both the active and 40-man rosters.

"He's been throwing really good," manager Terry Francona said.

Through five starts for Columbus, Chen is 2-1 with a 1.74 ERA, logging 23 strikeouts and three walks in 31 innings. In the process, he has limited batters to a .178 average. Chen signed a Minor League contract with Cleveland over the offseason and will be appearing in the big leagues with his 11th team when he starts on Saturday.

Over parts of 16 seasons, Chen has gone 82-80 with a 4.58 ERA in 398 games in the big leagues. His most recent Major League stint was with the Royals from 2009-14, when he went 47-43 with a 4.53 ERA in 156 games (113 starts). In 2014, he went just 2-4 with a 7.45 ERA in 13 appearances, while battling back issues.

Another top candidate for Cleveland was veteran righty Shaun Marcum (3-0, 2.00 ERA in three starts at Triple-A), but Francona said Chen's pitching schedule aligned better with the Indians' need for a fifth starter during the series against Minnesota.

"To be very truthful with you, it was hard [to decide]," Francona said. "They're both doing exactly what you want."

The Indians needed to add a starter for Saturday due to placing lefty TJ House (0-4 with a 13.15 ERA in four starts for Cleveland) on the 15-day disabled list this past Friday with inflammation in his throwing shoulder. Francona noted that House was currently back in Cleveland working through his rehab. The manager was not sure if House would rejoin the Major League rotation when he is deemed healthy and activated.

"I honestly don't know," Francona said. "We'll do whatever we think is best for TJ, as far as not just like one start, but for his career."

Swarzak with a 1.94 WHIP looks like a good candidate to be removed from both the 25 man and the 40 man roster. In fact, if they want to remove from the active roster he must also be DFAd off the 40 man roster. Knowing the way they do roster management I expect something more creative and temporary. [perhaps induce someone's wife into labor so they get a few days of paternity leave? but not sure if that helps with the 40 man roster]

Big News!

The Indians are “in [the] process of signing” right-hander Carlos Marmol to a minor league contract, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link). Marmol was reportedly throwing in the mid-90’s from a new arm slot during a scouting showcase in the Dominican Republic.

Velocity has never really been an issue for Marmol over his career, as control (a career 6.2 BB/9) has always plagued his ability to be a reliable bullpen arm. In his prime, Marmol posted a 2.54 ERA and a whopping 441 strikeouts over 308 1/3 innings out of the Cubs bullpen from 2007-10. Even during that impressive stretch, however, he still averaged 5.6 walks per nine innings.

Marmol only managed an 8.10 ERA, 9.5 K/9 and 6.8 BB/9 over 13 1/3 innings with Miami last season. After being released by the Marlins, Marmol signed a minor league deal with the Reds, though he never pitched for Cincinnati on the MLB level and had an overall controversial tenure with the organization.


Cleveland’s bullpen has generally posted middle-of-the-pack bullpen numbers this season, though Marmol is probably seen as more of a project at this point than as someone who could provide immediate help to the Tribe’s relief corps. Marmol’s natural stuff is still so intriguing that there’s no harm for the Indians (once this deal is finalized) in seeing what he has in Triple-A.

Terry Talkin' about Corey Kluber, Francisco Lindor and Michael Brantley -- Terry Pluto

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- What's wrong with Corey Kluber?

The easy answer is that he misses catcher Yan Gomes. In 45 games with Gomes, Kluber has a 2.58 ERA. In 36 games with someone else, it's 4.66.

In his first two games this season, Kluber threw to Gomes -- and had a 2.63 ERA. His third game also was good: two runs in eight innings with batterymate Roberto Perez.

Yes, Gomes helps Kluber -- but the difference shouldn't be this drastic. I've heard some fans suggest Kluber just had one great year (18-9, 2.44 ERA in 2015), but he was a solid 11-5 with a 3.85 ERA in 2014. He has been a good to superb pitcher over the last two years. Now, he's 0-5 with a 5.04 ERA.

The Indians are studying everything about the 29-year-old Kluber, trying to figure out the problem. Here are some things they've discovered ... good and bad.

1. He says he's not hurt and he's throwing the same velocity (93 mph) as last season. Nor is his control that much worse than a year ago, a least in terms of walks.

2. We're not talking about a meltdown, which is what former Indian Justin Masterson is enduring. His average fastball was 92 mph with the Tribe during his 2013 All-Star season. It's now 87.1 with Boston. He's also walking nearly five batters per nine innings. Masterson is 2-1 with a 5.18 ERA, and may not remain in the rotation for long.

3. So the Indians aren't alarmed by Kluber's problems. Hitters do seem to be focusing on his fastball. Even a year ago, they batted .304 vs. his fastball. This season it's .316.

4. Kluber became a Cy Young Award winner because his curve was incredible in 2014. Batters were 19-of-209 (.091). This season, it's .194. He needs to throw more curves early in the count.

5. Is pressure a factor? Who knows? He signed a five-year, $38 million extension. Is he worried about living up the contract? There are expectations with being the leader of a staff on a team expected to contend but has so far been a disappointment. Once again, who knows?

6. Kluber started slowly last season (2-3, 4.14 ERA) in April. But in May, he was 4-0 with a 2.09 ERA. But his first two starts this month have been miserable.

7. He's had trouble with lefty hitters (.341) as opposed to righties (.239). Last year, it didn't matter. He may need to throw more breaking pitches to lefties. There are no simple answers. Kluber just seems in a rut. Early in the season, the Indians didn't score when he pitched. There just seems to be a few little things that are off -- nothing major.

8. There are only two former Cy Young Award winners who failed to win a game in their first seven starts in their next season. There's Frank Viola, who ended up 13-17 with a 3.66 ERA. He won the 1988 Cy Young Award in Minnesota. He was traded in the middle of 1989 to the Mets. He became a 20-game winner in 1990.

9. The other pitcher in this category is Zach Greinke, who was 10-14 with a 4.17 ERA for the Royals in 2010. He bounced back to become a consistent 15-game winner.

10. Robert Horne emailed to ask how former Tribe Cy Young Award winners performed the year after they won the award. C.C. Sabathia (2007 winner) was 17-10 with a 2.70 ERA for the Yankees. Cliff Lee (2008 winner) was 14-13 with a 3.22 ERA for the Phillies.

ABOUT FRANCISCO LINDOR

Heading into the weekend, Francisco Lindor was batting .158 (6-of-58) in his last 10 games at Class AAA Columbus. For the season, the prized prospect is batting .248 (.683 OPS) with a homer and 10 RBI.

The Indians believe the 21-year-old switch-hitter is putting too much pressure on himself. He knows shortstop Jose Ramirez is having an awful ordeal in Cleveland -- and the Indians could promote Lindor.

But Lindor is not hitting at all. Naturally, they are telling Lindor to relax ... his time will come, etc.

But he knows the door is open now. Ramirez entered the weekend batting .177 (.472 OPS). He looks utterly lost. Just as Lindor is pressing to impress and be promoted, Ramirez fears being sent back to Class AAA.

Both guys just have to get past these emotional issues.

Ramirez has been benched against left-handed pitchers, with Mike Aviles is his place. Ramirez is 1-of-23 vs. lefties. A switch-hitter, Ramirez hit .291 against lefties last season, when he hit .265 overall.

This is another problem the Tribe never saw coming -- both young players floundering at the same time. There have been some discussions about promoting Lindor, but how would that work with him struggling in the minors?

So they will wait a while, and see if someone can get hot and nail down the shortstop job.
Six swings and misses in 91 plate appearances. Brantley has struck out only three times.

ABOUT MICHAEL BRANTLEY

Because the Indians have been losing and he opened the season battling a cranky back, little has been said about Brantley. But the outfielder is now off to a sensational start.

Brantley entered the weekend hitting .337 (.935 OPS) with three homers and 15 RBI. The Indians have stats showing that he has swung and missed at pitches only six times all season. That's right, SIX swings and misses in 91 plate appearances. He has struck out only three times.

For years, Brantley has been my wife's favorite player -- long before he finished No. 3 in the 2014 MVP voting. He is such a classy athlete. He never complains about where he plays or appears in the batting order.

Last season, he established himself as the No. 3 hitter. Before that, he batted everywhere from leadoff to deep in the order. He has alternated between left and center fields. With Michael Bourn in a funk (.194), Brantley plays center against left-handed pitchers, left against righties.

As for benching Bourn against lefties, he isn't hitting anyone: .189 vs. lefties, .185 vs. righties.

The Indians have Brantley under contract through 2017, and have a team option on him ($11 million) for the 2018 season.

somewhere out there apparently there has been an article assessing the Tribe's defensive as again being especially offensive. Errors, I know, are not out of hand. So I assume the issue again is lack of range. What has anyone seen? I'd love to get Urshela up for third base along with and Lindor at short, but Giovanny is back on the Columbus DL.

Lindor has got over the offensive hump; he was 8-43 through April 22. 18-64 since is just under .300. that includes 5 doubles, so his SLG is an OKish .359; he's walked 10 times and struck out 12 in that stretch, for an OBP of 370.
He's made 4 errors; his Range Factor is 3.64, considerably lower than his previous seasons; I don't know a the range of good range factors to judge this

If the past two weeks are any indication, Kipnis could play a key part in helping the Indians turn their season around. When the second baseman walked into the clubhouse on April 26, he found his name in the leadoff spot of the Tribe's lineup. That was the first of a handful of changes recently made to the batting order by manager Terry Francona, who is doing what he can to squeeze more runs out of an offense that was slow out of the gate.

Last week, Francona moved former cleanup hitter Carlos Santana into the lineup's second spot.
"I do think that what we're doing makes sense," Francona said, "especially when guys are doing what they can do."

Before Kipnis took over for Michael Bourn as the regular leadoff man, the Indians were averaging 3.6 runs per game, which ranked 13th in the AL and 24th in the Majors. Since Francona made that lineup adjustment, Cleveland has churned out 5.4 runs per game through 14 contests, ranking second in the AL and fourth in baseball in that span.

While the sample size is small, the Indians have produced a .765 team OPS (fourth in the AL) since slotting Santana between Kipnis and Michael Brantley.

"It's great to have people on base," Brantley said. "They're doing a great job. It's new to all of us right now, so we're all trying to get used to it. At the same time, I know it's going to benefit the team. It's going to work out well."

In 14 games as the leadoff man since the lineup change, Kipnis has turned in a .356/.441/.627 slash line to go along with three steals, six strikeouts, eight walks, nine extra-base hits, 10 RBIs and 12 runs in 68 plate appearances. He has been pulling certain pitches with authority, while also picking spots to rifle balls to the opposite field.

It has been a hot stretch similar to June 2013, when Kipnis hit .419 to help seal a spot on his first All-Star team.

"Without jinxing it, I feel better than that," Kipnis said. "I found an approach and a swing that's working for me right now. We're putting in the time and a lot of work in the cages and are reaping the benefits of it out there."

Santana has not been nearly as hot since his move to the second spot, but the switch-hitting first baseman entered Monday leading the AL in walks (25) and ranked second in the Majors in pitches per plate appearance (4.37). His patience and on-base ability comes in front of Brantley, who is batting .340 and leads baseball with a 94.7 percent contact rate.

That early lineup combination can have a trickle-down effect for the cleanup spot, which currently includes Brandon Moss (team-high five home runs and 21 RBIs) against righties and Ryan Raburn (1.127 OPS versus left-handed pitching) against southpaws.

"Even if [Santana] isn't on base, he's going to see four or five pitches," Moss said, "and you're going to be able to sit there in the on-deck circle and get your timing and see what the guy is featuring. A lot of that goes unnoticed in baseball. Everybody wants to look at the batting average. Everybody wants to look at the RBIs and home runs.

"But a guy that can work the count like that and get on base and be that disciplined, it helps everybody."

The Indians are hoping the lineup changes lead to more wins.

"We're still capable of turning this thing around," Kipnis said. "We still have the time. We're not using, 'It's too early,' but we still have the time. It's still our goal to finish with a winning season and get into the playoffs, and I think we still can do it."