National Football League

The Aftermath: Three Takeaways from the Indians' 7-1 Win Over Minnesota

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Cleveland Indians beat the Minnesota Twins on Sunday at Target Field to win the season series.

Appropriately for the first Sunday of the NFL season, the Cleveland Indians put up seven runs on the Minnesota Twins to claim victory yesterday afternoon, a win that gave the Tribe a 10-9 advantage in the season series between the two clubs. The touchdown put up was spurred by a three-run home run from Carlos Santana and a sloppy Minnesota defense that committed four errors.

Corey Kluber continued his second half dominance, going seven strong innings to pick up his 16th win of the season and helping the Indians to capitalize on a loss by Detroit earlier in the day to run their lead in the American League Central Division to seven full games.

Twins starter Jose Berrios, a promising rookie, showed flashes of talent but failed to command both his pitches and his pickoff attempts to first base, allowing five runs, three earned, in just 2.2 innings of work in the loss.

For the first game in quite some time, the Tribe cashed in a few situations with runners in scoring position, going for 5-for-17 in those spots after a 5-for-20 showing in the first two games of the series. Tyler Naquin, Michael Martinez, and Roberto Perez all drove in runs as the bottom of the order got some production.

Cleveland now heads to Chicago for a four-game series against the White Sox before returning to Progressive Field for the final homestand of the season on Friday. With just 20 games remaining, the Indians hold their postseason firmly in their own hands.

#CyKluber

We keep writing the same headline seemingly every time he pitches, but until Kluber gives us a reason to change it, we’re sticking with what works. For the eighth time in the last nine starts for the Tribe ace, the team has ended up in the win column.

Kluber worked seven innings of one-run, four-hit ball on Sunday afternoon, striking out 10 and giving the bullpen a much-deserved breather after having tossed 10 innings in the past two games. Since the all-star break, the 30-year old right-hander is 6-1 with a 2.36 earned run average, 1.092 WHIP, and 10 strikeouts per nine innings, while holding the opposition to a .215 batting average and an OPS+ of just 83.

With all of the turmoil and struggling that has surrounded Kluber in the rotation in the second half of the season, he just keeps taking the ball every fifth day and giving his team a chance to win the ballgame. Much as in his 2014 Cy Young award-winning season, he is peaking down the stretch, and that means nothing but good things for Cleveland as it eyes a playoff run.

#TyleROY

Let’s keep the hashtag theme going and talk about the adjustments Tyler Naquin seems to be making. After a scorching start that had him hitting well above the .300 mark and with an OPS that rivaled David Ortiz for most of the season, the Indians’ Rookie of the Year candidate has come back down to earth over the course of the past month.

But Naquin is showing that he’s willing to learn from his struggles and make adjustments. His patience and plate discipline in recent games has appeared to be improved, though the stats maybe don’t bear that out. In his past 10 games, he’s just 8-for-26, and his strikeout rate remains high.

Regardless, one plate appearance on Sunday made it seem like the light was going off. In the third inning against Minnesota lefty Pat Dean, Naquin battled through a 12-pitch at-bat, fouling off plenty of quality pitches to stay alive before finally stroking a single back up the middle. That came with two outs and a runner at second base, making it a 5-0 game and essentially putting it out of reach. Small, perhaps. But it could be just what Naquin needs.

Magic #

Not a hashtag, but a finish line. Cleveland’s win coupled with Detroit’s loss makes the Indians’ magic number to clinch the Central 14 with 20 games left to play. If you’re scoring at home, that’s a pretty sizeable mountain the Tigers would need to scale. Not impossible, but damn close.

As MLB.com beat writer Jordan Bastian pointed out after Sunday’s win, if the Tribe just plays .500 baseball through those 20 games, Detroit would need to be almost flawless to catch them.

Of course, the Indians and Tigers will hook up seven more times over the next few weeks, and crazier things have happened in baseball history. But right now, Cleveland is sitting pretty, and if the club handles its business, even the Motor City won’t have the horsepower to catch them.