Michael Bourn has admitted the Cleveland Indians need to find a solution to their misfiring offense if they are going to maintain their march for a place in the play-offs. With the regular season reaching its climax, the Indians know that time is running out for them to ensure they repeat last year’s feat of making the postseason. With the division and Wild Card places still up for grabs, Cleveland’s recent 4-3 defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Twins came at a time of the year when the Indians can ill-afford to slip-up.
While the loss was a concern to the Indians, the fact that they out-hit the Twins 9-5 without coming away with the win will have given the Cleveland management further food for thought. Now into the final 20 games of the regular season, the Indians will be well aware they need to be much more clinical in their offense if they are going to make it into the postseason. With six games against the struggling Twins and four against an Astros side who are preparing for another 90-loss campaign left in the regular season, Indians fans will know the importance of beating the weaker teams if they are going to rack up enough wins between now and the end of the season to make the play-offs.
The Tribe’s offense has proved a plaguing issue for much of the past couple of months – with the offensive line scoring more than four runs in just three of the last 19 games. The Indians’ starting pitchers have done their job with a 2.22 ERA in the last month, but the misfiring batters have stopped the franchise from so far replicating the incredible run they produced to close out last season.
After leaving it late again last season, Cleveland recorded a sensational 21-6 run-in throughout September to put them right back in the play-off mix, including a 10-game winning streak to close out the season and ensure they would be appearing in the postseason. The way things have been going, there is a chance it might require another remarkable run of form if the Indians are to have any shot at securing a play-off berth this year. It would be a huge shame if they were to slip out of contention and surrender a great chance at achieving something special this year.
Outfielder Bourn has placed the blame on the door of the offence, admitting he is at a loss to explain the lack of form during the past few months but making it clear the team were determined to rediscover their spark as soon as possible.
“It’s real frustrating. We know what’s at stake. We need to win games like that (the Twins loss) to stay in the standings. The more we lose, the more we fall behind. We put ourselves in a deeper hole,” said the 31-year-old.
“Our pitching has been lights out. That’s the No. 1 thing that we’ve had — starting and bullpen. We just haven’t been able to do it all collectively. We might do something one inning with two people, or somebody might do it in another inning. But, collectively, we haven’t been scoring. Early on, we were scoring five, six runs a game, but we probably weren’t pitching as good. If both of them aren’t doing at the same time, then it’s almost worthless.”
Cleveland’s betting odds have slowly drifted over the past month in regards to progressing to the play-offs and ultimately achieving World Series glory, but there are still plenty who believe the Indians will be able to make it to the postseason. The Tribe definitely can’t afford to drop points to the likes of Minnesota again though, and solving the offensive problems seems to be critical to any hopes the Indians have of extending their season past these final few games.
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