The Indians celebrate the first of Carlos Santana’s two home runs, en route to a 6-2 victory over the Reds Monday night.

 

 

 

After the disastrous road trip to the bay area, I joked that maybe the Indians are just going to switch things up in the second half.  Instead of a strong record on the road, and a sub-par record at home, they’d flip the script for the remainder of the season.  While we have another 64 games to see if that comes true, so far the Indians are off to a hot start at home in the second half.  Their 6-2 win over the Reds Monday night marked their fourth straight win at home; if you go back to the Tigers series just before the break, the Indians have now won 6 of their last 7 at home.

Josh Tomlin had his third consecutive strong start in a row, as he surrendered 2 ER on 4 hits over 6 innings, striking out 6.  In fact, all 6 of those strikeouts came to consecutive batters between the second to fourth innings.  He gave up 2 solo home runs, but that’s really the price of doing business when it comes to Tomlin.  While his 19 home runs surrendered this season seem like a lot, he’s actually tied for 22nd among Major League pitchers in terms of homers allowed.  Reds’ pitcher Tim Adleman has even given up more – after tonight’s game he stands at 23.

And speaking of home runs that Adleman surrendered, Carlos Santana homered off of him in the 7th inning from the left side of the plate, then hit one off of Tony Cingrani in the 8th inning from the right side of the plate.  While Santana has struggled some this year, he has hit 6 homers from each side of the plate after Monday night’s game.  This is interesting when you consider that of Santana’s 34 home runs in 2016, 30 came from the left side of the plate, and just 4 from the right side of the plate.  The split in 2015 was similar to that of 2016; of Santana’s 19 home runs, 15 came from the left side of the plate, and just 4 from the right side.  It’s not even the end of July, and Santana has already surpassed his home run totals from the right side of the plate from the prior two seasons.

It was another solid night for the Indians offense overall, as they jumped on the board in the first with a 1-0 lead.  While the Reds managed to tie it up in the 5th inning, the Indians came right back in the bottom of the inning and scored two off of a Roberto Perez double and a Bradley Zimmer sacrifice fly.  The only person who really seemed baffled tonight was Jose Ramirez, who went just 1 for 16 against the Reds this season.  They’ve really been one of the few teams that could get him out consistently this season.

The Indians will now start a 3-game series with the Angels before heading out on the road for a weekend series in Chicago.  There may be a roster move tomorrow, since Austin Jackson is very close to returning from the disabled list.  The Indians have a few options – they could send Geovanny Urshela back to the minors, or they could send a bullpen pitcher.  They could also opt to send Abraham Almonte down, since he has another option (although as a switch-hitter, he has value at the major league level).  Regardless of roster moves, hopefully the Indians continue to benefit from some home cooking.

1 Trackback or Pingback