Written by Jonathan Knight

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INTERESTING CONNECTIONS: Sandy Alomar became the first Tribe manager to win his first game since Charlie Manuel directed the Indians to a 4-1 win in Baltimore on opening day of the 2000 season - ironically defeating the man he replaced, Mike Hargrove. Connecting the dots even further, Hargrove was the last interim Tribe manager to win his first game - a 2-0 triumph over Milwaukee on July 6, 1991. And the Tribe’s starting catcher that day was Sandy Alomar.

ADDING TO THE 90 CLUB: The Indians’ 94 losses for the season marks their highest defeat tally since losing 97 in 2009. It’s the third time in four years they’ve lost more than 90 games.

ALL-TIME TOTALS: The Indians’ all-time record against the Royals jumped to 303-288, while their mark against the White Sox dropped to 1,000-1,046.

FOUR DIGITS: Tuesday night’s victory marked the Indians’ 1,000th all-time over the White Sox. Chicago joins Detroit and Boston as the only teams the Tribe has defeated 1,000 times.

OCTOBER STRUGGLES: Dropping two of three to the White Sox continued the Indians’ recent regular-season October struggles. Excluding the playoff games of 2007 (when the Tribe went 6-5), the Indians hold a record of 4-14 in October over the past eight years.

WINNING CLOSE: The Indians finished the season with a record of 24-12 in one-run games.

BETTER THAN AVERAGE JOE: With another scoreless inning on Tuesday, Joe Smith wrapped up a quietly impressive season. He didn’t allow a run in 18 of his last 19 appearances and dropped his season ERA to 2.96. The highest point his ERA reached this season was 3.60 in mid-April.

TURNABOUT: The Royals finished with a better overall record than the Indians for the first time since 2003.

NO FREE PASSES: Indians pitchers didn’t walk a batter in Friday night’s win over Kansas City.

GOOSE-EGGED AGAIN: Wednesday marked the 12th time this season the Indians were shut out - all occurring over the Tribe’s last 106 games.

LONG DRY SPELL: Friday night’s win marked the Tribe’s first three-game winning streak since July 3-5.

A CASE OF THE MONDAYS: Monday’s loss to the White Sox secured Thursday as the only day of the week in which the Indians held a winning record this season. They finished 11-7 on Thursdays and 9-9 on Mondays.

DOMINATING: The Indians collected 20 more hits and 13 more walks than the Royals last weekend. Yet for all of their offensive heroics, the Tribe hit just one home run in the series.

LOSING IT FAST: The Indians’ bullpen allowed more runs in Monday’s loss to Chicago than it did in the entire Kansas City series over the weekend.

COULD’VE BEEN EVEN BETTER: Though the Indians scored 29 runs in the Kansas City series, they left a whopping 41 runners on base.

DOUBLE-DIGIT CONTRAST: Sunday marked the eighth time this season the Tribe scored 10 or more runs in a game, with four of them coming against Kansas City. By contrast, Monday marked the 16th time this season the Indians had allowed 10 or more runs in a game, with four of those coming against the White Sox.

SUNDAY SLAMMIN’: Over their last four Sundays, the Indians averaged 11 runs per game.

LIGHTING UP KC: Asdrubal Cabrera’s four RBI on Sunday was his highest tally in a game since Aug. 27 of last season, when he knocked in four, also against the Royals.

CONTRAST: The Royals’ starting pitchers combined to post a 14.89 ERA last weekend. Meanwhile, Tribe relievers allowed only three earned runs in 16.1 innings pitched for a 1.65 ERA.

IN THE ZONE: Lonnie Chisenhall was on fire in the Kansas City series, hitting .400 (6 for 15) with two runs scored, two doubles, two walks, and two RBI.

EXTRA BASEBALL: The Indians finished 5-8 in extra innings for the season.

BAD MEMORIES: Saturday night’s marathon was the Indians’ longest game since the 16-inning loss to Toronto on opening day.

GOMEZ SINKING: In his last three starts, Jeanmar Gomez failed to last longer than four innings. In those three games, he gave up 15 earned runs in 10 innings.

THREE AND OUT: Friday night was another in the gradually increasing number of occasions in which the Indians winning games in which their opponent scores more than three runs. They now stand at 17-84 on the year in these games, though they won six of those games in the month of September.

A YEAR AGO: After 162 games in 2011, the Indians finished 80-82, second place in the AL Central, 15 games behind Detroit.

 

PROGRESS REPORT: 

The Indians averaged 4.12 runs per game and allowed 5.22.

Runs scored: 667 (13th in AL)

Batting average: .251 (9th in AL)

Slugging percentage: .381 (13th in AL)

On-base percentage: .324 (6th in AL)

OPS average: .705 (13th in AL)

Walks: 555 (3rd in AL)

Stolen bases: 110 (7th in AL)

Strikeouts: 1,087 (3rd-fewest in AL)

With runners in scoring position: .239 (326 for 1,367)

 

Runs allowed: 845 (most in AL)

Team ERA: 4.79 (last in AL)

Walks allowed: 543 (2nd-fewest in AL)

Strikeouts: 1,086 (2nd-fewest in AL)

Opponents with runners in scoring position: .290 (427 for 1,474)

Errors: 96 (5th-fewest in AL)

 

STARTING PITCHERS:

48-77, 5.28 ERA

(915.1 IP, 537 ER)

 

RELIEF PITCHERS:

20-17, 43 saves, 9 blown saves, 3.85 ERA

(531 IP, 227 ER)

 

INDIANS’ OVERALL RECORD IN GAMES STARTED BY:

Masterson 15-19 (18 quality starts)

Jimenez 12-19 (13 quality starts)

Lowe 9-12 (13 quality starts)

McAllister 10-12 (11 quality starts)

Tomlin 8-8 (7 quality starts)

Gomez 8-9 (4 quality starts)

Kluber 3-9 (5 quality starts)

Huff 2-2 (1 quality starts)

Seddon 0-2 (1 quality start)

Hernandez 0-3 (0 quality starts)

 

INDIANS’ RECORD WHEN GETTING QUALITY START: 53-20

INDIANS’ RECORD WHEN NOT GETTING QUALITY START: 15-74

 

INDIANS’ RECORD BY UNIFORM:

White Script “Indians”: 19-22

Blue Script “Indians”: 20-27

Gray Block “Cleveland”: 18-28

Creamy white home alternate: 11-17

 

INDIANS’ RECORD BY CAP:

Chief Wahoo Cap: 38-49

Block C Blue Cap: 18-28

Block C Red Cap: 10-17

Red, White & Blue Block C Red Cap: 1-0

Silver Chief Wahoo Cap: 1-0

 

INDIANS’ RECORD BY DAY OF THE WEEK:

Sunday: 9-17

Monday: 9-9

Tuesday: 11-13

Wednesday: 9-16

Thursday: 11-7

Friday: 11-14

Saturday: 8-18

 

ATTENDANCE WATCH: The Indians are averaging 19,798 fans per home game - 13th in the AL.

 

KANSAS CITY SERIES BY THE NUMBERS:

The Indians outscored the Royals, 29-15. The Royals committed four errors and the Indians committed one. Two of the Indians’ runs were unearned.

 

Overall Hitting

Kansas City 28 for 122 (.230), 7 walks (.271 on-base percentage)

Cleveland 48 for 135 (.356), 20 walks, 4 HBP (.453 on-base percentage)

 

With Runners in Scoring Position

Kansas City 9 for 18 (.500), 18 left on base

Cleveland 19 for 58 (.328), 41 left on base

 

Extra-Base Hits

Kansas City 8 (3 HR)

Cleveland 11 (1 HR)

 

Stolen Bases

Kansas City 1 (1 caught stealing, 1 pickoff)

Cleveland 5

 

Overall Pitching

Kansas City 30 IP, 48 H, 20 BB, 27 SO, 27 ER, 8.10 ERA

Cleveland 32 IP, 28 H, 7 BB, 19 SO, 15 ER, 4.22 ERA

 

Starting Pitchers

Kansas City 0-2; 9.2 IP, 20 H, 8 BB, 10 SO, 16 ER, 14.89 ERA

Cleveland 2-0; 15.2 IP, 20 H, 4 BB, 9 SO, 12 ER, 6.89 ERA

 

Relief Pitchers

Kansas City 1-0, 1 save; 20.1 IP, 28 H, 12 BB, 17 SO, 11 ER, 4.87 ERA 

Cleveland 0-1, 1 save; 16.1 IP, 8 H, 3 BB, 10 SO, 3 ER, 1.65 ERA

 

CHICAGO SERIES BY THE NUMBERS:

The White Sox outscored the Indians, 23-4. The Indians committed three errors and the White Sox committed one. Four of Chicago’s runs were unearned.

 

Overall Hitting

Chicago 40 for 127 (.315), 11 walks, 1 HBP (.374 on-base percentage)

Cleveland 15 for 101 (.149), 5 walks, 1 HBP (.196 on-base percentage)

 

With Runners in Scoring Position

Chicago 11 for 34 (.324), 26 left on base 

Cleveland 2 for 11 (.182), 15 left on base

 

Extra-Base Hits

Chicago 9 (7 HR)

Cleveland 5 (2 HR)

 

Stolen Bases

Chicago 4

Cleveland 0

 

Overall Pitching

Chicago 29.2 IP, 15 H, 5 BB, 31 SO, 4 ER, 1.21 ERA

Cleveland 30 IP, 40 H, 11 BB, 28 SO, 19 ER, 5.70 ERA

 

Starting Pitchers

Chicago 2-0; 22 IP, 7 H, 4 BB, 24 SO, 3 ER, 1.23 ERA

Cleveland 0-2; 16.1 IP, 18 H, 5 BB, 13 SO, 8 ER, 4.41 ERA

 

Relief Pitchers

Chicago 0-1; 7.2 IP, 8 H, 1 BB, 9 SO, 1 ER, 1.17 ERA 

Cleveland 1-0; 13.2 IP, 22 H, 6 BB, 15 SO, 11 ER, 7.24 ERA

 

UP NEXT: 

at Toronto Blue Jays [73-89]

(Tuesday, April 2 7:07 p.m.; Wednesday, April 3 7:07 p.m.; Thursday, April 4 7:07 p.m.)

This year: Blue Jays won season series, 4-2

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