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It has been a season full of ups and downs for the Cleveland Indians, but the always inconsistent “Tribe” appear to be on the incline once again. The team went 4-2 this week with four combined wins against the Texas Rangers and Washington Nationals.

Jason Kipnis was a big reason why the Indians excelled and the second basemen was honored with the MLB‘s AL Player of the Week Award for the first time in his career. Even better, Cleveland was the home to two players of the week in one as Cory Kluber split the award with Kipnis for his efforts on the mound. While the Kluber production was unexpected, it’s Kipnis who is paid to reel in such honors.

In fact, Cleveland can argue that Kipnis has been the MVP for its club thus far — in the 25 games that Kipnis has scored a run the Indians are 19-6.

While his job is to set the table for the big-time sluggers in the middle of the order,  it just goes to show how influential Kipnis is to his team’s success. With 15 stolen bases this season Kipnis is starting to show the American League just how speedy he can be. In addition, the nine home runs that the Indians’ second baseman has drilled puts him on pace for a rather productive season — keep in mind that Kipnis only hit 14 dingers last year and seven the year before.

Moving forward, Cleveland’s success is going to hinge on what Michael Bourn and Kipnis are doing at the top of the lineup. If the dynamic duo can both reaching base at a rapid pace, then the bombers later in the lineup will be able to drive them in.

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He’s already struck out batters at a higher rate than Stephen Strasburg while walking fewer batters, and he’s posted a lower FIP too, even if his ERA is a bit higher.

On Sunday, Corey Kluber got a win over the Washington Nationals phenom to boot.

Now, this is not to say that the Cleveland Indians‘ second-year starter is necessarily better than the once-in-a-decade flamethrower from the nation’s capital, of course, but if you were to look at the numbers that both have put up over the season, perhaps you’d be a little surprised at just how well the unheralded Kluber is doing in 2013.

In their clash over the weekend, though, it wasn’t even close.

To be fair, Strasburg was just coming off the DL for his start, but while the expectant annual Cy Young candidate was out of the game after five innings, having allowed a run on a hit and four walks, it was Kluber who was absolutely … well, Strasburg-ian.

The Tribe’s righty simply dominated the Nationals, throwing eight innings of shutout ball, allowing seven hits, no walks, while striking out a whopping eight batters. Outside of a perilous seventh seventh inning where he saw the bases loaded with no outs and a couple of error-fueled first-and-third situations, Kluber was never really too threatened; and besides, you already know how those high-leverage situations ended.

With the 2-0 win, the 27-year-old moved one game ahead of .500 at 5-4 on his season, one that has seen him come from essentially nowhere to become the team’s second-most successful starter.

It’s hard to argue with the counting numbers: including Sunday five out of his last seven starts have been quality starts, and he’s allowed just one walk or less in all but one of then. Throw in a 9.42 K/9 over that 43-inning span along with consecutive eight-inning outings, and what the Indians have here might be a legitimate breakout story.

But is it one that will have a happy ending?

Well, if you’re going by his improved ability to attack batters (62.5 percent first strikes to 56.9 in 2012) and his slightly bumped-up swinging strike rate (11 percent to 10.7), you’ll see that this is a pitcher who has made legitimate improvements and is going after batters with his 92.6 mph fastball more (51.2 percent to 43.6), something that batters haven’t quite caught up to.

His real calling card, though, is the vastly improved control at 1.65 BB/9 to last seasons, 2.57, and considering that he hasn’t really been lucky (the .328 BABIP is about right given the 25 percent line drive rate), and you know, maybe this Cinderella story for the Indians might just be getting started.

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When a team goes through an extended period of losing games like the Cleveland Indians did recently, losing several games in the division race to the American League Central leading Detroit Tigers in the process, there are a couple of options of how to handle it. The Indians have apparently chosen the correct way because they have won three straight since the losing streak ended. I think it all comes down to a team getting back to the basics of playing baseball. The Indians should keep their heads down and focus on their play in order to win as many games as they can.

Scoreboard watching can be a very tempting pastime for any Major League Baseball team but that does a team in the Indians position a serious disservice. All it would do to focus on how many games they are behind the Tigers now is remind them of their losing stretch. They don’t need to be focusing on anything that isn’t their current opponent but they most certainly don’t need to think about the losing streak.

They have played hardnosed baseball for the last few games which is not only the best way to win games; it is also the only real way to end a losing streak. Sure a team can win a game by accident here and there but the losing ways will continue until the way the team is playing changes. Sometimes that means losing another game or two before things really straighten out. But when that streak finally does snap for the right reasons, you can tell because instantly the team is having fun again and winning again.

When they won with a walk-off infield single you just knew that things were finally going their way. That doesn’t mean that they will win all of their games of course. They have two seriously good pitchers to face Saturday and Sunday in the Washington Nationals’ Jordan Zimmermann and Stephen Strasburg. The Indians could take both games in their current way of playing but even if they don’t, as long as their focus remains, they won’t hit another long losing skid for a while.

David Miller is a Senior Writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google₊.

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After taking two of three games from the Colorado Rockies, the Washington Nationals now head to Cleveland to open a three-game series with the Cleveland Indians. Tonight’s pitching matchup may be the best one available around the MLB.

For the Nationals, they’ll be sending Gio Gonzalez to the mound to take on the Indians’ Justin Masterson. Both pitchers have been very efficient and effective for their ball clubs.

Gonzalez enters tonight with a 3-3 record and an ERA of 3.59 this season. It has been a bit of a rough go for the left-hander this season, as run support has been hard to come by when he’s pitching. In his last six starts, Gonzalez suffered a 6-2 loss after giving up four runs to the Baltimore Orioles and then five no-decisions.

In the other team’s dugout, Masterson is quickly becoming one of the American Leagues’ best pitchers. He enters tonight with a 8-5 record and an ERA of 3.68. While his last two outings both ended in losses and he has an ERA of 7.43 this month, Masterson certainly feels right at home when he’s pitching in Cleveland. In seven starts at home this season, Masterson has a record of 5-1.

Interestingly enough, Gonzalez dominated the Indians when he pitched for the Oakland Athletics. In six career games against the Indians — all with Oakland – he has a 5-0 record with a 0.72 ERA and has won all four starts in Cleveland. While Gonzalez hasn’t be as show-stopping as last season, pitching against a team he used to dominate has to make him relaxed and ready for tonight’s start.

Brian Skinnell is an MLB and NFL writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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There were a lot of expectations put on Jason Kipnis when the 2013 season arrived.

It hasn’t been the best of years for Kipnis and the Cleveland Indians, but it appears he is turning things around with six hits in his last three games and a seven-game hitting streak. If Cleveland wants to have a chance at the playoffs, they are going to need him to continually improve.

He was hitting .258 going into play on Thursday and while his career average is .259, the team has to hope that he can become a much better hitter in time. Kipnis has been in Cleveland for long enough now to have all of the jitters out of his system. We should be seeing a hitter with an average around .280 or .290 instead of where he is at. The Indians have been struggling in recent weeks and are now under the .500 mark again.

This is a year that I thought Cleveland could finish with about 84 wins. They could still do that, but for it for happen, they have to get  more out of Kipnis. He has to become a left-handed hitter that other teams fear instead of not having to worry about.

We will have to see if his 14 stolen bases helps his cause because teams aren’t going to want to walk him for the fear that he could steal second. Speed is one of those qualities that make Kipnis the player that he is. It’s just time for him to take it to a whole new level for the Indians.

Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports, like his Facebook page or add him to your network on Google.

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Corey Kluber is Cleveland’s favorite son today. Well, the Cleveland Indians that is. He put the Indians on his back or on his pitching arm actually, and took care of business by shutting down the Texas Rangers and ending the eight game losing streak of the Indians. Before everyone shouts for joy let us take a look back and see what damage was done over the losing streak.

The last time they won a game before last night was June 1. On that day the Indians were only one half game behind the Detroit Tigers. Now with the streak finally over they lost five games total and are 5.5 games back. Luckily for them, they are still in second place but the Kansas City Royals have been on the move over the same stretch of games and are threatening to overtake them for the second spot.

All in all they should feel pretty good about their current spot after such a long losing streak. After all an eight game losing streak in April is one thing but in June it means a lot more. As the season goes on, losing streaks mean more. For now the Indians are still in second place and therefore still well in contention. Without a doubt the extended losing streak was costly. The best medicine for a long losing streak of course is a long winning streak. They’ll try to get that going now.

David Miller is a Senior Writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google₊.

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Every since Justin Masterson‘s days in MLB began, he has been a guy who is penciled in as a contender for the AL Cy Young Award every season. The Cleveland Indians‘ ace has been leaps and bounds better in 2013, but Cleveland must understand that its prime-time pitcher is fading more and more each day.

For example, in his last two starts, Masterson has allowed a combined total of 11 earned runs — no wonder the Indians have dropped eight in a row.

It’s no secret that the AL Central is a weak division, but the Indians’ pitching staff has got to be better if the club hopes to be in contention come the end of the season. The success of the team begins and ends with Masterson — despite fanning over 95 batters in 2013 already, hitters are starting to rip into the Masterson mystique.

The New York Yankees‘ offense pelted Masterson in his second-to-last outing as the Indians’ starter was shelled for seven earned runs. Unfortunately, this drubbing has apparently left a bad taste in the mouth of Masterson who followed up his start against the Yankees with a second straight loss to the Detroit Tigers. The aforementioned teams know how to score on even the most potent pitchers, so a lot of people have taken Masterson’s last two starts with a grain of salt.

However, this is a path that the Indians’ ace goes down each and every year. Maybe it’s his larger build, but Masterson has been mightily inconsistent throughout his brief major league career. As the summer months wear on, Cleveland has to be weary about its number-one starter losing his flare.

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When John McDonald was placed on the 15-day disabled list by the Pittsburgh Pirates, I had a feeling (and hope) that his days in the black and gold uniform were over. The Pirates have traded him to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for cash or a player to be named later.

I really don’t care what they acquired in exchange for him, though; just having him off the roster is an upgrade for the Pirates. Using a bench spot on McDonald was a huge waste. With McDonald gone, it appears infielder Jordy Mercer is going to stay with the Pirates for the rest of this season and probably for a long time after the season. Pirates general manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle had said that they would prefer to have Mercer play in Triple-A so he could start everyday, but now it appears they are content with having him as the first infielder off the bench.

McDonald didn’t have many plate appearances with the Pirates this season, 35 to be exact.You probably don’t even remember any of them because they were very boring and unproductive. He appeared in only 16 games, hitting for a .065/.171/.097 triple-slash line with one double and one RBI. One of his best at-bats resulted in a hit-by-pitch which shows just how unproductive the veteran infielder was for the Pirates.

Mike DiMauro of The New London Day first reported the transaction, saying that the deal was likely made as a result of Indians starting shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera getting injured.

https://twitter.com/BCgenius/status/344185811803176961

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For a good month-plus of the 2013 MLB season, Mark Reynolds look nothing like himself — and the Cleveland Indians could not be any more pleased.

Riding a .309 BABIP despite a rather meager 15.9 percent line drive rate, the corner infielder had established himself as on one of the league’s best comeback stories, bouncing back from his below-replacement level performance in 2012 (-0.1 fWAR) with a brilliant .301/.368/.651 triple-slash through his first 95 PA, hitting eight homers in the process.

By the time he’d carried that elite 1.000-plus OPS into May with three more homers through the month’s first eight games, it’d look like the Indians got themselves a too-good-to-be true bargain at just $6 million.

Well, that is, until it actually turned out to be too good to be true.

As you’re probably able to tell from Reynolds’ current .239/.322/.459 triple-slash line, baseball hasn’t exactly been kind to the veteran since he topped out. With his BABIP coming back down to earth to .270 and with him hitting fewer fly balls (39.7 percent in May vs. 46 in April), the 29-year-old batted just .218 over the second month of the season.

More importantly, however, is that his power has diminished significantly (which was always going to happen at long as he slugged .651 at one point, I suppose), hitting just a pair of homers and one double since May 9.

Including his latest 0-for-3 performance on Sunday against the Detroit Tigers, Reynolds has found himself in a nine-game homerless drought, the second-longest stretch he’s had of this type for the season. That’s not looking like it’s going to turn around any time soon, as his BABIP has plummeted thanks to a weak 15.4 percent line drive rate and a 61.5 ground ball rate.

Not only that, but he’s practically swinging himself into oblivion in June, recording multiple strikeouts in five out of seven games, good for a whopping 42.9 percent strikeout rate to go along with his .120/.214/.120 line for the month thus far.

In other words, Mark Reynolds is his good ol’ three-outcome self again. Except, well, that’s not very good news for the suddenly struggling Indians offense at all.

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The Cleveland Indians are one of the more talented all around teams in Major League Baseball but you wouldn’t know it from the result of their games of late. Their loss on Sunday ran their losing streak to seven games and further damaged their standing in the American League Central behind the Detroit Tigers. It isn’t easy to put your finger on what the problem is in such a situation but Terry Francona and the Indians staff has their work cut out for them. This streak needs to end in favor of about a five game winning streak right away.

As bad as things have been, it has only been that bad for about a week. On June 1 the Indians were 30 – 25 and were 0.5 games behind the Tigers for first place. After today, June 9, they are 30 – 32 and 5.5 games behind the Tigers. Did I mention that the last few games of that losing streak was a series sweep at the hands of the Tigers? Yeah, that’s not the best way to gain ground to say the least. Also notice that in June the number to the left, the win column, hasn’t changed. That’s kind of a problem.

As much as the Indians would probably love to face the worst team in the majors right now, the Texas Rangers are their next task. They have led the AL West most of the season and are far from a pushover. Whatever is going wrong for the Indians, it is causing the wheels to fall off. The Tigers aren’t winning every single game or the damage would be even worse than it is. Actually they are still in second place just barely in front of the Kansas City Royals.

If the Indians cannot get this situation fixed soon so that the bad first week of June doesn’t turn into a pattern for the entire month, their playoff hopes will be badly damaged by the end of the month.

David Miller is a Senior Writer for RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google₊.