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Is there currently a more sympathetic figure in baseball than Cleveland Indians‘ ace Corey Kluber?
Last year’s AL Cy Young Award winner has had some struggles early on this season, but is still putting forth quality starts more often than not. He made history last week against the St. Louis Cardinals when he struck out 18 and allowed one hit in eight innings. In his follow up appearance last night against the Chicago White Sox, he K’d another 12, giving him a combined 30 strikeouts in his last two starts.
You’d think a night with that many strikeouts and just one earned run would result in a win for Kluber. Of course, you’d be dead wrong.
Despite Kluber’s dominating performance, the Indians couldn’t offer much support. The team only generated one run on a sac-fly, and eventually lost 2-1 in extra innings. Kluber gave Cleveland everything he could on his end, but nothing was given in return.
What’s especially sad is the fact you could take the aforementioned recap and utilize it to describe a good deal of Kluber’s starts this year. If the Indians receive anything remotely solid from their ace, they’ll be lucky to reward him with anything more than two runs in support. It’s the main reason why Kluber only has one win to his name this year, and it’s getting more frustrating by the game.
Now, Kluber hasn’t been without flaw this season. After three good starts to open the year — all losses, of course — he hit rocky waters. He allowed a combined 19 runs in four consecutive games, and it appeared as though he may have lost the stuff which made him practically untouchable last year.
However, his last two starts against the Cardinals and White Sox seem to show Kluber can, and possibly has gotten back on track. At the same time, while Kluber is showing he can continue being the star pitcher Cleveland needs, the offense continues putting up duds any time he’s on the mound.
Notorious for not really showing any sort of emotion, Kluber doesn’t appear to be letting this lack of support bother him. After yet another letdown from his teammates last night, he continued using typical “we’re all frustrated” responses in the clubhouse. That said, if he were to go off on any sort of tirade, would you blame him?
Seriously, what else does he have to do? He’s quieted the bats of one of the best teams in baseball (St. Louis) and a team riding a hot streak (Chicago) in his last two starts. And yet, he’s received three combined runs of support for his trouble.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the slump he endured earlier this year was caused by the stress of this whole situation. He pretty much knows he has to be absolutely perfect on the mound in order to possibly win. If he struggles even a bit, you pretty much have to start penciling in another loss on his record before the game even ends. You can’t tell me that wouldn’t cause plenty of anxiety for any pitcher, much less the reigning Cy Young winner.
Despite some rough outings, Kluber can at least hold his head high when it comes to his performance so far this year. His ERA is still a respectable 3.79, and he’s averaging a little over eleven strikeouts per nine innings. Any other situation, and he might have a much better record to show for himself.
But this isn’t the case, and it’s all thanks to the alarmingly terrible offense he receives from his teammates. Each one of them has helped to take one of the game’s best pitchers and saddle him with a record he hardly deserves. I doubt they’re actively trying to lose when Kluber’s out there, but it sure looks like that’s what’s happening.
There are a lot of things going wrong for the Indians right now, none worse than how badly they play when their ace takes the mound. Fixing this will hardly rocket Cleveland back near the top of their division. At the very least, though, it would help to give a great player the support he turly deserves.
That the Indians can’t do this right now is one of the saddest story-lines from a continuously ugly season.
Casey Drottar is the Cleveland Beat Writer for www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter or “Like” him on Facebook
