The Cleveland Indians have relied on their pitching to warm their spirits while waiting for their bats to heat up.
The Indians, in fact, have posted a franchise-record 88 strikeouts over their first eight games of the season, with 40 coming in the first three contests against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Cleveland will look for more of the same on Sunday afternoon when it attempts to complete a four-game sweep of visiting Toronto.
The Blue Jays struck out 95 times in their first 10 contests — including 13 in Saturday’s 7-2 setback.
While Carlos Carrasco was responsible for a dozen of those on Saturday, the Indians will send right-hander Mike Clevinger (0-0, 0.00 ERA) to the mound for the series finale after he recorded a career-high 12 strikeouts in his last outing.
Clevinger allowed just one hit in seven innings versus the Chicago White Sox on Monday. The bullpen was unable to hold the slim one-run lead upon his exit before the Indians rallied for four runs in the eighth inning to pull out the 5-3 win.
“Clev made a huge jump last year, and it wouldn’t shock me if he finds a way to make another jump this year, just because he’s such a hard worker and he cares about his craft,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said.
Clevinger, who set career highs with 13 wins, 207 strikeouts and 200 innings last season, owns a 1-1 mark with a 5.56 ERA and 17 strikeouts in three career appearances (11 1/3 innings) versus the Blue Jays. The 28-year-old Clevinger has limited Toronto batters to a 3-for-20 effort at the plate, although Justin Smoak is 2-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs against him.
Carlos Santana has been doing well in a much bigger sample size. Santana, who is 12-for-27 on the season, has hit safely in seven straight games and has driven in a run in five of his last six after going 2-for-3 with an RBI single on Saturday.
All-Star third baseman Jose Ramirez struggled out of the blocks by going 3-for-22 at the plate before collecting two hits and two runs scored on Saturday.
“He’s swinging the bat well,” Francona said of Ramirez. “The ballpark plays so big in April. That will be the least of our worries, him hitting. He changes the game (when he gets on base). He’s a baseball player.”
Like Cleveland, Toronto has been receiving strong strikeout numbers from its pitchers. The Blue Jays’ hurlers fanned 13 on Saturday to boost their total to a franchise-high 110 in the first 10 games.
Toronto right-hander Marcus Stroman (0-1, 1.42 ERA), who will get the nod in the finale, yielded two runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings of a hard-luck 2-1 loss against Baltimore on Tuesday.
The 27-year-old Stroman owns a 1-0 mark with a 2.91 ERA in six career appearances versus Cleveland, with Santana and Hanley Ramirez each recording a pair of doubles among their four hits against him.
The Blue Jays matched a season high with 10 hits on Saturday, highlighted by Freddy Galvis belting a homer for the second straight game. They have just 61 hits on the season — marking their fewest since 1981 — while their 28 runs match their fewest through 10 games.
“I think this is part of the game,” left fielder Teoscar Hernandez said of the Blue Jays’ sputtering offense. “We’re not the only guys it’s happening to right now. We’re struggling a little bit.
“Sometimes it’s the pitching, sometimes it’s the hitting. But that’s how the game goes, and we’re just going to continue battling. Run out there, playing hard, trying to do our best and trying to win the game.”