N&N: Indians dominance rooted in Miller Time, dingers, and baserunning

This morning feels quite a bit better than yesterday morning, eh? And speaking of “eh,” now we’re get to play those Canucks for three days and really test our playoff mettle. But before we get into that, let’s have a look at what went down yesterday.

Indians 5, White Sox 4

The Tribe fell behind early thanks to Danny Salazar’s one inning walk-a-thon. Salazar left after just one inning, but the bullpen did a stellar job cleaning up the mess. The offense kept fighting, through angry BABIP gods and four damn double plays to set themselves up for a walk-off win.

• LGT recap
• BRB recap
• MLB recap

Indians news & notes

Andrew Miller showing durability for Indians | Today’s Knuckleball - The Tribe’s star deadline acquisition has been living up to every bit of the hype. And the biggest part of his appeal, perhaps, is his “old school” durability. He can close it out for you in the 9th, or pitch three innings in the middle of a game. Doesn’t matter to him, but it’s a huge boon for the Tribe.

Indians hitting them out like it’s 1999 | Burning River Baseball - Homeruns are up around the league, but how much has that affected the Tribe? Turns out they’re on pace for a homer number only achieved by four other Indians teams since the franchise’s inception. But there’s more to it than juiced balls. Some of it is natural talent progression, and some of it is players aging into power.

The not-so-obvious reason why the Indians are title contenders | CBS Sports - Yeah, the rotation’s awesome. Yeah, Andrew Miller is a beast. Sure, the offense is knocking the crap out of the ball. But the Tribe’s biggest advantage might be their dominance on the basepaths.

Did White Sox steal Indians’ signs? It happens in baseball | Cleveland.com - I know Paul Hoynes probably doesn’t write his own headlines, but if he did, he’d write something like this. But there’s at least a mildly interesting bit about Terry Francona’s approach to signs.

No need to panic about Cody Allen | Wahoo’s On First - In case you didn’t believe any of the more rational writers or commenters here on LGT, Wahoo contributes their own analysis of Cody Allen’s implosion last on Wednesday night. Spoiler alert: it ain’t no thang.

News from around the league

• The Commish wants to introduce a 20-second pitch clock in the majors
• Fangraphs examines ball in play data for the whole AL Central, and find that the Indians are a “thoroughly average ball-striking team”
• FG also recaps the “soul-crushing disappointments” of last winter’s free agent class
• Today’s Knuckleball provides #HotTakes on which managers should be on the hot seat
• Hal Steinbrenner decided to go into full rebuild mode because of Twitter
• Dayn Perry discusses why Jonathan Papelbon would be a great fit back with the Red Sox