Indians offense has officially reached a low point

This marks the second straight night where the recap will consistent mostly of evaluating a pitcher that wasn’t exactly lights out. Only in tonight’s case the pitcher aspect of it is more fun because, while Jefry Rodriguez wasn’t out there causing swings and misses and dotting the corners, he did more than enough to keep the Indians in the game. The offense was another story.

Normally when a guy can hit 97 on the radar gun, you’d want more than eight whiffs over 91 pitches; more than three strikeouts, perhaps. But Rodriguez made it work to the tune of just two earned runs over 5.2 innings — a solid debut for a guy that will likely be relegated to the bullpen down the road. As one heck of a bullpen arm, I may add. Just look at this work of art begging to be amped up in an inning of work, instead of stretched over six or seven innings.

Most of the swings and misses Rodriguez generated came on changeups, with a high 96 mile per hour fastball to Jorge Solar being the only exception. For the most part, the 25-year-old kept Kansas City on their toes with a good mix of changeups and fastballs around the knees that generated a few wind gusts out of Kaufmann Stadium. Again, it’d be nice to see him missing bats more often in the future, but it was a solid season debut for the fireballer. If only the offense could have kept up.

The putrid, truly inferior display by the offense against Homer Bailey should leave a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. Injuries or not, this is the kind of showing that should result in closed door meetings, maybe a bit of yelling. Someone throw a cooler, damnit. Just show that any of you can be bothered to try and help out your pitchers. Someone besides Brad Miller make contact against the petrified remains of Homer Bailey for the love of everything.

Indians batters put just 16 balls in play against Bailey, compared to watching 21 called strikes go right by them and swinging and missing 11 times. None of those balls in play were hit harder than 95 miles per hour. Max Moroff went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts and doesn’t even look like a major league baseball player right now. Just what in the world.

Anyway, Cody Anderson made his 2018 debut and threw a bunch of sliders and got all sweaty. Great story after the hard work he’s put into coming back from Tommy John surgery three years ago. He even worked his way out of a jam after he calmed down and locked in. It’s just a shame all of his teammates with bats in their hands fell asleep on the same night.