It is fair to say a lot happened with the Cleveland Indians over the weekend.
The roster moves kept on coming, but ultimately the focus was still on the game.
A 3-1 loss Friday against the Baltimore Orioles, unfortunately, set the tone for a weird weekend.
While Saturday was a nice win, Sunday was a disaster.
Game is over.#OurCLE pic.twitter.com/q4qqp2LUmT
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) June 6, 2021
Struggling Against Losing Teams
We published an article Saturday morning about how there was no reason to panic about Friday’s 3-1 loss.
Saturday seemed to prove that sentiment right.
Then the Orioles scored 18 runs Sunday afternoon.
18 runs!
For reference, Baltimore is still sporting a minus-53 run differential even after the blowout win.
The Orioles are bad and the Indians pitching staff made them look like a contender.
The Indians are now 16-15 against teams with losing records this season.
Is that a horrific mark?
We've seen enough of Cedric Mullins this weekend.
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) June 6, 2021
No, but it sure does make it hard to hang tight in the division if every single game against the Chicago White Sox is a must-win.
Taking care of business against bad teams allows the Indians to have a bad game or two against Chicago without facing so much pressure.
Sunday was the culmination of a lot of problems, so what specifically went wrong?
Pitching Depth Proves To Be A Problem
Indians fans are so used to the pitching staff being great that it was easy to assume Cal Quantrill would step in Sunday and do just fine.
He looked suitable on Memorial Day and was a weapon out of the bullpen all year.
He ended up lasting 1.1 innings and seven runs scored with him on the mound.
A short start like that dooms any team from the start.
What made things worse was seeing Sam Hentges come in as a reliever and get blasted by the Orioles offense.
He allowed five runs on nine hits in what was yet another awful outing for the pitcher looking to stick anywhere on the staff.
The good news for Quantrill and Hentges is that they are not going to be released for a bad outing or two.
However, this does nothing to change the fact the Indians remain in trouble with only Aaron Civale and Shane Bieber as the two healthy starters from the Opening Day roster.
Zach Plesac cannot come back soon enough.
Luckily, the Indians do have two off-days coming up this week.
That allows Terry Francona to reset the rotation once again and the front office can continue the shuffle of young pitchers.
At some point, a trade will have to be a serious consideration if the goal is to compete.
However, for now, the Indians just need to start beating bad teams before they themselves become seen as an easy victory.
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