Indians, like Cavs before them, are work in progress this year

The juxtaposition of late-season Cavaliers and early season Indians continues.

On May 13, LeBron James and the visiting Cavaliers got drubbed by Boston in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Earlier in the afternoon, at Progressive Field, the Indians did the drubbing in an 11-2 rout of the Kansas City Royals.

Notwithstanding the Game 1 misadventure, lessons taken from the Cavs’ twisting, turning journey through this NBA regular season and postseason can be applied to an early overview of the Indians.

With the win over the Royals, the Indians improved to 20-19 and held on to first place in the American League’s Central Division.

Their just-above-.500 record is an accurate reflection of the quality of their play thus far. Beyond a five-game winning streak in the middle of April, they’ve been one step forward, one step back. In their last 10 games, they’re 5-5.

In the everyday lineup, some of the expected producers are producing (Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez, Michael Brantley, Yan Gomes) and some are not producing enough (Yonder Alonso, Jason Kipnis, Edwin Encarnacion, Brandon Guyer).

The starting pitching been about as good as advertised.

Two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber (6-2, 2.34 ERA) throttled the Royals through seven innings, limiting them to two runs on eight hits. The issue was all but settled when the Indians scored five runs in the bottom of the second inning. Jose Ramirez accounted for three of them with a laser shot over the left-field wall off KC starter and loser Danny Duffy.

Fifth starter Josh Tomlin, struggling and giving up home runs in bunches, will get at least one more chance to hold his spot in the rotation.

The relief pitching is a matter of concern. Going into the series finale against the Royals, Indians relievers were 14th among 15 American League teams with a 3-10 record and 5.36 ERA.

That’s not what fans have come to expect from the usually reliable bullpens assembled in the five-plus seasons Terry Francona has been the manager.

This has something to do with the front office’s decision not to pay the market price to retain the services of veteran reliever Bryan Shaw. He left to sign a three-year, $27 million contract with Colorado.

Arguments will be made about the wisdom of paying that kind of money for a set-up man. Shaw is no ordinary setup up man. In the five seasons he wore a Cleveland uniform, he averaged just a shade under 78 appearances a season, the most in the big leagues, and stifled many promising rallies.

In his absence this season, Francona has mixed and matched trying to fill the vacuum created by Shaw’s departure. Sometimes his choices have panned out. Sometimes they have not.

Cody Allen and Andrew Miller, two of the best relievers in the game, have failed this season in situations that formerly would have been entrusted to Shaw.

Placing too much emphasis on the Indians’ current shortcomings ignores the lessons taught by the Cavs.

Twenty games deep into their 82-game regular season, the same relative juncture the Indians are at now, the Cavs were 13-7 and riding an eight-game win streak that ultimately would stretch to 13 games.

If the Cavs were feeling ill effects of the forced offseason trade of All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving to the Celtics, they weren’t showing on the floor in a telling way. James was a force, as always. Kevin Love was his usual solid self. Savvy veteran Jose Calderon had taken over as starting point guard with Derrick Rose having elected to take a leave of absence to work through frustrations over lingering injuries.

Dwyane Wade, another veteran free-agent signee, was giving the Cavs a lift off the bench. Jae Crowder, who had come over from Boston in the Irving trade, was a bit of a disappointment as the starting forward, but most observers believed he’d eventually find his niche.

And, of course, there was growing anticipation for the return of AllStar point guard Isaiah Thomas, also obtained from the Celtics. Thomas was recovering from hip surgery and was supposed to return sometime in December.

We all know how that narrative played out.

The Cavs went into a tailspin that began in December and extended through January and part of February. Thomas returned and was a shadow of himself on the court. He was an irritant in the locker room, by many accounts.

Cavs general manager Koby Altman re-made his roster at the trading deadline in February. The new guys were upgrades on the traded guys. Cavs coach Tyronn Lue stepped away from the bench for a nine-game stretch in late March and early April to deal with his health issues. The Cavs won eight of those games under the guidance of assistant head coach Larry Drew.

The question marks around the Cavs lingered into the playoffs, especially when they went down 2-1 in a first-round playoff series against the Indiana Pacers.. However, with James doing is best Superman imitation, they out-lasted the Pacers and won Game 7 at Quicken Loans Arena.

Then came the sweep of the Toronto Raptors in the second round and another tour de force by James.

The Cavs sorted through the bad stuff and got to a good place.

There is no reason to think the Indians can’t do the same.

Contact Glasier at DGlasier@News-Herald. com; On Twitter: @NHGlasier. David S. Glasier