Tribe's bats continue to rake, led by Kipnis' HRs

ARLINGTON -- The Indians’ offense has been explosive for most of June, but Jason Kipnis has only started to heat up over the past few days. On Wednesday night against the Rangers, Cleveland's offense struck again, and this time Kipnis led the way in a 10-4 victory at Globe Life Park.

Kipnis homered twice, including a tone-setting three-run shot in the first inning. After his standout performance Wednesday, he’s 7-for-15 (.467) with three homers and two walks in his last four games after batting an abysmal .111 (4-for-36) with a .239 OPS in the first 10 games of June.

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Kipnis finished Wednesday 2-for-2 with two walks and four RBIs. He said he made an adjustment to his swing last weekend in Detroit, and though it has only been four games, encouraging results have come astonishingly quickly.

“I made an adjustment on an 0-for-5 day [Saturday],” Kipnis said. “It was one of the worst hitting days I’ve had in a long time, but the fact that I was able to take from it something positive, go to sleep that night with kind of a glass-half-full thing, we were excited to get to the ballpark the next day. And since then, it’s been rolling. I like what I’m doing right now, and I’ve got some catching up to do.

“This game’s already as tough as it is, especially when you feel like you’re in kind of a quicksand, where the harder you try to get out of a [lousy] streak you’re in, the worse it gets, and that’s where I was headed. But this adjustment is almost like a rope -- a little saving grace for me.”

Even before Kipnis began to pull himself out of the muck, the Indians’ lineup had gotten hot. They have scored 88 runs dating back to June 4. Cleveland is averaging an American League-best 6.3 runs over those 14 games, going 10-4, and the Tribe has scored 47 runs over the past six games (7.8 per game).

“We’ve swung the bat better,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “We have guys that have proven that they can do it. They’re picking it up.”

Kipnis had his first truly productive game of June on Sunday in Detroit, going 3-for-5 with a homer and three RBIs. Then in Cleveland’s win over Texas on Tuesday, he went 2-for-4 with three more RBIs.

“There’s tons of games left in me, and this only reassures me that I’m on the right path,” Kipnis said. “It’s weird, because I can get as cold as anyone in the league, and I can get as hot as anyone in the league. ... I can get a good player’s month’s stats in about two weeks. That’s why where even when I’m down, I’ve got to keep going because sometimes I can explode and change a game. It’s tough to get through those bad times, but it’s times like these that remind me that’s why we’ve got to get through them.”

Kipnis’ first-inning homer Wednesday, off Rangers starter Joe Palumbo, was only his second homer off a left-hander in his last 137 at-bats, dating back to last year. The Indians roughed up Palumbo in his second Major League start, chasing him after two-plus innings.

Indians right-hander Adam Plutko, who had a 5-0 lead before throwing his first pitch of the game, yielded three runs (two earned) over 4 1/3 innings. Relievers Tyler Olson, Nick Goody, Oliver Perez and Adam Cimber held the Rangers to one run over the final 4 2/3 innings.

“There was a couple times where I’d have guys [with] two-strike counts and they’d foul a couple pitches off and kept the at-bat alive and end up getting a hit,” Plutko said. “It was a grind, for sure. … The bullpen coming in and really locking it down and making sure that there was no momentum going their way, that was impressive.”