CLEVELAND (92.3 The Fan) – The Indians offense has limped out of the All-Star break, showing not much in their first five games, scoring a total of 15 runs in 5 games.

The three-run per game average is helped out quite a bit by the 9 runs they scored in Saturday’s 11-9 loss to the Blue Jays. Other than that, it’s been downright ugly – 1 run, 0 runs, 3 runs and two runs.

Ouch.

The offense hasn’t done much, and it shows more and more that while this team is on a freight train towards the trade deadline, this team sorely needs a bat to give some punch to the lineup.

Sure the argument can be made that you could use a better starter in the rotation for Josh Tomlin, who after Tuesday night is under .500 and has been hit or miss all season.

The bottom line though is all season long the Indians have needed someone in the lineup that can drive in runs and hit. After another failed shot with the bases loaded Tuesday night with no outs (they scored just one run), the team can’t ignore a hitter is much more needed right now than an arm.

Case in point, the Indians are now hitting .195 (16-for-82) as a team with the bases loaded. It’s a glaring stat that if the club is going to stay within striking distance in the Central, they can’t overlook the need for that clutch bat.

The Indians can’t even seem to count on their usual hitters that have gotten the job done in the past. How about Asdrubal Cabrera, fresh off his recent All-Star outing in a serious slump?

Cabrera is hitting .040 in his last six games with 11 strikeouts, and over his last 11 games, he’s gone 5-for-44 (.114) with 14 strikeouts. Cabrera’s
average was .200 and .242 over his last 20 and 58 games.

Then there’s Carlos Santana, who continues to be in a slump of epic proportions. Try these stats – 19-of-112 (.168) with eight RBI in his last 34 games. That’s since he came off the disabled list. Not like he was hitting before that, but those numbers are glaring to say the least.

It all points to one thing, and that’s going out and finding the best available bat to come in and try to give this team a fighting chance to hang in this race.

If they don’t, based on the first few games out of the All-Star break, this could be a long and frustrating road in the second half of the 2012 Indians season.