The Cleveland Indians were probably going to make the playoffs without Jay Bruce. They were probably going to win the American League Central without him, too. As such, we really will not know his true value to the team’s World Series chances until October. But for now, for anyone who watches the Indians day in and day out through the grind of August, he’s been worth the trade that brought him over the New York Mets and then some.

To be fair, it’s not hard to be worth more than a Single-A reliever and $5 million. But when you do nothing but hit for your new team, then absolutely destroy one of their most annoying rivals, you have officially won over your new fanbase.

Coming into tonight, Bruce was 10-for-27 in an Indians uniform, including four doubles and a home run. His first dinger with Cleveland came last night against the Minnesota Twins, and he added another pair of them tonight. And they were crushed. His first left his bat at 102.6 miles per hour and traveled an estimated 411 feet. More important than them there fancy numbers ‘n’ such, it extended the Indians lead from one run to three in the first inning. And it wasn’t even the first home run of the game (that honor belonged to Jason Kipnis a few batters earlier). Later on, Bruce added the final dagger of the game with a three-run shot that put the Indians up by eight and only went 409 feet.

Jay Bruce may have accounted for five runs batted in tonight (that’s half, if someone could please let Rick Manning know) but he wasn’t all of the Indians offense. Bradley Zimmer gets at least partial credit, or an A+ if you take into account how he’s been through August. But hey, he has three hits in his last two games and if I want to chop up stats to fit my own worldview, I’m going to do it, damnit. Zimmer is bound to break out of his slump eventually, let’s just hope this is the start of it and not a footnote in the forthcoming misery.

Everyone in the Indians lineup finished with at least one hit, minus Brandon Guyer who was a defensive replacement late. Even Giovanny Urshela had a hit. He also had an outstanding play from third base (well, closer to second base), but you knew he would do that. I bet you didn’t think he would actually get a hit in four at-bats. If he could only do that more often, he’d be a pretty solid player.

And finally, in one final show of dominance, with the game already 9-1 and pretty much over in the seventh inning, the Indians brought in Brandon Guyer and Joe Smith. Two recent trades (Guyer last trade deadline, and Joe Smith at this year’s deadline) that were similar steals to Jay Bruce were brought in to face the Royals, who have fumbled their way through trades and bad drafts to their current predicament. I don’t think Terry Francona did it just to shove the front office’s prowess in the face of his enemy. But I kind of want to believe he did.

Hey welcome to the bottom of the recap, everyone. Thanks for reading this far. Did we all have fun talking about Jay Bruce and the rest of the offense beating the Royals to a pulp? You may also notice the Royals only scored one run, and you may have also noticed I haven’t mentioned pitching.

So, Corey Kluber had a pretty good game, right up until he sprained his ankle. That’s about the long and short of it, to be honest. After 5.1 innings, four strikeouts and one walk, Kluber came awkwardly off the mound attempting to field a grounder to first. His hobbling prevented Carlos Santana from making an easy toss for an out, and instead we were left wondering what the hell happened to our robotic pitching God.

An ankle sprain probably isn’t the worst thing in the world, especially considering all the hamstring issues the Indians have had. So we might come out of his alright. The baffling thing about it all was letting Corey take on another batter. Already up 6-1, it would have made perfect sense to pull him out at the first sign of trouble or injury, but despite limping around the mound, Terry Francona left him in for another batter. Kluber gave up a hit and then was pulled. I’m just glad it wasn’t a play that required an attempt of athleticism from Kluber, because it could have been real bad.

That’s enough depressing pitcher talk, we’ll hear more about it in the post-game press conferences, I’m sure. So until then, enjoy this guy enjoying the hell out of some pop-a-shot.

Someone is *really* into pop-a-shot pic.twitter.com/D7AI2rcRq1 — Let's Go Tribe (@LetsGoTribe) August 19, 2017

See ya tomorrow.