CLEVELAND — To say Jason Kipnis runs hot and cold at the plate would be an understatement. When Cleveland’s second baseman is swinging the bat well, he looks downright incredible. When he’s not, well, you saw him go 2 for 32 from Game 3 of the division series through the ALCS and the first two games of the World Series.
During a 23-game stretch in July and August, Kipnis hit .340/.398/.702 with eight homers. In a 12-game skid in August, he hit .191/.204/.255 and didn’t go deep at all. The entire season was like that, really, a series of ups and downs that wound up more up than down — a .275/.343/.469 line with 23 home runs — because the two-time All-Star is a really good hitter.
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Now, even though Cleveland would have liked to have closed out the Fall Classic by this point, instead of heading to Game 7 on Wednesday night, Kipnis is swinging the bat well again. And in Game 7, Cleveland will be facing the pitcher against whom Kipnis started his World Series revival, Kyle Hendricks.
In Game 3 at Wrigley Field, Kipnis reached base in two of his three trips to the plate against this season’s major league ERA leader, with a single in the first inning and a hit by pitch in the fifth. Kipnis then went 3 for 5 in Game 4, including a home run. After an 0-for-4 night in Game 5, Kipnis came back strong in Game 6 with a single, double and home run.
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“It does a lot,” said Mike Napoli, one of the beneficiaries of batting with a runner on base when Kipnis is hot, though the first baseman has eight strikeouts in 19 at-bats in the World Series. “(Francisco) Lindor’s been swinging it good, too. There’s a couple of guys that need to get it going, too — me included. But yeah, it’s nice to see him swinging the bat like that.”
It’s nice because Tuesday night was a rarity. Including the playoffs, Cleveland is 82-39 when Kipnis gets a hit. When Kipnis plays and goes hitless, Cleveland is 18-31. There’s always some selection bias in a stat like that, but the difference here is stark.
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“He’s one of our leaders,” said shortstop Francisco Lindor, who bats directly behind Kipnis. “When he gets on base, it gets the offense going. (Tuesday night), we weren’t able to get the barrel on the baseball against (Jake) Arrieta. He had a good outing and I tip my hat to him.”
Lindor went 0 for 3 with a walk in Game 6, but has to like his chances facing Hendricks again after collecting singles in both of his at-bats against the right-hander in Chicago. If he and Kipnis can repeat their performances from that contest, it will go a long way toward helping Cleveland secure its first World Series win since 1948.
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“It doesn’t hurt us,” Kipnis said of facing Hendricks again. “I think as long as we make the proper adjustments and have the correct approach — I don’t think he’s a guy that you really want to get big on, because he works on the corners, he pushes and pulls and gets you off balance. We’ve really got to be firm in the approach that we have, and take what he gives us, because he doesn’t give you too much. We’re going to have to be ready when he does give us something.”
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Kipnis has been better at finding things to take as this series has gone on. And while he’d gladly have traded his three-hit night for one big win, he also knows that his bat has come around, and what that can mean.
“Some days you’ve got it, some days you don’t, but you keep working to stay ready for the next opportunity if it presents itself,” he said. “I struggled earlier, kept working at it, and now I’m getting the results."