After the Cleveland Indians swept the Oakland Athletics this afternoon at Progressive Field, Jason Kipnis was interviewed in the post game show. The Tribe’s second baseman is such a class act and every kid playing ball should model themselves after Kipnis. What is not to like about the humble, just turned 26-year-old?
The one word that describes Kipnis is hustle. With a nickname of “Dirtbag”, Kipnis shows hustle on every play both on offense and defense. Similar to former Indian, Grady Sizemore, Kipnis is a throw back type of player that isn’t afraid to get his perfectly white jersey dirty.
In this afternoon’s contest versus the A’s, Kipnis drove in three runs in his first two at bats. His two-run homer in the first inning started the Tribe’s romping of the A’s. He came back in the second inning driving in a run on a sacrifice fly for his third RBI. In the eighth inning, with the Indians leading 9-2 and the game out of reach for the A’s, Kipnis almost beat out a routine ground ball by just flat-out effort.
Despite hitting just .221 on the young season, Kipnis keeps a positive attitude and continues to grind away. On the home stand, Kipnis finished with 11 hits, three home runs, and 10 RBI. He boosted his batting average 40 points. The Indians’ solid infielder looks to have found his groove.
Kipnis, who interacts with fans on his Twitter feed, is constantly giving everything he has on every play. On top of stability at second base and having a left-handed bat, persistence is just one more thing Kipnis brings to the Tribes’ clubhouse every day. Much like the Indians as a whole, Kipnis is just fun to watch.
This Indians team has now won 10 of their last 11 games and leaves tonight to take on the Detroit Tigers in a three game weekend series. The Indians are now 7-1 in the month of May and just a game-and-half out of first place in the AL Central Division.
Ryan Ruiz is the Cleveland Sports Beat Writer for The Inscriber. You can follow him on Twitter @ryanpruiz24 and Facebook: Ryan (BrownsWriter) Ruiz.