The Cleveland Indians won Game 1 of the ALCS 2-0 over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night.

The heroes of the game were right-handed starter Corey Kluber, left-handed reliever Andrew Miller (who again tossed multiple scoreless innings), and shortstop Francisco Lindor -- whose two-run home run accounted for all the game's offense.

Now for some things to know about Game 1 in Cleveland ...

1. History is with the Indians.

The Indians took Game 1 of the ALCS at home, and that puts them in fine position moving forward. For instance ...

  • Teams winning Game 1 of a best-of-7 series at home go on to win Game 2 55.8 percent of the time.
  • Teams winning Game 1 of a best-of-7 series at home go on to win the entire series 67.4 percent of the time.
  • The team that wins Game 1 regardless of whether they're playing at home go on to win the series in question 64.1 percent of the time.

Obviously, there's still plenty of series left, but the Tribe's win in Game 1 puts them on sound historical footing.

2. Francisco Lindor can hit, too.

Lindor, the Cleveland shortstop, is perhaps the most valuable fielder in all of baseball. It will likely always be his glove-work at the premium position of shortstop that drives his value. However, since arriving in the majors, he has exceeded expectations with the bat. Across parts of five minor-league seasons, Lindor slugged only .384, so he never showed much in the way of power. In the majors, though, he has batted .306/.356/.454 (111 OPS+), while the average major-league shortstop this season has batted .263/.318/.407. Lindor also hit 15 home runs this season, so he has got some pop.

Speaking of pop, Lindor made the difference in Game 1 with his sixth-inning, two-run homer to right-center off Marco Estrada. Mostly because of the glove but also because of the bat Lindor will probably wind up finishing in the top 10 of the AL MVP balloting this year.

3. Toronto's Devon Travis may be limited for the rest of this series.

The Toronto second baseman exited Game 1 in the fifth inning with right knee pain. He then underwent an MRI ...

Travis dealt with right knee irritation earlier in the postseason, so this situation bears monitoring. The good news for the Jays is that they have Ryan Goins and Darwin Barney on the ALCS roster, so they have some depth at second base.

4. Corey Kluber continues to be a force this postseason.

Kluber of course twirled seven shutout innings against the Red Sox in Game 2 of the ALDS, and on Friday night he authored 6 1/3 shutout innings against the Blue Jays -- two tough offenses, those. So those 13 ⅓ scoreless frames to start his postseason career put Kluber in fairly elite company. For instance ....

And ...

5. Andrew Miller continued to dominate.

The Cleveland relief ace was at it again in Game 1. Miller on Friday recorded five outs, all via strikeout. Oh, and he notched each strikeout with a slider. In the eighth, he ran into the teeth of the Toronto order: Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista, and Russell Martin. A Donaldson single was all he permitted. Here's some visual evidence ...

Miller hasn't allowed a run since Sept. 7.

5. But it wasn't all bad for the Jays.

Kluber was at 37 pitches through two innings. After five, he was at 80 pitches. At the very least, the Jays, by working Kluber early, were able to keep his night relatively short and thus force Terry Francona to use his bullpen. Given the uncertainties of the non-Kluber portion of the Cleveland rotation, that bullpen can be expected to be used heavily in most games of the ALCS. That Cleveland burned a few relief bullets on a night in which Kluber didn't allow a run is consolation of a sort for Toronto.

6. Marco Estrada gave the Jays pen a rest.

Estrada took the rare complete-game loss, but he gave the Toronto bullpen some possibly needed rest. This postseason, Jays relievers have worked 14.0 innings. They were the least-worked bullpen in the majors during the regular season, at least in terms of innings, but Estrada's eight innings in Game 1 means the Jays' bullpen will be on five days' rest going into Game 2. That could be especially beneficial for young closer Roberto Osuna, who (understandably) has been ridden hard in these playoffs.