Player of the Game
Asdrubal Cabrera was great all around today, hitting safely three times and stealing two bases. Cabrera also scored the Indians first run and knocked in the second before being thrown out at home.
Feathers Up
Jarrod Saltalamacchia may be the worst catcher in the league at throwing out baserunners, but David Ross isn't much better. The Indians have taken advantage of that in this series with Mark Reynolds leading a double steal to score a run last night and Asdrubal Cabrera taking second early in today's game. Nick Swisher followed Cabrera's steal with an RBI double. Boston catchers have thrown out just seven of 39 attempted stealers. The Indians on the other hand have the top catcher in the league in this stat in Yan Gomes (.615 CS%).
Feathers Down
A balk lead to a run in the first inning for the Red Sox. After two were already out with a runner on first, Scott Kazmir balked Jose Iglesias to second. This turned what should have been a harmless single by Pedro Ciriaco into an RBI hit.
The Indians marred a long streak of errorless games today when both Ryan Raburn and Mark Reynolds committed one base errors. Runs scored after each error, but none were unearned. Another play that wasn't called an error cost the Indians two runs when Cabrera and Michael Brantley combined to lose an easy fly ball right past short stop.
The Indians haven't been able to set up very many games with their bullpen the way they would prefer, but today they were able to and it still didn't work. Bryan Shaw pitched well enough to earn the win while Joe Smith did earn a hold, but Vinnie Pestano blew the save in the eighth inning through a combination of timely hitting and poor defense. The outing has to be one of the worst in Pestano's career as he allowed four runs in an inning of work.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 4 – Boston Red Sox 7
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
