Roster Update: Lonnie Chisenhall, expecting the birth of his second child, has been placed on the paternity list for as long as three days. His replacement on the roster will be utility man, Justin Sellers. Sellers was brought to the Tribe during Spring Training via a trade with the Dodgers. Chisenhall picked a great time to have a baby as the Indians will be facing left handed starters in three of the four games with the White Sox.
Player of the Game
After getting off to a slow start, Asdrubal Cabrera (team worst .161 average coming into the game) has enjoyed the change of scenery already. In his first at bat he doubled to left and scored on an error, then in his second at bat he hit one a little harder to left for his first home run of the season. The top pitcher of the night was C.C. Lee who made his season debut with 1.1 perfect innings. Cabrera’s final POG score was 4.68.
Feathers Up
Danny Salazar did something very special tonight that was only shadowed by a few bad pitches. In just 3.2 innings, he struck out ten White Sox batters. Yes, that means he struck out batters for 10 of his 11 outs recorded. This matched his career high and the only reason he didn’t surpass it was tonight’s number one ‘Feathers Down.’ He is the first pitcher since 1900 to strike out ten batters in less than four innings.
Feathers Down
Despite all those strike outs, Salazar didn’t look very good overall. Jose Abreu started the offensive attack with a monster home run in the second and Alexei Ramirez added another in the third. Salazar gave up two more singles, a wild pitch and a walk that inning as the Sox scored their third run. He also recorded his only out without a strike out this inning when David Murphy threw out Adam Eaton at second after his single. The following inning, Salazar allowed a single and a walk before Ramirez hit another extra base hit to give the White Sox a 5-3 lead. Pretty much every pitch that gave Salazar trouble tonight was a breaking ball as his fastball was electric and featured heavily in his 10 K’s.
Yan Gomes was called the Indians top defensive player in 2013 and won the starting catcher role before Spring Training even started largely because of this, but things have changed for the worse in 2014. Tonight, he made his team leading third error (the Indians have just eight) in addition to his two passed balls. Today, he made another mistake by reacting before thinking as he threw a ball into center field after a walk. With Dayan Viciedo going from first on a full count pitch to Alejandro de Aza, Salazar threw a ball and Gomes launched it into center, allowing Viciedo to go to third. He scored on the Ramirez double.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 – Chicago White Sox 7
Up Next: The Indians will try to start a new winning streak against the White Sox with Carlos Carrasco facing Chris Sale at 8:10 PM, tomorrow.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
