Player of the Game
Carlos Santana, as much as this hurts for me to say, is continuing to punish the ball- and this trend continued tonight. This followed his big night at the dish Tuesday, when he went 4-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored while blasting his 15th home run of the year and adding two doubles in the Indians’ 8-2 win over the Twins. More details of his night are below.
Feathers Up
Santana’s first HR of the night came in the 4th off of KC starter Ventura. He followed his first HR of the game with his second; his 17th homer of the season, a 2-run shot to right that cut KC’s lead to 4-3 at the time in the 6th. He a hit 100 mph fastball to deep right-field.
Brantley snapped his 0-for-16 mini slump with a single to center in the 6th.
Jason Kipnis used a 120 foot sac fly to RF to score Yan Gomes which tied the game in the 7th. It was good, heads up base-running
Feathers Down
Royals got their 2nd “Little League” home run in as many games when Raul Ibanez tripled to right, scored on and error on the relay throw in 4th from Jason Kipnis. Another game, another error.
Josh Tomlin gave up back-to-back HR’s in the second to Sal Perez and Mike Moustakas Tomlin has allowed 16 homers in 15 games. This certainly needs to improve.
When Tito called on John Axford to retire pinch-hitter Billy Butler with one on in the eighth, he failed to get the job done. Axford left a fastball out over the plate and Butler literally hit it to the Royals HOF in deep left field. Ironic enough, this occurred on HOF weekend in Cooperstown. Let’s hope its not that kind of a weekend. It has not exactly been a great series for Axford. He allowed game-winning hit in 14th last night and go-ahead 2-run HR to Butler tonight. Prior to tonight, Axford had allowed 1 HR in last 29 games (2.42 ERA in 26 IP) and 0 HR in last 11 games (0.93 ERA in 9.2 IP).
The Royals rank dead last in the AL in HRs but they’ve hit three HRs tonight, five if you include the two “Little League” homers the Tribe has surrendered in the series already.
With the loss, the Indians fall to one game below .500 once again.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 4 – Kansas City Royals 6
On Deck: Zach McAllister will square off against former Indian Jeremy Guthrie for game three of this important four game series. McAllister joined the club today and will be activated Saturday to start against KC. The Indians will look to snap a three-game losing streak.
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