Player Of The Game
Michael Brantley is a good choice tonight. He earned one of the two Indians RBI’s on the night at a point in the game which tied the contest at 1-1. It was the biggest Indians hit on the night.
Feathers Up
In the bottom of the seventh with David Murphy on first and Chisenhall on third and none out, Gomes doubled off the Cincinnati bullpen fence in right. As Chisenhall scored and Murphy approached second, a pitch from a Reds reliever sailed out of the bullpen and into short-center. Murphy rounded third, saw the ball on the field and hesitated. Reds shortstop Zack Cozart, who had caught the relay, spotted Murphy off third, hesitated and fired to third baseman Santiago, who tagged out Murphy. The Indians settled for the one run and trailed, 6-2 at the time.
Brantley added an RBI on the night in the second inning. He entered at .324 with 16 homers and 71 RBI. He had 26 multi-hit games since June 1.
Feathers Down
The Indians dropped to 6.5 games behind first-place Detroit (62-48) in the AL Central. The Tigers defeated the Yankees, 4-3, in 12 innings in the Bronx. The Indians remained 2.5 behind in the race for the second wild card because Toronto (60-54) lost at home to Baltimore, 9-3.
Lonnie Chisenhall gift-wrapped a run for the Reds in the first. With Todd Frazier on first and one out, Ryan Ludwick doubled into the left-field corner. Mike Aviles quickly secured the carom and threw to shortstop Jose Ramirez, who tossed to Chisenhall. Frazier was not going to move from third until Chisenhall took his eye off the ball and had it bounce off his glove and roll into foul territory. As Frazier ran for home, Chisenhall grabbed the ball and made an off-balance throw that actually was in time. But when catcher Yan Gomes caught the ball and put his glove down near the plate, he missed Frazier. By the time Gomes located Frazier’s body, it was too late. Just another mindless error by an Indians infielder on the season.
The Reds No. 9 batter Ramon Santiago smashed a three-run homer in the second off Josh Tomlin. It gave the Reds a 4-1 lead at the time. Santiago batted with runners on first and second and one out. In preparation for the first pitch, Gomes set up on the outer half and obviously wanted it down. Tomlin missed over the plate at the belt, and Santiago hammered it over the right-field wall.
Jason Kipnis pulled in because of a runner at third and none out in the fourth, made a diving stop to his right to deny Santiago an RBI single. Billy Hamilton followed with a swinging strikeout, but the Reds finally cashed when lefty Jay Bruce tapped an outside changeup past Tomlin for an RBI infield single and 5-1 lead. Ramirez, forced to come a long way because the shift had placed Kipnis in short right, fielded but couldn’t get the ball out of his glove. If Ramirez had been able to throw, the play would have been bang-bang. The shift beat the Indians in this case.
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