Player of the Game
It took awhile, but Carlos Santana gave the Indians their first and only extra base hit in the ninth inning with his second home run of the season high off the seats in right field. While it did little to erase the six run deficit, no other Indians player was deserving of today’s honor as both the pitching and hitting were generally less than desirable.
Milestone Alert: The long ball was Santana’s 100th with the Indians, making him the 24th player to reach that mark while with the team, tied with Joe Gordon, and just the second who did so primarily as a catcher.
Feathers Up
After taking Saturday off, the top of the Indians lineup did piece together one improbable run today when Michael Bourn, Jason Kipnis and Michael Brantley each hit two out singles off Trevor May in the top of the third. The hit broke a 0/9 slump for Bourn who has just four hits in his past seven games (28 at bats).
After multiple plays already this season where Brandon Moss has ignored the cut off man in an effort to get a runner out directly, in the fifth inning today, he finally threw a ball to Jason Kipnis. The reason this is of importance is that instead of allowing the runner on first to advance to second, as had been happening, Kipnis was able to relay to third and catch the less than speedy Kennys Vargas before he reached the base. T.J. House had already allowed four runs in the previous three innings and was giving up hard hit balls to almost every batter. By retiring Vargas, the Indians saved at least one run and allowed House to finish the inning.
Feathers Down
T.J. House got into a bit of trouble in the second inning and it eventually turned into a big inning thanks to some poor defense. He started off the inning with a walk, a symptom of his larger problem of not being aggressive enough to hitters early in the count. After a Trevor Plouffe double to right, House hit Kurt Suzuki to load the bases. The first run came home on a Oswaldo Arcia sacrifice fly to deep left, then the second came on an Eduardo Escobar single to right. When it looked like Jose Ramirez would end the inning with a double play ball to his right, he misplayed it into an error, allowing the runner to score from third.
Former Twin, Anthony Swarzak hadn’t been used much this season before today, but in his 4.1 innings, he had allowed just one run on three hits. Things didn’t go as well against his former home club as he gave up three after relieving House in the sixth. Despite initially getting ahead in the count, Swarzak walked the first batter he faced, Brian Dozier after which a huge home run to left from Torii Hunter pushed the Twins ahead to a 7-1 lead. Swarzak retired just two of the six batters he faced, both via the strike out.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2 – Minnesota Twins 7
On Deck: Staying in both the Central Division and time zone, the Indians will head to Chicago for a three game series, the first of which will occur on Monday at 8:10 pm and will feature the same two starters who pitched the final game of the last Indians – White Sox series, Trevor Bauer and John Danks.
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