Player of the Game
Reaching base in three of four at bats, Brandon Moss was the Indians top performer of the night. His home run gave the Tribe their first run of the night and he later added a single and a walk for a POG score of 3.63. Other players with decent nights were Ryan Raburn (3.30), Carlos Santana (2.90) and Corey Kluber (2.71).
Feathers Up
With or without an offense, Kluber continues to be spectacular every time he steps on a baseball field. His pinpoint command with his fastball forces hitters to be aggressive, only to be fooled by the massive movement on his slider. Today he used that combination to strike out ten Orioles in seven innings, allowing three runs throughout. For the O’s, the damage came in the sixth, when two singles and a double netted two runs and the lead.
The Indians found some power tonight, but little else offensively as all three runs came on solo home runs. Moss started it off with his 12th of the season in the second inning, followed by Raburn with his fourth in the fourth. The most important and least probable of the home runs was the third, a shot pulled to right just a few inches above the plate by Santana in the eighth. This momentarily tied the game at least long enough that Kluber could avoid the loss.
Milestone Update: Keeping you informed, Jason Kipnis‘ infield single to lead off the fifth inning stretched his his hitting streak to 20 games.
Feathers Down
Today in “What Just Happened?” Marc Rzepczynski came into the tie game for Kluber in the eighth and threw three pitches to three hitters, allowing three hits and the go ahead run. The switch hitter Jimmy Paredes lead off with a double (his third hit on the night), followed by singles from Chris Davis and Chris Parmelee. Bryan Shaw then relieved Rzepczynski and got a quick double play and fly out to end the inning. For his efforts, the Tribe LOOGY didn’t get an out, but he did get the loss.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 – Baltimore Orioles 4
On Deck: The Indians and Orioles will meet again for game two of the three game series, Saturday night at 7:15 PM. Chris Tillman will go for Baltimore as Cody Anderson is slated to make his second Major League start after shutting out the Rays in 7.2 innings last week.
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