Player of the Game
Rarely does a reliever actually deserve the player of the game (they usually just steal one in a poorly pitched, poorly hit game like yesterday), but Jeff Manship was fantastic tonight, allowing just one hit in 2.1 innings. Although this one runner did score, he came in against Austin Adams after a few unlucky plays which will be detailed later on. In his first inning, Manship struck out all three batters faced and finished with a Player of the Game score of 2.22.
Feathers Up
Giovanny Urshela fielded five of six balls in play that were turned into outs during the first five innings (the other being a ground ball to the pitcher) and looked pretty slick in doing so. His second play was an impressive double play in the second inning that helped spare Carlos Carrasco from a repeat of the first. In total, he made seven assists as Indians pitchers did a pretty good job keeping the ball on the ground.
The Indians rookies actually played pretty well offensively tonight, given the opposing pitcher, Chris Sale and the ultimate score. Both runs were knocked in by rookies, Jesus Aguilar and Urshela, while Francisco Lindor added two hits and a run as well. The two veterans placed in the lineup specifically to face the left handed ace, Ryan Raburn and Mike Aviles, went 1/8 batting first and fourth in the lineup.
Feathers Down
Fans who still use pitcher wins as a stat will probably say that Carrasco had a terrible first inning tonight, but if you look closely at each of the hits allowed, it looks a lot more like he was just hurt by a lot of bad luck all at once. In the inning, he allowed six hits and five runs, but only two of the hits were line drives with three slow ground balls finding holes in the infield and a bloop single going over the head of Mike Aviles at second. In addition, Yan Gomes allowed a passed ball on a pitch that was nearly a strike and the infield was unable to turn a difficult double play.
Two nearly made defensive plays cost the Indians another run in the seventh. First, Adams almost caught a come-backer with his back turned to the batter, but it bounced back towards the first base line and Tyler Saladino was safe at first. Immediately after, Melky Cabrera hit a grounder into the hole between first and second and Carlos Santana almost made a fantastic diving play. Instead, his deflection pushed the ball beyond Aviles, allowing Adam Eaton to score from second. A second run came later when Adam LaRoche hit a legitimate single to left to score Saladino.
The Indians third straight loss to Chicago marks their third three game losing streak in July. On the season, they have had eight such losing streaks (two of exactly four games, none longer than four), but have had just four winning streaks of at least three games. They have had one of exactly three, four, five and six wins.
The struggles of late are similar to the struggles early in the season as the Indians just can’t score. Against Chicago they have already been outscored 21-4 this series and outside of the rare break out game, this has been the norm. In their last nine games, they have either scored one or less run (five times) or more than five (three times) in all but today’s game.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 – Chicago White Sox 10
On Deck: The Indians will try to salvage what they can from the four game series on Sunday afternoon with Danny Salazar facing Carlos Rodon. The game will start at 1:10 PM in Cleveland and will be the Indians last game against the White Sox until September.
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