Player of the Game
Never giving up, Yan Gomes‘ third hit of the night came in the ninth inning and scored Francisco Lindor from second to bring the game within two. He also doubled and scored earlier and walked, seeing him reach base in four of his five at bats.
A few offensive performers had decent nights tonight, but three relievers were key in keeping this game close as well. Shawn Armstrong, Ryan Webb and Jeff Manship each came into an inning with one out and at least one runner on, got out of the situation and pitched another complete scoreless inning.
Feathers Up
One problem many Tribe fans have had with Carlos Santana, particularly this season, is his apparent lack of clutch. While he is generally the clean-up hitter, he hadn’t done much sweeping and in fact, knocked in just 9 during 33 games from May 31st through July 7th. Things have changed recently, however, as he has appeared to have shortened his swing a bit and has been much more successful in run scoring opportunities, knocking in ten in his last 13 games. He came through again tonight for the Indians second run with a two out single in the third that scored Jose Ramirez from second.
The Indians continued to add on throughout the game, with two coming in the sixth and another in the seventh. Abraham Almonte was in the middle of the first pair of runs, doubling in Gomes, who doubled to get on in the first place and scoring on a Lonnie Chisenhall single. In the next inning, things looked to be set up even better with the bases loaded for Almonte, but the Indians were only able to score a single run on a wild pitch.
Feathers Down
Trevor Bauer had some difficulties with his control again early today and it was a familiar foe who ultimately made him pay for it. After allowing a single and a four pitch walk to start the inning, it looked like Bauer might get out of the inning unscathed when he got Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran to pop out in the infield. After a brief meeting from Mickey Calloway, however, Brian McCann launched a ball deep into the right field stands for a three run home run.
While the Yankees didn’t score much against the Tribe this series (5 runs in 25 innings prior to today), McCann was the one responsible for the lone New York run in yesterday’s match. In the second, Stephen Drew added to the deficit with his second home run of the series, another solo shot to right.
The Yankees didn’t slow down against Bauer, adding two more in the fourth, knocking out the Tribe starter early. While he has been damaged by the long ball and a few too many walks of late, this was out of the ordinary for Bauer, who had pitched at least through the sixth in each of his last four starts. This could go down as his worst of the year, comparable to the game on June 22nd against Detroit when Bauer also allowed six earned runs in less than four innings.
Chris Johnson started at first today with Santana at DH, possibly to see how he will fair in the future at that position, but the experiment is already going based on a few limited tries today. Twice Johnson was tested by throws in the dirt coming from the left side of the infield and both times he was unable to pick the ball, handing Lindor and Giovanny Urshela errors where there should have been outs. While some of this blame falls on the poor throws, a good defensive first baseman, or Santana, would normally have been able to handle these throws.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 6 – New York Yankees 8
On Deck: The Indians will begin their longest road trip left in the season tomorrow as they are set to play 11 games in 11 days in four cities. The first on the docket will be Minneapolis as Corey Kluber will take on Trevor May and the Twins at 8:10 PM.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
