Player of the Game
Trevor Bauer hurled his second straight great start after a hiccough of two very poor ones in a row. Tonight he used more of a pitch-to-contact strategy to keep his pitch count down, allowing him to stay in the game for eight innings. In those, he struck out seven while allowing five hits, three walks and one run. Considering that Bauer didn’t know he was going to pitch until earlier today, this was an incredibly impressive outing.
Feathers Up
Bauer was the king of the double play tonight, reducing the negative affect of the walks that still plague him. He walked another three tonight for a league leading 71 on the season, but induced the ground balls for his defense to turn four double plays behind him.
Milestone Alert: Bauer joined the 150 club today, the fourth Indians pitcher to do so this year. His seven strike outs on the night put him at 152 for the season. This is the first time in Indians history that they have had four pitchers reach 150 K’s on the year, having three pitchers do so only four times previously in franchise history (2013, 2000, 1966 and 1965). The previous closest was 1966 when they had four pitchers with 145 strike outs each and five with at least 132. This is also a single season high for Bauer who’s previous best was 143 in 2014.
The Indians almost wasted a potential scoring chance in the seventh when Jose Ramirez attempted a sacrifice bunt that saw Lonnie Chisenhall forced out at second. Despite the free out, Ramirez scored the first Tribe run on an Abraham Almonte double, then Almonte scored from second on a Jason Kipnis single to give the Indians their first lead of the night. Carlos Santana added a hit of his own to score Kipnis as Los Angeles burned through three pitchers in an attempt to get three outs. Each of the first three hitters in the inning were pinch hitters as Terry Francona switched his right handed lineup for a left handed one. While some of this success was due to Andrew Heaney leaving the game, much of it was also likely because the Indians replaced two bench players, Jerry Sands and Mike Aviles, with two slightly better bench players in Chisenhall and Almonte.
Another Milestone Alert: Cody Allen‘s 53rd career save moved him into a tie for sixth most in Indians history with Ray Narleski. There is a big break between the Indians top five closers and the rest of the pack, so it will take Allen awhile to catch Mike Jackson‘s 94 for fifth place, but the fact that he has moved so high in two seasons is incredible. The 27 this season are good for 14th best in a single season in Indians history as well.
Feathers Down
The Indians had as good of a scoring chance as any in the bottom of the seventh when Francisco Lindor lead off the inning with a double, but weren’t to break up the shut out at that time. Michael Brantley was unable to move Lindor with a fly ball and Lindor got a little too aggressive, trying to take third on a ground ball to short. Lindor was out, leaving Carlos Santana on first instead when Ryan Raburn singled with two outs. While Lindor would likely have scored from second on the single, the other two runners were ultimately stranded when Yan Gomes flew out.
Danny Salazar was scratched from tonight’s start with an undisclosed illness. Because of the off-day, the Indians were able to bump up the rest of the rotation to fill in and now Corey Kluber will throw tomorrow and Josh Tomlin on Sunday before Salazar is expected to rejoin the rotation on Monday against Toronto.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 – Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 1
On Deck: As mentioned, Kluber will make the start Saturday night against the Angels going against Garrett Richards. The game will begin at 7:10 PM in Cleveland and will feature a Gomes jersey giveaway and post game fireworks.
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