Player of the Game
After an extremely rocky beginning, highlighted later, Trevor Bauer really got locked in and held the White Sox to allow just two hits and two earned runs in seven innings. While the bullpen was up in the second thanks to his four walks that inning (five in the game), they weren’t needed until the eighth when Bryan Shaw entered the game. His team high 14th Player of the Game award of the season, Bauer hasn’t always been great, but he has given the Indians the best chance to win the most games this year.
Feathers Up
The Indians all right lineup finally paid off in the fourth inning. Playing with out regulars Jason Kipnis and Michael Brantley against the tough left hander, Chris Sale, the back-ups delivered with two solo home runs from Mike Aviles and Ryan Raburn. Chris Johnson also added a single in the inning for the first three Indians hits of the game, tying things up at two.
Ryan Raburn loves to play baseball against the Chicago White Sox and no one in Cleveland is going to keep him from doing so. He crushed two home runs off Chris Sale, one to tie the game and another to take the lead. Raburn now is tied for the most home runs against Sale (4) and has hit 20 of his 81 career long balls against the South Siders.
Feathers Down
Trevor Bauer’s primary problem throughout his career has been his lack of control, particularly high in the strike zone, and he showed it perfectly in the second inning today. The first 12 pitches of the inning were balls to load the bases after which Carlos Sanchez came up swinging and grounded out to second to score one. Tyler Flowers then hit a sacrifice fly to right to score another. Bauer would walk one more before striking out Alexei Ramirez to end the inning. The overly aggressive White Sox hitters did not take a single strike all inning and swung at quite a few that were well out of the zone. Had they come up and took every single pitch he threw, the inning could still be going on.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 – Chicago White Sox 2
Scoreboard Watch: The Angels against the Dodgers and the Rangers against Seattle all started late today, but the Tigers did the Indians a favor by beating the Rays 5-4. For the moment, the Indians are a half game behind Tampa and 4.5 behind Texas for the second Wild Card.
On Deck: Tomorrow’s should be a very interesting match as Carlos Carrasco makes his return from the disabled list only to take on rookie sensation Carlos Rodon.
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