Roster Update: The Indians third roster change of the season was as unsurprising as the first two. After Cody Anderson struggled with command for his third consecutive start (of four this season), he has been demoted to AAA Columbus in exchange for Kyle Crockett. Aiding this move is the fact that the Indians are off Thursday and Monday and can sneak by without a fifth starter until May 7th. Until then, Trevor Bauer will continue in Carlos Carrasco‘s vacated spot.
Player of the Game
Carlos Santana, who went 3/4 with a double, a walk, a steal and two runs scored for a .231 WPA and his third Player of the Game of the year. We’ll catch up with Carlos more as the post game goes on.
Feathers Up
There was a 45 minute delay before the start of the game, but once things got rolling, Santana was ready to go. He singled up the middle on a 1-1 pitch, then stole second. Unfortunately, the rest of the lineup wasn’t quite as ready and a strike out from Jason Kipnis and two ground outs ended the inning with Santana on second. The Indians fared a little better next time Santana came to the plate as his single in the third moved Tyler Naquin, who walked, to third. Both runners scored on the subsequent Francisco Lindor double to bring the game to 3-2.
Milestone Alert: When Santana scored that run, it was his ninth of the season, which by itself isn’t impressive, but the fact that it was the 403rd of his career is at least slightly. This moved him beyond former AL MVP George Burns and Michael Brantley on the Indians all time list into sole possession of 50th place. Santana scored a second run in the fifth as well.
Twins top prospect Jose Berrios looked pretty special in his debut tonight with a lot of movement on his pitches and pretty good control for such a young player, but the Indians made him work and he hit 93 pitches in the fifth inning and had to be removed from the game. While the Indians couldn’t generally get a hit off Berrios the first time around (excluding Santana and Naquin), they adjusted and put two runs across in the third and two more in the fifth. Naquin looked particularly comfortable against the young stud with solid contact in both his at bats.
Since they get mentioned whenever they fail, it’s only fair to note that Crockett, Zach McAllister, Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen finished the final four innings of the game without allowing a run to maintain the Indians one run win. Combined, they struck out six while allowing three hits and two walks.
Feathers Down
The Indians had another player go down today with a leg injury when Santana over strode running from first to third on Lindor’s double. He hit the front of the base funny, but was still able to run at full tilt the rest of the way home on the play. Immediately after scoring, however, he hobbled to the dugout and was looked over by Indians’ staff. Because he was the DH, he didn’t have to go back out in the field and he walked and scored in his next at bat, but this will be one more body part to be concerned about for the time being.
Josh Tomlin was in full contact mode tonight and it hurt him early. In the first, he gave up doubles to the lead-off hitter, Danny Santana and Miguel Sano and a single to Oswaldo Arcia to spot the Twins a 3-0 lead. After setting down ten batters in a row and quickly thanks to that contact strategy, Tomlin allowed two more singles in the fifth with a two base error in between (on his own pick off throw to first) to score one more. While this probably should have been the end of the game for Tomlin, Terry Francona had to leave him in for his daily home run, which came courtesy of Byung-ho Park in the sixth inning. To say daily home run is not an exaggeration either as Tomlin has now given up 1.44 HR/9 in his career, the most ever for an Indians pitcher with at least 400 innings pitched.
The Indians scored six tonight against some solid pitching from the Twins, but it wasn’t a full on offensive attack as most of the damage was done by the nine through three hitters. While Kipnis was included in this thanks to an RBI double, he maybe had the worst night of any Indians hitter, striking out four times and stranding three in scoring position. Yan Gomes and Marlon Byrd have each seen better days as well as they combined to go 0 for 8 at the plate with one strike out. Gomes also allowed a rare two steals in two attempts defensively, both on high throws to second base.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 6 – Minnesota Twins 5
On Deck: The Indians will be off tomorrow, but will be back at in on Friday in Philadelphia for the final three game set of the current road stand. Corey Kluber will pitch on normal rest for the Indians and the Phillies are yet to announce a starter for the home team.
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