Player of the Game
Carlos Santana was player of the series. He doubled in a run in the first inning to give the Indians a 2-0 lead and then came through with a 3-run homer in the sixth inning. He was 7-for-12 in the series with two HR, six RBI, a walk and no strikeouts.
Feathers Up
Mike Clevinger made one bad pitch all night and Alcides Escobar of all people clobbered it for a 2-run homer. He settled in however, working out of a few jams the rest of the way long enough to hand it over to “Bullpen Bullies” that didn’t even need Andrew Miller in the 5-2 win to sweep Kansas City.
Clevinger threw 14 pitches in the first, 14 in the second, 16 in the third, 23 in the fourth, and 13 in the fifth. While he only threw 47 of 80 pitches for strikes, he managed five innings and kept the team in the game through those 80 pitches. As the Indians have built him back up to a starters workload, this was the most efficient he had been. The Royals were 2-10 with runners on against him. If Clevinger can allow just two runs through five innings and hand it over to the bullpen in a few weeks, the Indians will be in good position to go deep into the playoffs.
As a whole staff, the Indians forced the Royals into 16 runners left on base.
Milestone Alert: With Santana’s 34th homer, he ties Joe Carter for 12th in the Indians all-time HR list with 151. He and Mike Napoli are the first Indians teammates to have 34 homers in the same season since Jim Thome and Juan Gonzalez did it in 2001. The previous four times it happened in Indians history all involved Thome.
Milestone Alert #2: Bryan Shaw has now been used in 73 games this season, tying him for tenth most in a single year with Danys Baez (2003), Rafael Perez (2008) and Marc Rzepczynski (2014)
Feathers Down
Rajai Davis has been the Indians leadoff hitter vs. LHP this season but over the last 20 days, Davis is slashing .150/.171/.325 in 41 plate appearances vs. southpaws. Over the last 30 days as a whole, Davis’ line is .188/.222/.304. At the moment, the only postseason eligible outfielders that aren’t ice cold are Lonnie Chisenhall and Brandon Guyer.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 5 (89-63) – Kansas City Royals 2 (77-76)
W: Dan Otero (5-1, 1.49) – L: Dillon Gee (7-9, 4.63) – S: Cody Allen (29)
Scoreboard Watch: Detroit won game one over Minnesota, 9-2 and played the second half of the double header. Boston beat Baltimore 5-3 to stay just 1/2 game back of the Indians for the second best record. Texas was off on Thursday and the Indians are now just a game back of them in the win column for best record. Both Texas and Boston hold tiebreakers over Cleveland, so they must finish a game ahead.
On Deck: Chicago White Sox (72-80) vs. Cleveland Indians (88-63) 7:10 p.m. EST
Miguel Gonzalez (4-7, 3.83 ERA – 1-0 in 1 GS vs. Indians in 2016) vs. Trevor Bauer (11-8, 4.24 ERA – 0-1 in 3G (2GS) vs. White Sox in 2016).
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