Player of the Game
As good as he has been all year (2nd in AL in WAR), Corey Kluber has improved in each of his last four starts. Coming off a great, 14 strike out performance against the Rays, the Tribe ace struck out seven in 6.2 shut out innings against the Astros. He walked just two on the night and allowed five hits, all singles. While he still didn’t get much for run support, it was enough as he picked up just his fourth win of the season.
Feathers Up
It may not be much, but after four straight games without a hit, Carlos Santana has reached safely in each of the last two. After being bumped down to the seventh spot in the lineup, Santana’s first single tonight came in the first pitch of his first at bat against Vincent Velasquez in the second inning. He hit another to lead off the seventh with Velasquez still in the game. A couple singles aren’t much to get excited about, but the move to the bottom of the lineup could be good for Santana as he can figure out his swing and approach in low leverage situations.
Milestone Alert: While he has been struggling slightly of late, Michael Brantley put together a great game today including two singles and a solo home run. With those three hits, he has boosted his career number to 829, tying him with Luke Sewell for 50th most in Indians history. He did so in more than 300 less games than Sewell played. Next on the list is manager Terry Francona‘s father, Tito Francona at 832.
Feathers Down
While two is better than nothing, the Indians still won’t score when Kluber is on the mound. While initially this looked like a freak small sample size issue, the longer the trend continues, the more real it looks. His win/loss record and subsequent All-Star snubbing are almost completely due to this lack of run support. Overall this year, the Indians have scored a paltry 3.94 runs per game, but with Kluber on the mound they have scored just 2.39 including five starts with one or less runs scored behind him and no games with more than five scored.
Despite 16 consecutive scoreless appearances, Cody Allen was not used in the two run save situation tonight with Byran Shaw going instead. Shaw was perfect, so this isn’t a negative on him, but about an unknown possible injury to Allen. Zach McAllister was used in Shaw’s ordinary set up role and did a fantastic job, getting out of a jam in the seventh when Kluber left the game with runners on the corners and pitching a solid inning after, inducing a double play to retire his one runner allowed. Thankfully, the bullpen was up to the task without their closer, but they just got this ship put back together, they don’t need it falling apart again already.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2 – Houston Astros 0
On Deck: Game three of four between the Indians and Astros will feature Trevor Bauer and Dan Straily at 7:10 PM in Cleveland. Fans in attendance will receive a Carlos Santana bobble head, maybe just the thing he needs to break him out of his slump.
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