Player of the Game
As much as Terry Francona and the Indians bullpen tried to blow this game, Michael Brantley wouldn’t let them. After the first blown save in the seventh, Brantley’s lead off solo home run to right gave the Tribe a one run lead. After that lead was blown away as well in the eighth, he came through for the second inning in a row, this time with a two out, two run shot to right off Blaine Hardy.
Feathers Up
Some tremendous defense by Lonnie Chisenhall kept the Tigers from gaining a big lead early on, then continued to keep them off the bases throughout the night. The biggest play was a very interesting one in the second inning. With one out, Anthony Gose hit a single to right with runners on first and second. After fielding the ball, Chisenhall threw home, but was cut off by Carlos Santana who caught Gose going to second. Andrew Romine tried to take advantage of the run down to score, but Chisenhall, who had run in to join the game of pickle with Gose, tagged out the runner than threw a seed to the plate to nab Romine as well.
Abraham Almonte has been a huge pick up for the Indians this year and his solo home run in the fourth tied the game today. On the season, he now has four home runs, five triples and five doubles in 105 at bats, surpassing Michael Bourn‘s extra base hit total of 14 in 289 at bats. He has been better than the man he replaced in every single facet of the game from defense, to power and speed, the latter of which he showed in his third at bat tonight when he hit a bunt single to first then stole second. After this, he promptly scored his second run of the night on Giovanny Urshela‘s second double of the night.
Danny Salazar wasn’t perfect tonight, but he was good enough. While he did allow ten base runners in 6.1 innings, only one scored while he was in the game (two scored off Bryan Shaw after he was removed) and all of the seven hits went for singles. This was a huge improvement over his last start, when he allowed five runs in 3.2 innings although he still didn’t strike out man with just three K’s.
After losing the lead in the top of the seventh, the Indians had a little comeback in them starting with Michael Brantley‘s lead-off home run. Chisenhall then singled and stole second before Yan Gomes knocked him home with a two out single high off the left field wall. This was the end for Tigers starter Alfredo Simon, ensuring that he wouldn’t go 5-0 against the Tribe this year.
Feathers Down
Despite mountains of data proving that sacrifice bunting is generally a bad idea unless the next hitter up is significantly better than you and significant anecdotal evidence from this season, Francona continues to have (or let) Francisco Lindor waste outs. Tonight it was down one in the third with runners on first and second and none out. After moving the runners, Brantley and Carlos Santana popped out to end the inning adding another case of anecdotal evidence to the already significant statistical analysis.
Shaw came into tonight’s game with one out in the seventh and bases loaded and very quickly unloaded them with a wild pitch to the backstop. After recording an out, Shaw gave up a single to right by Ian Kinsler to blow the save and tie the game, but for the second time in the game, Chisenhall got an assist at the plate that was turned into an out thanks to instant replay, saving Shaw from giving up the lead. Staying in for the eighth, Shaw continued to struggle, giving Cody Allen a bad situation with just one out and two on.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 7 – Detroit Tigers 5
Scoreboard Watch: The only other team in the race to play today was the Texas Rangers, who lost early to the Mariners. This allowed the Indians move to just four games back of the second Wild Card.
On Deck: On Friday night at 7:10 PM, Cody Anderson will take on Justin Verlander in the second game of this four game set with Detroit. It will be a rematch of the September 6th game in Detroit which the Indians won 4-0.
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