Player of the Game
On a night when Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals threw his 2nd no-hitter of the season, the Indians’ ace quietly had a very good game of his own. Corey Kluber‘s final line of 2015 was 8 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K . Of Kluber’s 16 losses this season, he has only given up more than 4 earned runs in 5 of those outings and pitched fewer than 5 innings in just 2. Tonight, he earned a .453 Win-Probablity Added (WPA) and kept the Indians in the game due to a lackluster offensive performance.
Feathers Up
Milestone Alert: With the strikeout of Boston’s Sandy Leon in the top of the 2nd (4th of the game) , Corey Kluber became the 4th pitcher in Indians history to record consecutive seasons of 240+ K’s. His 245 this season were the 12th most in Indians history.
Carlos Santana put the Tribe up 1-0 in the bottom of the 2nd with his 19th HR of the season; a 406 foot bomb to the bleachers in left. Red Sox “starter” Craig Breslow left a breaking ball that had nothing on it up in the zone which Santana crushed to into the heavens. According
to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, only 3 players in Indians history have 2+ seasons with 15+ HR, 25+ 2B, 85+ RBI, 100+ BB: Santana, Travis Hafner and Jim Thome.
Ryan Raburn made the score 2-0 with a solo HR in the bottom of the 4th. Again, Breslow left a 2-0 breaking ball belt high and Raburn hit it halfway up the bleachers in left. He entered tonight with 4th-best wRC+ (169) in AL vs. LHP. The HR increased the Indians probability of winning the game by 10.7%.
Gomes added 2 hits on the night and continues his good second-half of the season.
Feathers Down
The Indians squandered an opportunity to put more runs on the board in the 2nd. After the Santana home run, Yan Gomes doubled to right but the offense mustered 3 straight outs: Giovanny Urshela flied out to right and both Abraham Almonte and Jerry Sands popped out to short to end the inning.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2 – Boston Red Sox 0
On Deck: There is only one more regular season game to play for the Indians. They will wrap up the series and season on Sunday against the Red Sox at 3:10pm on Sports Time Ohio. RHP Rick Porcello of the Sox will square off against RHP Danny Salazar. In his last start, Porcello gave up four runs on six hits and one walk while striking out eight over eight innings Tuesday in New York. He’ll close out a disappointing season which saw him go 9-14 with a 4.24 FIP. However, his expected peripherals indicate that he’s pitched a little better than the regular numbers have shown: 3.77 SIERA along with a 3.79 xFIP.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
