Player of the Game
It only took two innings to win the Player of the Game today as Anthony Swarzak becomes the first bullpen recipient of 2015. He relieved Corey Kluber in the seventh inning with a runner on second and none out following a three run scoring binge and quickly put the Sox down in order. Back for the eighth, Swarzak allowed a single, but struck out two in a scoreless inning. He finished with three strike outs, one hit allowed and two shut out innings for a POG score of 2.70. The next highest player was Brandon Moss with a score of 0.77.
Feathers Up
As the lead-off hitter, Michael Bourn‘s primary job is to get on base and today he did that with two singles. It was his first multi-hit game since April 10th and just the fourth time this season that he has reached base twice in the same game (the second since 4/10). Of course, he didn’t actually cross the plate today, but either did anyone else and at least he made scoring runs an option.
Feathers Down
Most of the season, the Indians haven’t been able to get base runners on consistently, so when they have gotten extra base hits, they haven’t counted for much. Today, they had no issue getting on, but getting in seemed impossible. In each the second (first and third with one out), third (first and second with one out, then bases loaded with two) and fourth (first and second with two outs) innings, the Indians had great scoring opportunities, but were unable to bring home a single run. In each case, different players were involved in each place as six different batters reached base in those three innings and five different batters stranded runners in scoring position.
Allowing just six runs in 6+ innings, this was by far Corey Kluber’s worst start this season and his worst overall since September 1st, 2014. The Indians’ ace gave up the first run in the first as Jose Abreu repeated his first inning solo home run from yesterday, then went on to allow three doubles and seven singles across the next six innings. While a double play in the third did help stem some damage, the White Sox second run scored on the play, the second of three single run innings. In the seventh, Kluber faced four batters, all of whom reached base and three of which scored while he was still in the game. In addition to being hit harder, Kluber struck out just five, far from his 25 strike outs across three games prior to this game.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 0 – Chicago White Sox 6
On Deck: After an off day Thursday, the Indians will wrap up this road trip (tied for third longest of the season at nine games) with a trip to another Central Division destination, Detroit. Two young starters will face off in game one at 7:08 PM Friday night with Shane Green (3-0, 0.39 ERA) going for Detroit and Danny Salazar (1-0, 3.00 ERA) for Cleveland.
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