Player of the Game
Things looked desperate again late tonight, but the most recent goat, Mike Napoli, turned hero with a game tying home run in the top of the ninth. Napoli had struck out twice earlier in the game and K’d 12 times in his last five games, but he had no trouble with the 94 MPH fastball from Kevin Jepson to hand the Minnesota closer a blown save. For this, Napoli earned a WPA of .282 and the Player of the Game.
Feathers Up
The Indians hit two solo home runs in the first three innings, making the most of few (no) run scoring opportunities early on. The first was hit by number two hitter, Jason Kipnis, who went out to right to give the Indians a one run lead and the second was out to left by Juan Uribe to tie the game at two in the third. Unfortunately, these were the Indians only two hits (or base runners in general) in the first five innings.
The Indians put two more across in the sixth in a more conventional fashion (at least for them) when Tyler Naquin singled to start off the inning and Carlos Santana doubled him home. Santana moved to third on a fly from Kipnis, then scored on another from Francisco Lindor. Naquin tried to start something similar in the eighth with a lead-off double, but Casey Fien was much harder to make contact against than Ricky Nolasco and the inning ended with two strike outs and the Indians down one.
Feathers Down
Cody Anderson continued to have trouble with his command and if anything, he was lucky tonight to be facing the light hitting Twins and not the Tigers that the Indians played last series. For the third game in a row, he allowed at five earned runs although this time he actually made it through the fifth inning. Even that was close as he loaded the bases with two outs and it took another fantastic play by Francisco Lindor to save two more runs from scoring. In all, he allowed ten hits including five doubles, most of which came on pitches that the Twins hadn’t seen the likes of since batting practice before the game.
Terry Francona is notorious at this point for leaving pitchers in just a bit to long to see if they can work things out on their own and tonight, the Indians lost because of it. After barely navigating the fifth, Francona went to Anderson again in the sixth and although he retired two quickly, the third batter of the inning, Eddie Rosario, took Anderson deep for a one run Twins lead. While Mike Napoli homered in the ninth to tie things back up, that smash could have given the Indians the lead instead with just a half frame to go.
For the second night in a row, the Twins walked off against the Tribe, this time in a more extended version against Cody Allen. Allen allowed an infield single to start the inning, but Danny Santana was caught stealing second on the next pitch after review changed the initial call. Brian Dozier then doubled to right center and, after a Joe Mauer intentional walk, a Miguel Sano single scored Dozier, ending the game. Allen retired only Santana at second, giving up three hits a walk and a run while taking the loss.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 5 – Minnesota Twins 6
On Deck: Josh Tomlin will go head to head with Twins top pitching prospect Jose Berrios in his MLB debut in the final game of the the three game set. Like the first two, this one will start at 8:10 PM as the Indians try to avoid the sweep in what looks to be a rainy and cold finale.
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