Player of the Game
The Indians ace showed his stuff once again tonight, pitching seven innings and striking out seven to earn his fifth win of the season. Masterson wasn't perfect, giving up three runs, all in the fourth inning, but other than that was fantastic. His final POG score was 4.70, his best start of his last five.
Feathers Up
The Indians needed some luck to finally get on the board tonight. In the fifth inning, Carlos Santana and Ryan Raburn walked to lead off the inning. Lonnie Chisenhall then hit a ball in the air to the right of the pitcher that fell, loading the bases. It still took an error to take advantage as Adam Rosales threw what should have been a double play ball into the dirt, allowing two runs to cross. While this is not the Indians preferred method of offense, they can't complain after scoring just once in the previous 15 innings.
Nick Swisher said, "enough of that small ball bull" and hit a home run to straight center to tie the game in the sixth. Carlos Santana followed an out later with a solo shot of his own to take the lead. It was the Indians tenth multi home run inning this year. The following vine (courtesy of @MattNewsHerald) is essentially how the Indians are feeling about this season:
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Milestone Update: With his 104th career save as an Indian (took him long enough) Chris Perez in now ranked fourth all time in Cleveland Indians history with Jose Mesa. Second place is still 25 saves away, but is definitely attainable. By the end of this season, Perez could even be the club's all time saves leader. Perez has just had six save attempts this season out of the Indians 17 wins, but has earned saves in consecutive days.
The Indians win puts them at 9-1 on the home stand and wins the series against Oakland before the finale tomorrow afternoon.
Feathers Down
Justin Masterson didn't allow a hit until the fouth inning, but when he did he let it all go. Masterson gave up two straight singles (both just out of the reach of a diving infielder), before recording an out. Tired of seeing-eye-singles, Brandon Moss hit a solid line drive to right to score Seth Smith for the first run of the game. Fresh up from AAA, Daric Barton continued the attack with another line drive single, this one to center as he knocked in two more runs. While the first couple hits were lucky, Masterson seemed to press afterwards, throwing a wild pitch and hitting a batter along with the hits.
The Indians needed one final bit of luck to win the game after Adam Rosalas hit a questionable double over the left field wall. After a challenge from Bob Melvin, the umpires reviewed the play and the play stayed as called, despite incriminating video evidence. Melvin was then ejected for further arguing the call that he was probably right about in the first place.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 4 – Oakland Athletics//platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js3
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