Roster Update: Bringing up their third prospect in as many days, the Tribe sent down reliever C.C. Lee to Columbus in exchange for T.J. House prior to the game. After using ten relievers after the past two games, the Indians needed some fresh arms in the bullpen, this doesn’t seem to be because of anything Lee did wrong, and he could be back when his ten days in AAA are up.
Player of the Game
Asdrubal Cabrera either scored or knocked in both of the Indians only runs in the game as his bat continues to heat up in the month of May.
Feathers Up
-The Indians were able to get to the A’s bullpen quickly albeit via an ejection. In the bottom of the second, A’s starter and former Indian LHP Scott Kazmir was thrown out of the game for arguing balls and strikes.
-Cabrera had positive contributions to both the Indians runs. This continues his upward trend as was written about earlier this week. He walked in the bottom of the second to start a small rally in which the Tribe took an early 1-0 lead. In the sixth, he hit a sacrifice fly to score Michael Brantley.
-T.J. House, who was called up prior to the game, made his MLB debut and pitched a scoreless top of the ninth inning.
Feathers Down
-The offense could not capitalize on the early dismissal of Kazmir. A’s reliever Dan Otero came on to pitch 3.2 innings of scoreless baseball. He faced 12 batters while striking out one and allowing only four hits.
-Indians starter Josh Tomlin gave up a two-run homerun to Brandon Moss in the top of the third; he has now allowed a homerun in each of his three starts…
-Carlos Santana struck out swinging in the bottom of the first with Michael Brantley occupying first base. He also struck out to lead off the bottom of the fourth… both relatively high leverage situations. After his aforementioned strikeout, Santana either struck out or walked in 72 of his 180 plate appearances so far this season.
-Jesus Aguilar made a critical error in the top of the seventh as he dropped the throw from Asdrubal Cabrera on what would have been an inning-ending double play. The A’s Josh Donaldson quickly followed with a two run triple while Moss doubled him home. Essentially, the error cost the Indians chance of winning the game from 32.5% down to 5.5%. This was the proverbial “nail in the coffin.”
-The third Indians error came when Cabrera made a tough throwing error in the top of the ninth. With the naked eye, it looked as if Santana, who was playing first at the time, simply dropped the throw.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2 – Oakland Athletics 6
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