Roster Update: In AAA news Anthony Swarzak, who had been on the temporary inactive list, has been released by the Indians so he can pursue his baseball career in South Korea according to Jim Massie of the Columbus Dispatch. Swarzak had a 3.38 ERA in 13.1 innings with 13 strike outs in limited Major League action this year. We wish him all the best as begins a new era in another continent.
Going even further into the minors, the Indians wrapped up their draft today, picking the 11th through 40th rounds. Kevin Gall covered yesterday’s rounds this morning and will have more on today’s picks Thursday morning.
Player of the Game
Nick Hagadone was the first into the fray when Trevor Bauer was removed in just the fourth inning. The Indians big lefty was able to end the fourth, stranding a runner on second and pitch another complete inning without a base runner allowed, striking out one.
Feathers Up
Tyler Naquin has continued his hot streak from Akron to Columbus going 2/5 with an RBI tonight pairing with Francisco Lindor to go 5/10 with two doubles. If these two were on the Indians instead of the Clippers, it is possible there would have been a single positive note from the Indians game to place here.
Milestone Alert: A double in the ninth after starting the game 0/4 gave Jason Kipnis hits in 20 straight games at home. This is the Indians record for a hitting streak at Progressive/Jacobs Field, but is seven short of Miguel Dilone‘s mark at Cleveland Stadium in 1980.
Feathers Down
Trevor Bauer may not think it is a big deal when he walks batters, but it certainly was tonight. He walked three batters in the third before allowing his second hit of the game, a Kyle Seager grand slam just beyond the wall in right center. After that, he got right back to it by walking Seth Smith. While Bauer did get squeezed some by Dan Iassogna’s small strike zone, the majority of Bauer’s balls were well out of the zone, so the fact that he didn’t get the benefit of the doubt isn’t surprising. After walking another and giving up a single in the fourth, Logan Morrison doubled to bring home two and Bauer’s night ended shortly after with just 3.2 innings pitched.
The Mariners added a few more runs in the seventh after Mike Aviles allowed them to start off with a free runner on second thanks to an error. Austin Adams, who had pitched well in the sixth, then allowed two doubles and a single to allow three more runs to come home.
Of course, the total runs allowed didn’t really matter once the Mariners got their second of the night. The Indians were able to score just once, continuing a long stretch of devastatingly anemic offense. While they did get a lot of hits (8), these were spread throughout the lineup at inopportune times. They have now scored just 2.75 runs per game over their last eight games and there is no easy explanation why other than bad luck. They had a runner in scoring position with less than two outs in the first, second, fourth and fifth and eighth innings, but were only able to score individual runs on three occasions.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 – Seattle Mariners 9
On Deck: After two tremendous pitching match-ups in games one and two, the Indians and Mariners will finish this three game series with Shaun Marcum facing J.A. Happ. Considering the Indians have been completely unable to score runs over the past week it will take everything they have to avoid getting swept by Seattle.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
