Player of the Game
While the offense was impressive early on, it was Corey Kluber who made that lead stand up, going the distance and allowing just two runs. Kluber struck out eight and gave up just three hits and one walk. It was big that Kluber pitched the whole game while the Angels ran their bullpen ragged as, despite having an eight man bullpen, Terry Francona still only trusts at most five of those pitchers. To put an exclamation point on his performance, Kluber struck out Mike Trout looking with a 98 MPH fastball for the second out in the ninth.
Feathers Up
It didn’t take long tonight for the Indians to put away the troubles they had scoring in Seattle. Of course, the opponent had a lot to do with that, but the runs and the win count the same either way. Before the Angels got to bat tonight, the Indians put four on the board, starting with a single from Jason Kipnis and a two out double from Mike Napoli. Carlos Santana doubled him in, then Jose Ramirez singled in Santana for another run. Ramirez was able to take second on the throw home, then third on a steal before coming home on a Yunel Escobar error.
The Tribe added a couple more the next inning and knocked Hector Santiago out after just 1.1 innings, his third start of less than three innings in his last five starts. Michael Martinez started the inning off with a single, then Rajai Davis doubled him to third. Kipnis scored the first with a single and Francisco Lindor knocked in another with a sacrifice fly. When Napoli walked, it was all Mike Scioscia could take even though he stated before the game that he would not pull Santiago from a game early again as the bullpen had already been overworked.
Feathers Down
Corey Kluber pitched well tonight against a weak offense (beyond Trout and Albert Pujols), but when he did give up a run it was all on him. It was in the sixth when he allowed two singles and a wild pitch to score the Angels second run after which he got the two decent hitters in the Angels lineup, Trout and Pujols, to ground out.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 6 – Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 2
On Deck: Congratulations, you’ve almost made it as the Indians will play their last 10 PM game for almost two months tomorrow night. Trevor Bauer will start for the Indians against Matt Shoemaker of the Angels. They will have to hope he can stick around for awhile as Hector Santiago was unable to get through two innings for LA tonight.
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