Roster Update: Three straight poor outings were enough for the Indians to regret promoting Nick Hagadone. Exchanging one left hander for another, Cleveland has brought back Kyle Crockett, who made his Major League debut straight from AA earlier this season.
Player of the Game
Carlos Santana continued his stretch of good bat play since returning from the disabled list (he hasn’t played catcher or third base during that span) as he hit a two run home run in the second inning, scoring David Murphy from first. The blast to right gave the Indians their only lead on the night at 2-0. In his eight games since coming back, Santana has hit two home runs, knocked in seven while playing very decent defense at first base.
Feathers Up
There was little to be excited about in this game, but the Indians two and three hitters did perform well. Asdrubal Cabrera was raking, hitting two doubles and a line drive up the middle that would have been a single against most teams. Michael Brantley followed him with the only run knocked in by an Indian other than Santana as he reached base safely three times (a single, a double and he was safe on an error). It would seem the Indians would have done better offensively with the top of the lineup going well, but Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall combined to go 0-8 with two strike outs, ending respective hitting streaks of ten and nine games.
Feathers Down
Walks kill and they destroyed Justin Masterson today in the second inning. The Indians ace walked the first two hitters, then gave up a single to Daniel Nava (David Ortiz was thrown out trying to score from second on the play), a double to A.J. Pierzynski and a triple to Jackie Bradley Jr. Masterson came into the inning with a two run lead, but his lack of command early allowed Boston to have a big inning. He walked the first two in the next inning as well, giving thought that something more may be wrong with Masterson than just a bad day. Kyle Crockett relieved him with no outs and two on in the third. Crockett got David Ortiz to pop out, but gave up a double to Mike Napoli, scoring both of Masterson’s base runners. With this, Masterson allowed five runs (all earned) in two innings with four walks, three hits and no strike outs.
The Indians got to see how a real Major League team plays defense tonight as Dustin Pedroia and the Red Sox put on a clinic. Pedroia made two outstanding plays, robbing Asdrubal Cabrera of a single to center in the first and Lonnie Chisenhall of a grounder in the hole in the sixth. Brock Holt was also of note, with two great throws from left and a fantastic running catch off the bat of David Murphy in the sixth. On the other side, Murphy missed a ball in right that went for a triple and committed an error on a line drive in the seventh.
The initial relief group of Crockett, Scott Atchison and Marc Rzepczynski was solid, not allowing a run between them from the third through the sixth inning, but everything changed in the seventh. Zep stayed in to face two left handers and gave up singles to both, prompting a pitching change to bring in Bryan Shaw. Shaw retired the first batter, but they gave up a double, a walk and a single to score both of Rzepczynski’s runners. After Shaw was removed, Josh Outman returned the favor, allowing one of Shaw’s runners to score, giving the Red Sox an insurmountable 9-3 lead.
It appeared that Outman had calmed things down, getting four outs in a row without allowing a base runner, but Terry Francona wasn’t satisfied using just six pitchers in the game and called upon Cody Allen to retire the final batter. After a long at bat, Xander Bogaerts took Allen off the light tower above the Green Monster. After a walk and a wild pitch, Allen finally struck out David Ortiz to end the inning. Allen hadn’t pitched in five days, so Francona just wanted him to get some work in, but this series hasn’t been kind to any Indians pitcher.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 – Boston Red Sox 10
On Deck: The Indians will try to get back into the win column as T.J. House will likely make his last start for awhile. Special 4:05 PM Saturday start time.
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