Player of the Game
Josh Tomlin pitched seven innings, struck out five and allowed seven hits without walking any. He allowed just one run on a solo home run which we will go into detail about later on.
Feathers Up
The Indians didn’t knock around Chris Young like they did last time around, but despite only scoring once while he was in the game, they knocked out the Royals starter during the fifth inning. Dillon Gee came in with one out and two on and promptly gave up a single to Jason Kipnis to score the Indians’ second run. Given how tough Kansas City’s bullpen can be, it’s important to get them into the game as early as possible and make them work, not just for today’s game, but for the series and the season as a whole.
Milestone Alert: Carlos Santana has been on a homer streak of late hitting two on Sunday and another today. This brings his season total to 13 and his career mark to 130, tying former Indians short stop and third baseman Woodie Held for 14th in Indians history.
Rajai Davis continued his success on the bases, stealing two while being a general nuisance. He now has 17 on the season while being caught just three times. He stole just 18 bases while being caught eight times last year as this season is looking to be more like his previous seven when he averaged 40 steals per year, getting caught 10 times.
Feathers Down
At some point, Josh Tomlin’s penchant for allowing runs on home runs, but no other way is going to become legendary. This year, he’s allowed a home run in every start except two. Eight, including tonight’s by Whit Merrifield, have been solo shots and the other five have all been for two runs. Overall, Tomlin has allowed 32 runs this year, 18 of which have come via the long ball. While 8 AL pitchers have allowed home runs more often than Tomlin (1.57 HR/9), none of those pitchers except Cole Hamels have an ERA under 4.00 like Tomlin does (3.27). Probably the best reason for such a large percent of his runs coming by the home run is that he almost never walks anyone and he in fact leads the AL with 0.85 walks per nine. Not surprisingly, he walked none tonight. If possible, this was the most Tomlin outing Tomlin is capable of, but if these numbers show anything it is that Tomlin does nearly the same thing every night.
The question still lingers of how long Terry Francona will continue to use Bryan Shaw in the 8th inning if his struggles continue. For the third appearance in a row, he allowed a run for a total of four runs on two home runs in two innings. Today, it wasn’t entirely Shaw’s fault as the inning was extended by a play that should have been made by third baseman Jose Ramirez, but it was Shaw who allowed the first pitch home run to Salvador Perez after striking out Lorenzo Cain.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2 – Kansas City Royals 3
On Deck: The Indians look salvage the series against Kansas City and go 7-3 overall against the Royals tomorrow in their final game of the long road trip. The game will start at 8:15 PM in KC and will feature Corey Kluber and Ian Kennedy.
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