Player of the Game
Accounting for the only run today, Jose Lopez walks away with today’s Player of the Game. In the 2nd inning, Lopez led off the inning with a double. He advanced to 3rd on a ground out by Michael Brantley and came around to score on a wild pitch with Shelley Duncan batting. His score of 1.23 gives him 5 PoG awards on the year.
Feathers Up
Derek Lowe placed a perfect bunt in the 5th inning, giving him a single and advancing the runner, Casey Kotchman. Though Interleague Play is not favorable for American League teams in National League parks, Indians pitchers have managed to get several hits this year.
Lowe kept the game within striking distance in his outing today. Similar to Jeanmar Gomez yesterday, Lowe retired the first 11 Houston batters. Lowe only gave up 3 runs in 6.2 innings in his loss today.
Feathers Down
In the 8th inning, Nick Hagadone pitched 2 outs and Esmil Rogers pitched one out. Each pitcher gave up a home run and the Astros lead was increased to 6 runs by the end of the inning. Prior to the inning, the Indians only trailed by 2.
The Indians offense only managed to get one run on 5 hits today. Hopefully Travis Hafner will return soon to add power to this line up and jump start the offense.
This was supposed to be an easy series for the Indians as they faced a losing Astros team. The Indians continue to struggle against left-handed pitching, which is the main thing that hurt them in this series.
Play of the Game
With a tie game and one out in the 5th, a relay of Shelley Duncan to Asdrubal Cabrera to Jose Lopez at third base gunned down Jordan Schafer, who was trying to stretch a double into a triple.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 1 – Houston Astros 7
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