Player of the Game
The second incredible start in a row and fourth this time through the rotation belonged to Danny Salazar tonight who pitched 7.2 innings, allowing one earned run on two hits and two walks. He only struck out two, but didn’t need more than that as his infield defense was spotless, with great plays coming from Francisco Lindor, Giovanny Urshela and Jason Kipnis. Ironically enough, it was an error by Lindor in the eighth that kept him from finishing the inning and allowed a second, this time unearned, run to score.
Feathers Up
Francisco Lindor was both originally drafted and recently promoted largely because of his defense and tonight we got a first hand look. His diving play to rob Evan Longoria to end the fourth inning was as good as any the Indians have seen all year as he went full extension up the middle to block the ball, then picked it up and threw to first in time for the out.
Mini-Milestone Alert: Jason Kipnis gave the Indians the lead in the third inning with a two out, solo home run against Erasmo Ramirez. This was his 50th career home run, a number attained by only five second basemen in Indians history.
After not reaching base in his first two games, Giovanny Urshela has since got on in 17 straight games including a quick appearance on each base tonight after he hit a three run home run to left with two outs in the seventh. The inning had been prolonged with a line drive single up the middle by Carlos Santana and a walk of Brandon Moss as the Indians both created and completed a run scoring situation with two outs, a rarity of late.
Continuing the scoring late in the game, a 12 pitch at bat by Michael Brantley turned into a one out double that was immediately followed by the Indians third home run of the game, a two run shot to right by David Murphy. The pitcher, Kirby Yates, was obviously tired after the lengthy Brantley at bat, but instead of going to a left hander to face Murphy (or more likely Ryan Raburn), Kevin Cash stuck with him.
Feathers Down
For the second night in a row, an Indians perfect game was broken up by a former Indian. Last night, it was Grady Sizemore‘s seventh inning solo home run that took away Cody Anderson‘s perfect game, no hitter and shut out all in one stroke and tonight it was Asdrubal Cabrera‘s lead off walk in the sixth that took it away from Salazar. Keeping things clean for Salazar, Cabrera was eliminated with a double play, but he gave up the no hitter to the next batter as Curt Casali hit a double to left. Salazar lost the shut out when Cabrera hit a double with out out in the eighth.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 6 – Tampa Bay Rays 2
On Deck: The Indians will look to win the four game series early tomorrow as Carlos Carrasco faces off against Jesus Colome tomorrow night at 7:10 PM. Colome almost no hit the Indians last time around, but the Indians won behind Anderson’s first magnificent performance. Carrasco may have to equal that for the Tribe to keep their hot streak going.
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