Roster Update: After separating his shoulder while trying to beat out a play at first base last night, Yan Gomes has been placed on the 15 Day DL and is expected to miss at least a month. To replace him, the Indians have taken Roberto Perez off the 60 Day DL a little earlier than scheduled. In addition, Kyle Crockett is returning to the Indians bullpen to give them a left handed option while Cody Anderson returns to AAA without making an appearance during his last stint with the team.
Player of the Game
Corey Kluber had some problems with command tonight at times, leading to three walks, but was able to work out of the few jams he got into, shutting out the Royals over seven innings. He struck out eight while allowing just four hits and a hit batter. Of the eight base runners, one was retired on a double play, one caught stealing and one thrown out trying to turn a double into a triple with three more stranded in the third thanks to a strike out and a couple nice plays by Juan Uribe.
Feathers Up
After Edinson Volquez made confounded both Carlos Santana and Jason Kipnis to start the game, he made the mistake of thinking Francisco Lindor would also sit back and watch an inside fastball go by. He was wrong and Lindor blasted a solo home run out to right for the Tribe’s first run of the night. Lindor now has 11 on the season and has been a big part in the team’s surprising power as they now rank 10th in baseball with 118 home runs after finishing last year ranked 22nd with just 141.
Milestone Alert: When he retired the first batter in the sixth inning, Corey Kluber moved into 50th in Indians history in innings pitched, surpassing Dave Burba. No other stat quantifies a pitcher’s time spent with an organization and Kluber now has 801.1 in his career in Cleveland.
If there is a positive about the Indians most recent losses to the Twins on Saturday and the Royals tonight, it is that the Indians have to know that they have to do something about the bullpen and they still have time to do it. The first and easiest step should be to let the younger players like Austin Adams, Joseph Colon and those still in the minors like Shawn Armstrong and Ben Heller take over more important situations, but picking up an elite late inning reliever is the only real answer. Losing a game like this in July is bad enough, losing one in October would be completely unacceptable with so many solutions available.
Feathers Down
Kluber only threw 95 pitches tonight and came out to throw the 8th, but was removed before throwing a pitch as he felt something in his right calf. He didn’t appear to be in severe pain and hopefully it will turn out to just be a minor cramp that won’t bother him longer than tonight.
Bryan Shaw didn’t continue Kluber’s great night as things went poorly for the reliever right from the start. Alcides Escobar began the eighth with a ball up the middle that looked like an easy ground out to short stop, but Shaw reached out and deflected it to third, allowing him to reach safely. A bloop single to center put two on and after Shaw couldn’t throw a strike on the first two pitches to Christian Colon, who was trying to bunt, Colon pulled the bat back and crushed a ball to deep center, scoring both runs and hanging Shaw with a blown save. Shaw was pulled after two more walks, but the inning wasn’t over yet. Jeff Manship allowed the next run to score on a single, then after walking Whit Merrifield, allowed a first pitch grand slam to Jarrod Dyson for his first home run of the year.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 – Kansas City Royals 7
On Deck: Brian Flynn will make his first start as a member of the Royals tomorrow night at 8:15 PM against Danny Salazar. Ned Yost is likely trying to take advantage of the struggles the Indians have had against left handers they haven’t seen before, but the Indians have faced Flynn once this year, in his first appearance of the season on May 6th when they scored two runs in four innings against the South Paw. Since then, Flynn has allowed just 5 earned runs in 22.1 innings.
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