Roster Update: In order to make room for today’s starting pitcher, Danny Salazar, the Indians sent outfielder Tyler Holt back to AAA. With Salazar in place, the Indians look to have a stable rotation set of Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, T.J. House, Carlos Carrasco and Salazar.
Player of the Game
With a final POG score of 3.16 (the lowest by a winning player in the past eight games), Danny Salazar takes home his third Player of the Game of the season. Salazar threw 5+ innings, allowing two runs and striking out four. This is now the seventh straight Player of the Game to be won by the starting pitcher with Salazar winning himself in two of his past three starts.
Feathers Up
It seems like no one can do wrong in the Indians rotation right now and Danny Salazar continued that streak today, pushing the excellent starts to seven straight games. Salazar was not quite as dominant, allowing three doubles that were all uncomfortably close to being home runs, but he still kept the Orioles off the board for five innings. He was pulled in the sixth after putting two on with a double and a hit batter, the only time other than the third that Salazar let two Orioles reach base at the same time. His two runs allowed were actually scored off Scott Atchison after Salazar was removed from the game.
Feathers Down
Scott Atchison has generally been solid this season for the Tribe, but he blew the save (or hold) today in the sixth inning. While he did come into a tough spot, with two runners on with no outs in a one run game, he retired the first two batters without the runners advancing. It wasn’t until J.J. Hardy came up with two outs that the first run scored on a single to right, then the next came in on a Chris Davis double to left a batter later.
The Tribe offense was absent again today, being missing for most of the past week. While the bullpen did let the game get away (two solo home runs allowed by C.C. Lee and Kyle Crockett after Atchison came out pushed the score to 4-1), that remained irrelevant as the offense was incapable of scoring. The Indians actually lucked out as their two hits in the game came in the same inning and in the right order, otherwise, it would have likely been a shut out. In addition to the hits, the Indians walked four times, including two by Michael Bourn and two in the first inning, but none were able to take advantage against Kevin Gausman.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 1 – Baltimore Orioles 4
On Deck: The Indians will take Monday off as they head on the road to Minnesota for three. The first game will be at 8:10 PM ET on Tuesday.
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