Player of the Game
Carlos Carrasco allowed a run this time around, making this start less impressive than his last two, but still pretty good. The only run of the game scored against Carrasco came on a solo home run by Marwin Gonzalez. For the rest of the six innings he threw, he allowed just one other hit, a single and walked two batters while striking out eight. He was not eligible for the win as the Indians didn’t score behind him, but he did win his third straight Player of the Game.
Feathers Up
Zach Walters continues to mash as he now ranks ninth on the Indians in home runs with five in just ten games. He has just eight hits and two walks overall, so more than half the time has reached base, he has done so with a home run. Unfortunately, the Indians offense has been unable to get anyone on base ahead of him and all of Walters’ home runs have been solo shots. He now has hit home runs in each of his past three games.
Feathers Down
While the Indians pitching of late has been tremendous, the offense has been the exact opposite and was so again tonight. They rank 22nd in baseball in August in runs scored with a team OPS of just .677 and an average of .240. Four times in the Indians last eight games, including tonight, they have scored a single run or less and five times they have scored two or less. Tonight, they went 5/31 as a team with no extra base hits and eight strike outs. The top four hitters went 2/16 with five K’s with the only scoring chances provided by Walters and pinch hitter Mike Aviles.
The Indians had a great scoring opportunity in the eighth after Tony Sipp made a mistake, throwing a sacrifice bunt to second and allowing both runners to be safe. With runners on first and second, Mike Aviles was picked off second when Roberto Perez took a ball when attempting another sacrifice. On that play, Tyler Holt went to second, but he got himself out trying to steal third with Perez still up. Once the inning had changed from first and second with no one out to bases empty and two outs, Perez struck out to end it.
Not learning from others mistakes, Carlos Santana made a similar one the following inning. In the top of the ninth with one out and a runner on first, Santana went to second looking for the inning ending double play. The throw was high and instead of just getting the runner at first and having a runner on second with two outs, there were runners on first and third with one. To make things worse, Roberto Perez tried to catch Dexter Fowler stealing second, but instead, threw the ball into center field as well, allowing the go ahead run to score from third and advancing Fowler to third. A three run, Jon Singleton home run capped things off as Cody Allen “allowed” four unearned runs to give the Astros the 5-1 lead.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 1 – Houston Astros 5
On Deck: The Astros will stay in town for two more, including a Saturday night affair, tomorrow at 7:05 PM.
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