Player of the Game
Yet again, Corey Kluber was magnificent in interleague play today, keeping the Cubs from scoring though the first six innings. He flirted with perfection for the third time this year, not allowing a base runner through the first 5.1 when David Ross hit a solid single to left. While it was disappointing to see him get so close and yet not complete the feat again, it probably wouldn’t have happened today any way as Kluber had a very high pitch count early on. He did allow two hits in the seventh for the first run of the game, but just four hits total and one run in his 7.2 innings.
Feathers Up
KKKKKKKKKKKluber Watch: In addition to his great proclivity for retiring batters without allowing base runners, Kluber struck out quite a few as well. His ten strike outs gave him 213 on the season, moving him past Bartolo Colon in 2000 for 20th most in a single season for the Cleveland Indians. He joins Gaylord Perry, Luis Tiant, Bob Feller and Sam McDowell as the only Indians pitchers to have two seasons within the top 20.
With two outs and down one in the ninth against Jon Lester, who had been terrific all night, Carlos Santana finally came through for the Indians first run of the night, saving Kluber from taking the loss. The inning started when Ryan Raburn, pinch hitting for Kyle Crockett, was hit by the first pitch he saw. Raburn was replaced by Abraham Almonte, who then moved to second on a Francisco Lindor single to the small patch of grass between the pitcher and catcher. After Michael Brantley struck out for the second out in the inning, Santana ripped a 0-1 pitch to right for the RBI single, tying the game.
Feathers Down
It is rare to find a game where a manager makes an obvious difference, but this was one. To start, Michael Brantley is still playing hurt, so rather than place him on the DL and bring up an actual outfielder, Mike Aviles started in center field and Jerry Sands in right with Abraham Almonte, the Indians best outfielder right now, on the bench. While this didn’t necessarily make a direct impact, both the ball that fell in front of Brantley to break up the perfect game and the one hit to Sands in right to break up the shut out were very catch-able balls by players who could run full speed.
In addition, Jon Lester is famous for being one of the worst pitchers in all of baseball at holding runners on, yet Francona never attempted a steal or hit and run in the entire game. Instead, there were four double plays hit into by Tribe hitters, ending any shot of a rally against the Cubs ace. The two most egregious mistakes by the manager were not having Brantley on the run when the count got to 3-1 against Santana in the 7th and pinch running Jose Ramirez in the 8th only to bunt him over to second. In the first situation, Santana grounded into his second double play of the game. In the second, Aviles bunt was the first out, then two ground outs left Ramirez stranded. The bunt made removing one of the team’s better hitters, Yan Gomes, was pointless.
Zach McAllister looked pretty good when he first came into the game in the bottom of the ninth and after some work, he struck out Chris Coghlan and Anthony Rizzo. Unfortunately for him, super rookie Kris Bryant hit the first pitch he saw out to right field for the walk off win, his 20th home run of the season.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 1 – Chicago Cubs 2
On Deck: After the make-up game, the Indians are done with their season series against Chicago and will now head back home for five. The first will be Tuesday night at 7:10 PM against Milwaukee and will feature Josh Tomlin and Wily Peralta on the mound.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
