Player of the Game
Carlos Santana atoned for last night’s poor performance by offensively leading the Indians to victory. He earned a ‘Player of the Game’ score of 7.34 with 2 singles, a walk and a home run, scoring twice and knocking in 3. Last night Santana had a score of -0.51 as he struck out 4 times. This was his highest score of 2011.
Feathers Up
Since we often remark on the Indians inability to score runners from second base, it’s important to note that the Indians did extremely well in this aspect tonight as 6 of the 7 runs were scored by runners in scoring position. The Indians had a couple of other hits with runners on as well that did not score including a single by Jason Donald with Matt LaPorta at second and two outs, where LaPorta was thrown out at home by about 20 feet. Silly Matt thought he was fast for a second.
Justin Masterson gave up the two run lead early on, but the Indians were able to come back twice and Masterson was able to keep them from scoring more than three. This is especially nice as it allowed Justin to earn his 9th win of the season after having three straight good starts without getting a win.
The Indians (especially Jason Kipnis) had been taking advantage of the short porch in right field at Fenway Park this series, but tonight, Travis Hafner and Carlos Santana each hit deep drives straight to center for a double and a home run and later, LaPorta and Kosuke Fukudome hit balls high off the Green Monster.
Feathers Down
The reason Austin Kearns has been starting the last couple games is that Michael Brantley hurt his right wrist. Apparently, he has been playing injured for some time now and is trying to see if resting it a few days will speed up the healing process. Hopefully he will be back soon as Michael Brantley with no wrists is still better than Austin Kearns.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 7 – Boston Red Sox 3
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