Roster Update: Happy September 1st, MLB teams! You may now have up to 40 players on your Major League rosters. In celebration, the Indians have brought Chris Johnson and Gavin Floyd off the DL (the latter will be used out of the bullpen) and have promoted Shawn Armstrong from AAA. He played some for the Indians in August and was extremely successful out of the pen.
Player of the Game
Yan Gomes was responsible for the Indians first run of the game in the fourth with an opposite field home run and another solo home run, this time by Michael Brantley, tied it in the seventh. After the Blue Jays regained the lead, it was up to Gomes again and he hit a nearly identical solo home run in the ninth that tied the game again.
Feathers Up
The Indians infield defense continues to impress and a few of the highlights from tonight came because Jason Kipnis was the DH and Jose Ramirez was covering a ton of ground in his absence. In addition, Francisco Lindor made a couple nice grabs as did Ryan Goins, the Blue Jays second baseman.
Cody Anderson continued his solid play since returning from the disabled list, allowing just two runs tonight on sacrifice flies. He allowed just three hits, all singles and walked just two. While he looked a little off early on, he quickly recovered and kept the ball down for the later innings, retiring his final ten batters faced and completing six innings. Since this was just his second game back, there was no reason to push him.
In addition to his defense, Lindor hit two hustle doubles when it mattered late in the game, although he was unable to score. In the eighth, he just barely avoided the tag (as replay confirmed), then took third on a ground ball to short. In the tenth, he hit it down the line in right rather than towards center and had a little more time to get there, but a slower man wouldn’t have even attempted to take two.
Feathers Down
The Blue Jays added a third sacrifice fly in the seventh, but unlike the first two, this one was very preventable. Ryan Webb walked the lead-off hitter, Justin Smoak, after having him down 0-2, then allowed his pinch runner, Dalton Pompey, to steal second and third. While Gomes had a decent chance at getting him at second, he made a poor throw, then didn’t even have the chance to throw him out at third. Pompey scored on a deep fly to Abraham Almonte in center, giving Toronto back the lead.
Looking at what could possibly be a long night, Terry Francona decided to stick with Bryan Shaw for two innings after he pitched well in the ninth. He would not continue that success in the tenth as he allowed a single to Dioner Navarro, a fly to mid center by Kevin Pillar and a two run home run to Goins to end the game in walk off fashion.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 – Toronto Blue Jays 5
Scoreboard Watch: New to the post game, the Scoreboard Watch will keep an eye on other teams in the Wild Card race and will be around as long as it seems necessary. The Indians will fall to a game and a half behind Tampa Bay as they defeated the Orioles in convincing fashion. The Angels against the Athletics, Twins against White Sox and Rangers against Padres were still active when the Indians wrapped up.
On Deck: The Indians will finish their season series against Toronto and unbelievably, play their final game against a non-AL Central opponent until the last three games of the year. It will feature the former Cy Young award winning knuckleballer R.A. Dickey against Trevor Bauer at 7:07 PM in Rogers Center.
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