Player of the Game
From his first at bat, Francisco Lindor made this game his own as he homered in the first inning. In his second at bat in the second, he knocked a two out, two run single then he added another, more authoritative single in the fourth to score one more. Of course, he added his superb defense as well, particularly on one diving play in the fifth when he ranged up the middle and threw from his knees to rob Alex Rios.
Feathers Up
Lindor wouldn’t have been able to knock in all those runs without people getting on ahead of him and tonight the primary player to do so was Mike Aviles. Aviles walked in each of his first two at bats and subsequently scored on Lindor hits, then singled himself in the sixth only to be stranded. He also added a superb defensive play at third base as the super utility man filled in nicely for Giovanny Urshela against the left hander.
The Tribe took advantage of some solid situational hitting to put a three spot on Danny Duffy in the second. After two were already out, Abraham Almonte hit a single and Mike Aviles walked to put two on. Jason Kipnis singled up the middle to score one and after a wild pitch moved Kipnis to second (Aviles was already on third), Francisco Lindor hit a seeing eye single through the right side of the infield to score two more. While the rally would end there, two more baserunners in the fourth would chase Duffy from the game early as Jeremy Guthrie was brought on for long relief.
Milestone Alert: Carlos Santana‘s fourth inning walk was his 96th of the season and 527th of his career. While neither of those numbers may seem significant, it was the walk that put him into a tie with Bobby Avila for 15th most in Indians history. He then surpassed him with another in the seventh inning. While Avila played 1,207 games for Cleveland, Santana has only played 787, the fewest amount among the top 27 in career walks for the Tribe. This rate of 0.67 walks per game is second in Indians history behind only Jim Thome (0.72) and considerably higher than number three, Larry Doby (0.57).
Danny Salazar looked fair in his last time out, but he was something extra special tonight. He threw little but strikes and was able to burn through seven innings on 102 pitches. Bringing back the strike outs as well, he K’d six to bring his season number up to 182. Salazar allowed just six base runners and one earned runs as he pitched quickly around two walks and four hits. The only damage in the game came off a Mike Moustakas solo home run to lead off the seventh.
Feathers Down
It’s not much of a gripe, but Terry Francona went to his usual close game relievers today despite having a four run lead, eschewing the normal three run standard. Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen pitched perfectly, striking out the first four they faced and finishing the game, but it is questionable why they were in at all. With a fairly large lead, it would have been a good time to avoid the two pitchers who have both thrown in more than 60 games and go to some of the younger arms like Ryan Webb, Austin Adams, Giovanni Soto, Kyle Crockett and Shawn Armstrong, who have each pitched just once in the past seven games. Armstrong, who is yet to give up a run in his career, has only been used once in the past ten games.
Awkward Stat of the Day: For the third night in a row, the Columbus Clippers outdrew their parent club, tonight 11,894 to 11,103. While the tickets have been free for the play-offs, this continues to show that there is a great interest in baseball in Ohio and maybe the Indians would be better served financially if they were to lower ticket prices. The Clippers won again and are 2-0 in the International League Championship, this time largely thanks to Michael Choice‘s two RBI and Toru Murata‘s six innings of one run ball.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 5 – Kansas City Royals 1
Scoreboard Watch: The Angels and Mariners got a late start to things today, but an Angels win last night gained them an extra game ahead of Cleveland. The Rangers continue to beat on their cross state foes and were winning 9-1 when the Tribe wrapped up. The Tigers were beating the Twins 3-1.
On Deck: Corey Kluber is scheduled to make his return to the rotation after missing a couple starts with a strained hamstring. He will face off against Yordano Ventura of Kansas City as the two finish their four game set at 7:10 PM September 17th in Cleveland.
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