Roster Update: In likely the final roster update until the play-offs, the Indians added Adam Plutko to the active roster, largely to help out with Carlos Carrasco now out for the season with a broken hand. At the moment, the Indians are not planning on using Plutko until Saturday, which is a scheduled bullpen start with Cody Anderson leading off.
To make room on the 40 man roster for Plutko (who would have been added in the off-season anyway as he is rule 5 eligible this year), the Indians have designated LHP T.J. House for assignment.
Player of the Game
For his second straight start since returning to the rotation, Josh Tomlin was dominant. He worked inside on hitters and was able to induce quite a few ground balls, leading to some flashy defense and only five hits allowed. He did allow one run, but it came on an error as Abraham Almonte overran a ball in left field, allowing two runners to take an extra base. Most importantly, he didn’t allow a home run for his second start in a row after giving up long balls in 15 straight starts. He pitched 6.2 innings tonight, striking out three and walking none.
Feathers Up
Carlos Santana‘s 150th career home run was extremely well struck and gave the Indians the early 1-0 lead. Hit with one out in the third against Edinson Volquez, the first pitch hit went to the back of the lower level of seats in right field, a ball that would have possibly been in the mezzanine before renovations took out the first few rows of the second deck.
Following Tomlin, Bryan Shaw and Andrew Miller combined to throw 2.1 scoreless and they had to put in some work to make sure it stayed that way. Shaw came in with a runner on third after Tyler Naquin misplayed an Alex Gordon line drive into a triple with two outs. Shaw got Paolo Orlando to line out to right to end the inning, but gave up a single with one out in the eighth to bring on Miller. Pinch runner Terrance Gore stole second and went to third on a wild pitch, but Miller struck out the next two batters to strand him there. Miller stayed on for the ninth and set them down 1-2-3 again including a strike out of Salvador Perez to end the inning.
The Tribe took this one home on their 11th walk off of the season in truly spectacular fashion. Mr. Everything, Jose Ramirez, walked to start the ninth, then went to second on a misplayed sacrifice bunt attempt by Coco Crisp. With two on, Abraham Almonte tried to bunt for the second batter in a row, but was less successful and Perez was able to throw out Ramirez going to third. Rajai Davis found similar poor luck as he crushed a ball on the ground, but it hit off the leg of Joakim Soria and bounced straight to first base for the second out. The runners did advance again on the play, however, and Crisp scored from third on what was ruled a double for Brandon Guyer as he hit one just beyond the reach of Orlando down the right field line.
Feathers Down
In addition to blowing the sacrifice bunt, Almonte made an extremely costly error early in the game that easily could have cost the Indians the win if things had rolled slightly differently. This is not to say that he hasn’t been useful, he did have two solid at bats to start the game including a single, but it’s possible that his lapses in concentration and his ineligibility for the post-season should force him to the bench a little more. He has played in 30 of the Indians last 32 games and, given that the Indians have nearly wrapped up the division and others will need to take his place in the play-offs, the time is now for this transition to begin.
Milestone Alert: With a strike out in the third inning, Mike Napoli has tied the franchise mark for most K’s in a single season with 185. He then surpassed it with number 186 in the eighth. The previous mark was set by Jim Thome in 2001, but this isn’t even a career high for Napoli, who struck out 187 times in 2013. This is actually impressive for Napoli as he had 24 more plate appearances this year than he did that season coming into today. At 34 years old, Napoli has already set career bests in games played (141) and plate appearances this season.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2 – Kansas City Royals 1
Scoreboard Watch: The Tigers were still in action at the close of the Indians game, but with a 7-0 lead over Minnesota, it is unlikely they will lose. With the Indians win, however, the Tribe stays seven games ahead of Detroit in the Central and drops their magic number down to six. Kansas City’s elimination number is now two.
On Deck: The Indians used the off day Monday to move Corey Kluber up a day, now setting him up to pitch in the first game against Detroit and the second to last game of the season as well, placing him on perfect rest for the first game of the ALDS. He will face Ian Kennedy of the Royals with a chance to officially eliminate Kansas City from the Central Division race with a win.
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