Player of the Game
Yan Gomes started the Indians offense off tonight, knocking in three times the runs they had scored in the first two games combined in his first at bat. With two outs, Michael Brantley singled and Carlos Santana walked (two of the most common events in Indians history), then Gomes came through with a huge three run home run to right center to open the scoring. Gomes also walked in his second at bat as part of a 1/3 night.

Feathers Up
Michael Brantley extended his hitting streak to 15 games in his first at bat tonight with his 197th hit, then added number 198 with an infield single in the fifth and 199 with a double in the seventh. This was his second 15 game hitting streak of the season in addition to separate streaks of twelve, eleven (twice) and nine. One of his eleven game hit streaks came immediately after his first 15 game streak and the twelve game streak ended a game before the current streak started. His longest game streak without a hit was just three and happened only twice.

Milestone Alert: Carlos Santana continued to walk as he has all season and tonight he entered the most elite of company. With his 110th through 112th walks of the season, he passed Mike Hargrove (1980) and Jim Thome (2001) for sixth most in a single season. This will be the last update of Santana’s walk totals for the year as the top five spots all belong to Thome and are all at or above 118 walks in a single season (1996, 1997, 1999 [Indians record of 127], 2000 and 2002).

After Trevor Bauer was pulled in the fifth after giving up the lead, Zach McAllister came in and had another excellent bullpen outing. He stranded both runners left by Bauer, then gave up just one hit while retiring eight batters. For his effort, McAllister earned the win as the Tribe came back while he was in the game. He has now stranded all six base runners given to him as a reliever and hasn’t given up a run in his past four appearances covering 5.2 innings.

The Indians were able to score early and add on late in tonight’s game, something that has been completely absent during the team’s recent offensive struggles. After the three run home run in the first, the Tribe put two more over in the fifth, thanks to a Jose Ramirez double and another in the sixth. While the first three came through power, the next three were put together with timely hitting and great base running. Michael Bourn was hit by a pitch to start the fifth, then was able to score from first on the Ramirez double. Ramirez then scored from third on a fielder’s choice. The following inning, Mike Aviles walked, stole second, went to third on a Roberto Perez ground out and scored on a pinch hit sacrifice fly from David Murphy.

Milestone Alert Part 2: Once they got the lead, Terry Francona went to his usual group of Marc Rzepczynski, Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen. In addition to being the only team in American League history to have four relievers pitch in at least 70 games, the individuals continue climbing the leader boards. Rzepczynski is now the ninth most used pitcher in Indians history with 72 games, Allen is the fifth most with 75 and Bryan Shaw has tied the Indians all time record of 79 appearances on the season. With a series left, all three should get to pitch at least one or two more times this year.

Feathers Down
Trevor Bauer left much to be desired in his final start of the season after being pulled after giving up four runs in just 4.1 innings. While he gave up just one extra base hit, this was most likely because the Royals lack power as a team, as he was pitching up in the strike all night, leading to seven singles before the final double that knocked him out. Bauer struck out just two and walked two as well as he wasn’t fooling any Kansas City hitters.

Final Score: Cleveland Indians 6 – Kansas City Royals 4

Wild Card Magic #1

On Deck: The Indians have their final off day of 2014 on Thursday before Tampa Bay comes to town for the final three games of the season. The first of these will be Corey Kluber’s final start, 7:05 PM Friday night.