Player of the Game
While he didn’t near the dominance of Corey Kluber yesterday, Trevor Bauer still had a pretty nice start against the best team in baseball this afternoon. Bauer walked three and allowed four hits, but only the double by Mark Reynolds (the only Cardinals hitter to hit safely twice) was hit hard. His one run allowed came off Marc Rzepczynski after Bauer walked Peter Bourjos with one out in the eighth and was pulled. The Tribe starter struck out ten in 7.1 innings and, while it wasn’t 18 in eight, it is a still impressive number against a team like St. Louis.
Feathers Up
One of few Indians to actually reach base in today’s game, Jason Kipnis did so three times with a double, single and a walk. He has been crushing the ball all month and now has a modest six game hitting streak. More impressive than the streak itself is that he has reached base at least twice in each game including four times in each of the two games before today and three times in both games prior to that.
Milestone Alert: As the lead-off hitter, Jason Kipnis’ responsibilities include allowing to see the rest of the lineup to see as many pitches as possible in his first at bat, especially against a starter none have ever seen before like Michael Wacha. He did that well today with an 11 pitch at bat to lead off the game, culminating in his 100th career double.
The zeros weren’t stopped until the sixth inning after Wacha had already surpassed 100 pitches. Four pitches into his second to last batter of the game, Michael Brantley lifted a ball just beyond the right field fence to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. Brandon Moss then hit a double down the left field line to remove Wacha, but was unable to score after a Lonnie Chisenhall sacrifice bunt attempt caught him out at third.
Feathers Down
It looked to be a tough sun field today for the hitters as even the man with the most accurate strike zone on the team, Carlos Santana, struck out looking. Both teams had issues with this as the starters racked up 15 strike outs through the first six innings (21 total for the game). On the Indians, ten struck out during the game including Nick Swisher four times. Only Kipnis, Michael Brantley and Jose Ramirez avoided the K today.
Poor fundamentals continued to plague the Indians today as bunting and base running errors cost the Tribe at least two runs. The first situation came after Michael Bourn tripled with one out in the second. While a sac fly would have brought him home, Roberto Perez walked, then Jose Ramirez attempted a safety squeeze. Not getting the safety part, Bourn ran home despite the ball going back to the pitcher and was easily thrown out trying to score.
The second situation came in the sixth inning, which could have been a huge inning if played a little smarter. After Brantley’s home run and Moss’ double, Lonnie Chisenhall decided to bunt for some odd reason. He too batted it right back to the pitcher who easily threw to third to retire Moss. A Bourn single after would have scored Moss and did move Chisenhall to third, where he made another mistake. When Bourn stole second with two outs, Lonnie got caught half way between and was easily tagged out to end the inning.
Today in You Had One Job: With such an inability to score, the last thing the Indians need is a shaky bullpen, but that is what they got today. With one on and one out in the eighth, Rzepczynski came in with a one to nothing lead to face the left handed Matt Carpenter. Four pitches later, Carpenter went home and Rzepczynski left the game with a 2-1 Cardinals lead. Zach McAllister finished the inning without further issue by retiring the next two batters.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 1 – St. Louis Cardinals 2
On Deck: Bruce Chen will make his second start as an Indian tomorrow after the Tribe heads to Texas for three. The game will start at 8:05 PM ET in Arlington with Wandy Rodriguez taking the mound for the Rangers. This will be Cleveland’s first series against an AL West opponent since the first series of the season and just the fourth against a non-AL Central team.
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