Player of the Game
Playing his game the best way he knows how, Carlos Santana was responsible for both some early scoring and a late attempt at a comeback. In his second at bat, Santana was the first batter to walk during the carousel mentioned later, then in his final at bat, he hit a solo home run to bring the game within one run. The Royals would ultimately score two more in the bottom of the inning to keep the Indians at bay, but without Santana’s two runs, things would have been even worse.
Feathers Up
As if the entire team has been meditating after games with Carlos Santana, the Indians found a new level of patience today. Five different Indians walked (including Santana) and in the third it lead to the beginnings of a comeback. Santana, Lonnie Chisenhall, David Murphy and Michael Bourn all walked that inning with a Michael Brantley single in between to force home two runs. Bourn’s walk was the last of the inning and the most impressive as the usually aggressive hitter worked an 0-2 count into a six pitch walk. Of course some of this had to do with Edinson Volquez throwing 37 balls of his 78 pitches, but if the Indians weren’t patient and didn’t make him work, he wouldn’t have had the chance to.
Feathers Down
It’s pretty impressive that with all the play within the American Mid-West, the Indians hadn’t had a rain delay before today, but the Kansas City rains made up for that absence well today with a 2 hour 17 minute delay before things got started. Luckily, they still got the game in and both teams new well in advance that it would be delayed so neither starter was wasted.
Corey Kluber continued his recent struggles today by getting into a bad start as soon as the game began. He hit the first batter he face, Alex Gordon, then allowed singles to Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain. With one run in, Indian killer (career .280 average with 9 home runs and 44 RBI coming into the game) Eric Hosmer crushed a Kluber offering past the wall in deep center for a three run home run. With that, Hosmer now has three home runs and 11 RBI against the Indians alone this year (he has two HR and 12 RBI against all other teams). While Kluber settled down immediately after, finishing the inning and throwing three more scoreless after, he quickly placed the Indians in a large hole from which to climb.
In a season full of poor games by the bullpen, this may have been the worst. Between the sixth and the seventh, Terry Francona needed to use six pitchers to record four outs (Kluber got the first two in the sixth easily). In the sixth, Marc Rzepczynski gave up a hit without getting an out and, while Bryan Shaw did finish that inning without score, Nick Hagadone began the seventh with two hits allowed, beginning the nightmare again. Scott Atchison also gave up two hits without an out, forcing Francona to go to his closer, Cody Allen, with a three run deficit in the seventh inning. Allen did get all three without further runs scoring, but the bullpen quickly turned five runs into seven and was lucky not to allow more.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 4 – Kansas City Royals 7
On Deck: The Indians will head to Minnesota to take on the red hot (believe it or not) Twins for three. The first of the set will take place Friday night at 7:05 PM ET with Trevor Bauer taking on Mike Pelfrey.
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