Player of the Game
Carlos Carrasco pitched another excellent game tonight when his team needed him to step up the most. With no run support behind him, Carrasco threw seven innings, striking out eight and allowing just a single run thanks to a couple singles and a wild pitch in the third. The Indians immediately came back to tie the game and Carrasco set the Royals down, allowing just five hits in the game and none after the fourth. In addition, by pitching seven innings, Terry Francona was able to save his relievers to match up with every batter in the eighth, using a different pitcher for each out.
Feathers Up
While Indians pitchers may allow their strike out numbers to dip as the season drags on in order to save pitches, it is good to know they all have that ability in their arsenal. Tonight, Carlos Carrasco used the strike out when needed to end the first, second and third innings, each time with runners on base. In total he struck out seven in first four innings before settling down and not allowing any base runners over his last three innings.
Brandon Moss worked an 11 pitch at bat in the fourth against Jeremy Guthrie including five fouls after going down 1-2 and four in a row after the count was full. To finally end Guthrie’s misery, Moss blasted a ball out to right beyond Alex Rios to give the Indians their first score of the game and tie things up at one. It was his team best ninth of the season. With two other singles today, he has seven of his 42 hits this season in the past two games.
Wade Davis came into this game with a 0.00 ERA in 22 innings, but these things can’t last forever and the Indians worked hard to become the first team to tag him with a run all year. Michael Bourn lead off the eighth with a walk and was replaced twice by runners with fielder’s choices. The second came from Jason Kipnis, who stole second before Carlos Santana walked. With two on and two out, Michael Brantley ripped a single up the middle to score Kipnis with the go ahead run. While Moss hit an infield single to load the bases, Nick Swisher was unable to come through with any more as he and Jose Ramirez, who couldn’t get a bunt down earlier in the inning, were to blame for diffusing what could have been a very big inning.
The Indians didn’t much from their bullpen tonight, but the provided as best they could with Nick Hagadone, Bryan Shaw and Marc Rzepczynski combining to strike out two and earn three holds in a perfect eighth. Cody Allen came on for the one run save in the ninth and struck out Kendrys Morales and Alex Gordon with rediculous curves before ending the game on a Rios groudn out to record his 12th save in 13 chances.
Feathers Down
The Royals pulled out Guthrie after just 5.2 innings despite allowing just a single run on two hits, but it wasn’t because the Indians were knocking him around. Ned Yost knows his bullpen and was justifiably confident that they could take over for the rest of the game and shut things down. Franklin Morales and Alex Herrera combined for 1.1 innings of one hit ball with three strike outs and it was only a rare poor inning from Davis that allowed the lone Indians run late in the game.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2 – Kansas City Royals 1
On Deck: If you want another game between the Central Division foes, you have it. The Indians ace, Corey Kluber, will take on the sneaky lefty Jason Vargas for KC.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
