Roster Update: The moves were discussed more in depth Sunday night by Danny Cunningham and this morning by Kevin Gall, but for those who missed it, there were some big happenings in Indians baseball over the off day. Lonnie Chisenhall and Jose Ramirez were both optioned to AAA Columbus with Zach Walters and Giovanny Urshela (who made his MLB debut tonight) taking their places.
In addition, the Indians added to their farm system over the past two days (assuming they can sign their picks) with the MLB amateur draft. Last year’s number one pick, Brady Aiken, was chosen by the Indians with the 17th pick in the first round. For more information on him and the rest of the Indians first round picks, check out Kevin’s recap from earlier today. The second round took place today and will be described in detail by Kevin tomorrow morning.
Player of the Game
The Indians didn’t score much tonight, but that was no fault of Yan Gomes, who has been pretty hot since getting back to normal against the Orioles last week. He hit solo home runs into the bleachers in left in his first and last at bats, the only two runs scored by the Indians all night. This is the sixth time in the last seven games that the Indians have scored three or fewer runs, but at least Kluber’s catcher offered up a little support.
Feathers Up
Despite issues with the defense and home plate umpire (apparently the knees are no longer the bottom of the strike zone), Corey Kluber was still Kluber and he pitched seven innings, the final five of which were scoreless. The Tribe ace allowed two earned runs altogether, although the first should have been unearned (explanation to come). While his strike out to walk ratio of 4/3 was his worst this season, that had more to do with an extremely small strike zone (for both pitchers) than his own ability. Before tonight, he had struck out 59 batters in the time it took him to walk three batters.
Zach McAllister stepped up huge for the Tribe in the seventh after Nick Hagadone made a mess of a new inning. Facing three left handers, Hagadone allowed a four pitch walk to Dustin Ackley, a double to Kyle Seager and an RBI single to Seth Smith. With the Indians offense absent, it was pivotal for the bullpen to shut down the Mariners the rest of the way and McAllister did so. He got Mark Trumbo to line out to the drawn in Jason Kipnis and Brad Miller to hit into an easy double play up the middle to Mike Aviles. McAllister started the ninth as well and didn’t give up a base runner until two were out in the inning.
Feathers Down
Although the move to bring up Urshela was primarily a defensive one, one man can only improve the defense in one small area and it wasn’t enough early tonight. On the first pitch of the game, Logan Morrison hit a routine fly ball to left that dropped in front of Ryan Raburn, who has extremely poor speed and outfield instincts. The second batter, Austin Jackson, hit a routine double play ball to Mike Aviles at short stop and Aviles fumbled it and was only able to get the out at second. The third batter was Robinson Cano, who hit a fly to the wall in deep left that hit the ground just beyond the sliding Raburn, another ball that would certainly have been caught by almost any player who deserves to play the position. Instead, it gave the Mariners their first run of the game on their second hit, neither of which would have happened if Michael Brantley had been playing left field instead of Raburn.
While the first run was on the defense, the second, scored in the second, was the fault of Kluber. Brad Miller started the scoring situation with a solid, one out single to center, He then easily stole second on a ball in the dirt and scored on a legitimate double down the left field line by Morrison. Kluber gave up a single and a double in the third as well, but was able to keep the Mariners from causing further damage.
If it was ever funny, it can’t be any more for Kluber as the Indians have scored just 2.2 runs per game behind him compared to 4.25 overall. This trend continued today and is the primary reason for Kluber’s 3-7 record on the year. While he still ranks among the best pitchers in baseball, no one can win a game by themselves and the Indians will never be able to get back into the race if they keep wasting great starts from their ace.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 2 – Seattle Mariners 3
On Deck: Trevor Bauer will take the mound for the Tribe in the middle game of this three game set between Seattle and Cleveland against Taijuan Walker. The game will start at 7:00 PM. The MLB draft will also continue and finish tomorrow with rounds 11 through 40 being chosen starting at noon on MLB.com.
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