Ubaldo Jimenez, Cody Allen, Joe Smith and Chris Perez combined for an eight-hit shutout as the Indians defeated the Blue Jays 3-0.

Ubaldo Jimenez (7-4, 4.37) pitched six innings while allowing five hits, two walks and striking out four. Jimenez gave the Blue Jays plenty of opportunities to score, as the Blue Jays had five runners in scoring position in the first five innings. However, overall the Jays were only 1-12 with RISP. If not for a Michael Brantley error in the second inning with two outs, Ubaldo may have pitched into the seventh inning. However, I believe the Indians will be happy with six shutout innings from Jimenez.  In his past 14 starts, Ubaldo Jimenez is 7-2 with a 3.13 ERA.

This was the Indians’ 11th shutout of the season, and the third one where Ubaldo Jimenez had started the game.

The Indians got their scoring started in the fourth inning of Blue Jays starter Josh Johnson (1-4, 4.62 ERA). Johnson had retired the first nine Indians consecutively; however, he ran into trouble the second time through the order. After a Michael Bourn strikeout and an Asdrubal Cabrera walk, Jason Kipnis, Nick Swisher and Michael Brantley each had singles, with the latter two driving in a run. If you omit the fourth inning, Johnson allowed no hits and only one walk in his other six innings of work. Johnson ended the night with six strikeouts.

The Indians tacked on another run in the ninth inning on an Asdrubal Cabrera sacrifice fly. The run came off Blue Jays reliever Steve Delabar (1-0, 1.76 ERA), who had only allowed four runs in his past 31.1 innings. Delabar is currently in first place in the AL Final Vote standings for the All-Star Game.

Cody Allen, Joe Smith and Chris Perez were all effective in each of their inning of work, with Perez earning his 10th save. It was nice seeing Smith get through the eighth inning. Personally, I get a little nervous every time Joe Smith gets the ball late in games. However, he was able to get through it unscathed.

The game was originally delayed by 37 minutes because of thunderstorms (the 15th consecutive day of rain in Cleveland), but the game moved swiftly. The official game time was 2:16.

The Indians will face the Blue Jays again tomorrow at 7:05 pm EST. All-Star Justin Masterson (10-7, 3.78 ERA) will face former Indian reliever Esmil Rogers (3-4, 3.84 ERA. As a starter, 2-2, 3.89 ERA). Rogers was traded to the Blue Jays for Mike Aviles and Yan Gomes, and was recently converted to a starter.

W – Ubaldo Jimenez (7-4)

L – Josh Johnson (1-4)

S – Chris Perez (10)

A – 13,640

5 Comments

  • The Doctor says:

    other than the brantley “double”/error that was just a well played game all around.

    can’t really fault the tribe for not scoring more – johnson didn’t make them look bad, but he clearly had it together tonight. good thing we broke through when we did.

  • Sean Porter says:

    It was very nice to see the Tribe succeed in the 8th in virtually the same exact situation they failed the night before.

    Drew Stubbs on 2nd base, no one out, and a sac bunt and sac fly later, he scores. In the day of sitting around and hoping for the 3 run homer, watching the Tribe manufacture a run in a text-book fashion made this baseball purist smile.

  • medfest says:

    Johnson was perfect through three,so squeezing a win out was commendable to say the least.If Johnson keeps pitching like that the Jays will make a lot of noise in the second half.

1 Trackback or Pingback