How ‘bout that?  It was absolutely electric tonight at Progressive Field, even after the early rain delay.  The fans were great all night, and they finally had something to cheer about.  This team is now just 4 games under that ever-so-elusive .500 mark.  Yes, the Rangers won, so the Indians did not gain any ground, but I am much happier that we both won, than if we both lost.

Corey Kluber took the hill tonight for Cleveland and his night did not start quite the way he wanted, giving up an absolute blast to Kole Calhoun on the very first pitch.  He settled down, but did not have his stellar stuff tonight, and ended up giving up 3 R (2 ER), in 6 IP.  Crockett, Shaw, and Manship all looked solid coming on in relief.  Angel starter Garrett Richards also settled down after allowing 3 runs in the first 3 innings.  Richards ended up going 7, allowing just those 3 runs.  Unfortunately for him, former Indian Joe Smith did not help out the Angel cause, giving up 5 runs without recording an out.

Yan Gomes had the big smash tonight, with the grand slam in the 8th to give the Indians an 8-3 advantage.   But he was not the only one performing well for the Indians offensively.  Michael Brantley made up for an earlier error, going 3-4 and scoring 2 runs.  Lonnie Chisenhall and Carlos Santana both had multiple hits, and both recorded RBIs.  A big story for me though, is Francisco Lindor.  This kid is unbelievable.  He brings so much energy to the club, and that was easy to see when he was jumping and yelling as he scored the go-ahead run in the 8th.  He added two more hits tonight, upping his average all the way to .312.  Your team is bound to be successful when the 1-3 hitters are all hitting .312 or higher.  It’ll be exciting to see if this team can sweep the Angels out of town tomorrow as Josh Tomlin faces off against savvy veteran Jered Weaver.

1 Comment

  • Peter says:

    it’s just great to watch an exciting baseball game in Cleveland. Fun to watch them execute well and win!