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And…BREATHE. If you were still awake, that is.
The Indians used some late-inning heroics and tiptoed around some late-inning drama to salvage a split of the for game series in Seattle.
Tyler Naquin sparked the Indians’ eighth-inning rally with a 9-iron two-run shot that proved to be the difference in a slogging and plodding game marred by walks and, well, it started at 10 PM and games always seem like they go extra long because the Baseball Gods are ornery and have a cruel sense of humor. But I digress.
Almost a year ago to the day, Josh Tomlin was pretty much as close to perfect as you could be without being perfect against the Mariners with his one-hit masterpiece. He wasn’t nearly as pristine on this day, but he was pretty darn good by his usual standards. He didn’t factor into the decision, but his only blemishes were solo shots to Robinson Cano and Adam Lind. For all the grief that I give Tomlin, he’s been nothing but steady this season and it’s about time to actually look at him as a potential dark horse for the AL Cy Young.
Mariners’ starter Nathan Karns (4.1 INN/2 H/1 ER/5/SO/5 BB) tried for all the world to give this game to the Tribe early and they just didn’t seem to want to take advantage of his altruism. Struggling mightily in his abbreviated appearance, the Tribe had a chance to make the game smoth sailing early on, but Nori Aoki made a miraculous catch to keep the bags full and effectively forcing us to sweat out the late (early morning?) drama.
But Cody Allen wiggled off of the hook that sends the Tribe down to Orange County feeling pretty good about themselves, sitting a full three games up on Kansas City and Detroit.
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It was also draft day! The Indians had three picks on day one and they were:
No. 14: Will Benson
No. 55: Nolan Jones
No. 72: Logan Ice (Totally a pro wrestler’s name!)
This Will Benson kid looks like a beast. Too bad we won’t see him in a Tribe uniform until 2020 at the earliest.