The Indians’ offense was next to non-existent on Friday night, scratching out only one run on four hits as the team fell to last-place Kansas City, 3-1.
Only two Tribe batters had hits for the night. Edwin Encarnacion slammed a solo homer in the fourth inning for the Indians’ only run and later gave them a glimmer of hope in the ninth when he doubled with two outs. The other two hits came — somewhat surprisingly but great to see — from Jason Kipnis. Kip has been struggling at the plate, but on this night he slapped a single and ripped a double that missed clearing the right field wall by only a couple of feet.
Indians’ starter Danny Salazar had a disappointing outing. In each of the first three innings, Danny retired the first two batters only to labor getting the third out. He walked batters in the first two innings, and yielded a back-to-back single and double in the third. Still, he allowed no runs.
As usual, Salazar also racked up a healthy volume of strikeouts –seven in only four innings, to be exact. Trouble is, when Danny fans that many batters, walks two and allows innings to extend, his pitch count rises like the Cuyahoga River after three days of rain. Indeed, Salazar threw 88 pitches in only four innings.
Then the disastrous fifth inning came. Salazar gave up lead-off singles to Whit Merrifield and Mike Moustakas. After inducing a double-play groundout from Lorenzo Cain, the pressure seemed to be off. Yet Eric Hosmer, who already had a single and double in his first two at-bats, came to the dish. Tribe pitching coach Mickey Callaway paid a visit to the mound and surely told Danny to be smart in how he pitched Hosmer — especially since there were two outs and Salvador Perez, who had already struck out twice, was on deck.
Instead, Salazar grooved his first pitch right down the middle, and Hosmer quickly launched it for a two-run splashdown landing in Kauffman’s centerfield fountains.
That water ball doused the Indians’ chances for the night as they would never make up the deficit.
The series continues in Kansas City on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. EDT. Would someone please set the alarm on the Tribe bats for around 4 p.m.?