Indians Leave Yankees Seeing Stars in 9-3 Outburst

If you watched the game on Thursday night, you likely saw a whole lot of nothing until the seventh inning worth cheering about. In fact, the game was quite a drag until Zelous Wheeler (who?) homered in the top of the 4th for the Yankees, making the score 2-0. T.J. House got himself into trouble in the top of the 5th after retiring the first two batters, hitting Francisco Cervelli, followed by an infield-hit by Wheeler, and a single by Yangervis Solarte led to the third New York run. From there, the Indians’ bullpen struck again, logging 4.1 scoreless innings (Vinnie Pestano, Kyle Crockett, Carlos Carrasco, Scott Atchison, and Nick Hagadone graced the mound with their presence), but the true strike came in the bottom of the 7th, when singles by Chris Dickerson, Roberto Perez, and Jason Kipnis would lead to three runs on a base-clearing triple by Asdrubal Cabrera. Michael Brantley had a sacrifice fly to immediately drive in Cabrera, and the Tribe was up 4-3. The barrage of hitting wasn’t over for the Indians, who laid into Jim Miller in the bottom of the 8th like a red-headed stepchild (no offense, Clint Frazier), as Dickerson would double, Perez would hit his first career major league home run, Kipnis would single and steal second, Brantley would single home Kipnis, and Carlos Santana would rub it all in with a two-run homer to right. In the end, it was 9-3, which was the final score, and the Indians split the series to improve their series record to 9-4-1. Carlos Carrasco picked up the win to improve to 2-3, while Matt Thornton took the loss for the Yankees to fall to 0-3.

Our own Michael Chaney had the perfect explanation for tonight:

Positives

– A fantastic debut for Roberto Perez: 2-for-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, HR, BB. Follow him on Twitter (@robebo23) and show him some love.

– The bullpen again. Nice to see Carrasco again and Pestano bounces back after a rough night on Wednesday. Another 4.1 scoreless innings.

– Chris Dickerson filled-up the box score: 3-for-4, 2 R, 2B; Jason Kipnis joined him: 3-for-4, 2 R, 2 SB;

– In the last 26 games, Michael Brantley has 15 multi-hit games and is hitting .396 over that stretch.

Negatives

– T.J. House failed to go six innings for the fourth time in eight starts. While he continues to throw strikes, he has now given up 17 hits in his last 11.1 innings, along with two home runs (two starts). While House has done a solid job, it would be nice to have fewer base runners and more consistency in the innings. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Danny Salazar get a look after the break, then again, he was just as guilty of the same results earlier this season.

– David Murphy was the only player without a hit for the Indians on Thursday. Sorry, buddy…that’s negative after an offensive outburst like this.

Check It Out

– The Indians went 17-2 against the Chicago White Sox in 2013, but they are just 3-7 against them in 2014; however, the Indians have won two of three at Progressive Field, where Chicago will be this weekend for #LeBronWatch2014 and a three-game series with the Tribe.

– The Tribe bullpen has allowed just one run in their last 23.1 innings after tonight’s dominance. That’s a 0.39 ERA, folks.

– Corey Kluber finished 4th in the AL Final Vote, but he was 2nd in the #hashtag count held on Twitter on Thursday from 10 AM – 4 PM. He could still end up at the All-Star game, though he is still unlikely to smile.