Game 137: Indians 9, Royals 6

When farce is the best way you can think of to describe what's happening, then normally the season's already a lost cause.

At this point the Indians have been reduced to biting kneecaps, but they're still winning...somehow.

Apparently someone placed a curse on productive Indians hitters, for once someone gets hot, they get hurt. Today's victim was Jack Hannahan, he of the .361/.426/.574 batting line over the past 28 days. He started today's game with a double and a single, but somewhere on his to first, he pulled or otherwise injured his left calf. He tried to stay in the game, but left after attempting to go to second on a 3-2 count.

Carlos Santana was the next to injure himself, as he turned his ankle on second base after hitting a double in the fourth inning. He would actually stay in the game, though. If he had left the game, that would have meant that all nine Opening Day starters would have either been on the Disabled List or have missed a game in the past week.

But no matter, because the Indians still managed to score nine runs and hold off the Royals for an important road series win. Shelley Duncan led the offense with two home runs and five RBI; his first home run gave the Indians a 7-1 lead in the sixth innings, and his second pushed the lead to 9-3 after the Royals threatened to get back into the game.

Jeanmar Gomez pitched well enough, going into the sixth inning and giving up 1 earned run on six hits. The front end of the bullpen should have been able to finish things off from there, but the Indians ended up having to use practically all of their key relievers the day before the most series of the season. Rafael Perez ended the threat in the sixth by inducing a double play, but he created a threat of his own in the seventh. Chad Durbin came in to pitch to Billy Butler, but he walked him, so Tony Sipp had to extricate the Indians from a bases loaded jam. Sipp would walk home a run, but he got Mike Moustakas to fly out after a lengthy battle to end the inning.

With the score 9-3, Frank Herrmann was brought in to finish things off, but he couldn't do it, allowing three runs on three hits and a walk, so Chris Perez had to come in to pitch. He recorded the last two outs of the game, and so the Indians won the game and the series. They'll be either 5.5 or 6.5 games behind the Tigers by tomorrow morning, so this upcoming is essentially a must-sweep for the Tribe.

via www.fangraphs.com