MLB Final Score: Cleveland Indians 9, Chicago White Sox 8

It's 3 AM, but I'm still wired. We all just sat through 8+ hours of baseball, but man, was it worth it.

• Box Score
• Carlos Carrasco absolutely had to get the game into the sixth inning, and he did that, though he couldn't finish off his outing. He battled himself and the White Sox all night, but ultimately couldn't hold the lead.
  
• The Indians in order to have any chance a sweep needed to get to Jose Quintana early, and they did just that, jumping out to an early 4-0 lead. Quintana had in the past dominated the Tribe, but tonight they took advantage of a shaky start. The first six Indians reached, highlighted by Jason Kipnis' single (adding to his incredible day) and Carlos Santana's bases-loaded walk. Quintana, because of the events of Game 1, had a long leash, and managed to get through six innings, and it looked like that would be key, as when the White Sox took the lead, the bullpen was set up to pitch the final three innings.
• Carrasco did hold things together until the sixth, but just ran out of gas in that inning. Francona probably would have pulled him after five games had this been a normal day, but because of it was the second game of a doubleheader and because the bullpen had thrown 8.1 innings in the first game, Carrasco was sent out for a sixth inning. Alejandro De Aza's two-run double made the score 5-4, and after Carrasco got Alexei Ramirez to ground out, Francona finally pulled him.
  
• Rich Hill was the only reliever on the club in Game 1 not to pitch, and so he was the first one called upon to pitch in Game 2. He came in to face Adam Dunn, but gave up a key two-run single to give the White Sox a 6-5 lead.
• At this point I was resigned to the Indians losing. The White Sox had rested the back-end of their bullpen in Game 1, while the Indians didn't. And when Chicago scored two runs off of Matt Langwell in the eighth to push the Chicago lead to 8-5, it was almost a given. Addison Reed would come in, retire the Indians in the ninth, and the Indians would end this long day with a split.
  
• But then, in a day full of incredible things, the Indians topped everything they'd done to that point. Ryan Raburn led off the inning with a single, pinch-hitter Asdrubal Cabrera followed with another single, and Michael Bourn really got things going with an RBI single, scoring Raburn and sending Cabrera to third. Jason Giambi then pinch-hit for Mike Aviles, and after a wild pitch plated Cabrera (making the score 8-7), Giambi got Bourn to third with a fly out. That set up Jason Kipnis' game-tying sacrifice fly. And that set up this.
  
• Nick Swisher hit his first home run in over a month to cap off the four-run rally, and did it ever come at the right time. The Indians had tied the game, but really didn't have the horses to pitch into extra innings. But thanks to Nick's homer, they could finish off the sweep in nine innings. Vinnie Pestano gutted out the ninth to record his sixth save, the only pitcher to throw in both games.
  
• As Terry Francona remarked after the game, this was team effort. Every reliever and every position player on the club appeared at some point today, and the Indians needed everyone from Yan Gomes to Ryan Raburn to Jason Giambi to Matt Albers.
• Thanks to the sweep, the Indians gained a game on the Tigers even though Detroit won tonight. They now sit 2 games back in the AL Central after an incredible day in Chicago.

Source: FanGraphs

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