Indians Monday recap: Jeff Francoeur shows off bat and arm in 6-5 win over Rangers

The Indians traveled to Surprise today, where they won this afternoon's Cactus League tilt with the Rangers 6-5, improving their spring record to 4-1. Let's hope the regular season begins the same way.

Corey Kluber started for the Tribe, pitching two very solid innings. He managed to induce 5 ground-ball outs to go with a strikeout. The only hitter to reach did so on an infield hit (said runner scored on one of those ground-ball outs, after third-string catching candidate threw a ball into center field). After a shaky first appearance, it's nice to see Kluber look better this time out.

Next to the mound was Carlos Carrasco, who looked very good in his first game, but struggled a little bit today. He worked around a 3rd-inning walk, but in the 4th he gave up three hits, and allowed a run. The last of those hits was a double to left field that would have scored another run, if Jeff Francoeur hadn't nailed Texas' Mitch Moreland at the plate, ending the inning. Three hits and a walk in two innings isn't terrible, and not having been able to see the hits, I cannot say how well-struck they were.

Speaking of Francoeur, in addition to showing off his arm (which has been among the best in the league his entire career), Jeff also had a pair of hits, including an RBI single in the 1st. Other notable events on offense include Lonnie Chisenhall drawing his third walk in four games played (walk rate has been a major problem throughout his young MLB career), Nyjer Morgan reaching safely three times and stealing a base, and Elliot Johnson collecting three hits, including a triple.

Vinnie Pestano made his 2014 debut, pitching a scoreless 5th inning, with an infield fly and two grounders. Josh Outman and C.C. Lee also delivered scoreless frames, while Blake Wood worked into a no outs, based-loaded jam, but escaped after allowing just one run to score.

The Indians will be back in Goodyear on Tuesday, hosting the White Sox at 3:05 ET.