Cleveland Indians bounce back against Detroit, tie series with 5-4 win

Cleveland Indians 5, Detroit Tigers 4

box score

Indians rise to 29-32

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Following last night's 4-0 debacle, the beginning of this game was a worrying sight. Miguel Cabrera drove in a run in the first inning, which was followed shortly in the third inning with a J.D. Martinez double that brought home Yoenis Cespedes and put the Cleveland Indians in an 0-2 hole. But with the very first at-bat in the fourth inning, our very own Carlos Slamtana Santana hit a solo home run and the Tribe never looked back.

That's not to say the game was flawless from then on out, but the Santana home run ignited the Tribe offense to finally get something done after looking like a wet sock in last night's game. Up until that fourth-inning home run, Justin Verlander -- who was making his first start of the year after missing time due to a tricep injury -- was carrying a budding no-hitter against the anemic Indians offense.

Once the lineup got their second and third cracks at Verlander, things started to change for the better. Jason Kipnis followed up Santana's home run in the fifth inning with an RBI of his own when he hit Giovanny Urshela home on a sac fly to tie the game. And later, in the sixth inning, David Murphy and Yan Gomes piled on with a triple and another sacrifice fly that scored two more runs and put the Tribe up 4-3.

Gomes, shredding any doubt that he's not back to his silver slugger-winning self, doubled to center in the eighth inning to tack on an insurance run before the bullpen sloppily sealed Carlos Carrasco's victory.

On the pitching side of things, Carrasco looked his normal strikeout self, but gave up three runs in only 5 2/3 innings of work and was ultimately pulled at 99 pitches. He kept his walks to only a single free base, which is always an encouraging sign on this staff that is prone to either walking none or walking five or more batters in any given outing.

A rough first inning almost made it look like this would be a short outing for Carrasco. He allowed a Rajai Davis triple to start the game, then two batters later that little-known hitter named Miguel Cabrera singled and hit him home. Luckily, Carrasco eventually settled down and struck out eight batters on his way to a win, even though a couple of big doubles cost him some more runs.

The Indians send Corey Kluber to the mound tomorrow night as they try to take the series from Detroit. If they do, it'll be the second series the team has won in June, and the first since the beginning of the month when they took two out of three from the Kansas City Royals.

Win Expectancy Chart

Source: FanGraphs

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