Cleveland Indians hang on to beat Chicago Cubs 4-3

Indians 4, Cubs 3

box score

Indians improve to 31-34

Apparently the Cleveland Indians baseball club had not scored a run in the first inning in the entire month of June. I'll be honest, I had no idea. Part of that has been my maybe noted absence as of late, but part of it is that I'm not sure that it definitely means anything. But the TV team were convinced that it does so things were looking up when the Tribe jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first inning.

The offense was kick started when Jason Kipnis drew a 9 pitch walk. Kipnis would go on in the game to extend his hitting streak at home to 22 games, which isn't nothing. Francisco Lindor (that feels really nice to type in a recap) followed that by punching a ball down the left field line and Michael Brantley would drive Kipnis in on automatic double deep down the left field line that Chris Coughlin couldn't get to and bounced over the wall. It was important that it bounced out of play because Lindor was still at first, thinking about tagging. Without the ball leaving the field he might not have advanced to 3rd. The reason that is important is that on a wild pitch to the next batter, Lindor quickly took off for home, scoring under the tag.

After that, Jason Hammel would suddenly find his pitches and another runner wouldn't score off him until David Murphy doubled and Yan Gomes eventually drove him home with a sacrifice fly to left field.

The Cubs would get their first run in the 3rd inning off a Dexter Fowler single and Lindor throwing errors. OK, hold on, let me explain! Fowler singled past Kipnis and Moss threw towards 3rd to try to get the lead runner. Lindor cut the ball off, the right move, but in attempt to get Fowler who was hustling back to first, his throw glanced off Fowler and caromed away, scoring the run. It wasn't a terrible throw, but it was one he shouldn't have made.

They would tie the game in the 5th as Danny Salazar started to slip. With one man on, Kyle Schwarber hit a two run home run, the first of his very young MLB career. But Salazar was still ailing on the mound, as he would give up a walk and two singles, one of the infield variety, to load the bases with two outs. And then the tarp appeared.

I'm not sure exactly how long the rain lasted, I could look it up I suppose, but it lasted long enough for me to successfully put together an Ikea dresser. And I didn't lose any bolts!

When we returned the starting pitchers were gone. Curiously, Terry Francona made the absolute correct move by going to his best available pitcher with 2 outs and the bases loaded in the top of the 5th - his closer, Cody Allen. Allen would get Miguel Montero to fly out to end the inning and then stayed on for the 6th, striking out the side looking. Not to be outdone, Zach McAllister came on to pitch the 7th and part of the 8th, striking out the first 4 batters he faced before hitting a batter and walking another. Marc Rzepcynski came on to strike out David Ross, then gave way to Bryan Shaw to finish out the 8th.

While the bullpen was busy holding down the tie ballgame, singles from Gomes and Michael Bourn but a runner in scoring position for Giovanny Urshela. Urshela hit a ball hard to left and Gomes, who initially broke back to the bag, was able to come around and score thanks in large part to a poor throw from Chris Coghlan. Bryan Shaw would stay on to work a 1-2-3 9th for his first save of the year.

Of note, Yan Gomes left after the 7th. The fear was that he might have re-injured his knee on the slide at home, but it appears that he left because of cervical tightness which, if you're unsure, is your neck.

Win Expectancy Chart

Source: FanGraphs

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