Sunday News and Notes: Home runs aplenty in rout of Reds

Last Night's Game

Offense comes up big for Corey Kluber; Indians tie series with 9-4 win over Reds - Let's Go Tribe

Indians back Coery Kluber to defeat Reds | indians.com

Cleveland Indians back Corey Kluber with offensive outburst in 9-4 victory against Cincinnati Reds | cleveland.com

One of the running themes this season is that the Indians don't score runs when Corey Kluber takes the mound. Kluber didn't have a 4-10 going into last night's game because he was a bad pitcher (in fact he's one of the better pitchers in the AL this year); he had a 4-10 record because the Tribe offense didn't score many runs when he started.

At least for one night that theme was abandoned, and they way they did it was rather encouraging, for they did it mainly via the home run. Michael Brantley (3-run homer), Brandon Moss (2-run homer), and Yan Gomes (3-run homer) left the yard, and for once Corey Kluber could pitch without worrying about one mistake costing his team the game. Kluber's final line score had him giving up 3 runs in 7.2 innings, but two of those runs came after he left the game.

Indians News

Michael Brantley pushing through injury | MLB.com

Just in case you were wondering, Michael Brantley is still dealing with back soreness, and that probably won't change until the end of the season.

Is MLB splitting hairs between Pete Rose, DraftKings? Rant of the week | cleveland.com

Hoynes tries to find a distinction between MLB's banning of Pete Rose and their agreement with DraftKings, a gambling web site. To me, the distinction is fairly clear: what Rose did could have affected the perception of the game (and by game I mean the entire sport) by the general public) because he was an active participant in MLB games as a manager. Your average fan gambling on MLB has no effect on the game itself.

MLB News

Clayton Kershaw strikes out 14 Nationals | MLB.com

Not sure this qualifies as news, because of late Clayton Kershaw has been doing this every start. Last night's line: 8 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 14 SO, 0 BB.

Prime Time TV Ratings For All 29 U.S. MLB Teams Show Baseball Ruling Summer Programming - Forbes

Although the prime time ratings for STO are down compared to this time last year, Indians baseball still gets very good ratings in the Cleveland market.

Latest 25-man/40-man Roster

(embiggened version)

The only move made this week was activating Mike Aviles from the Family Emergency Leave list, and to make room, Jose Ramirez went back to Columbus. Nick Hagadone may need Tommy John surgery after injuring his elbow in a rehab appearance; if that happens he'd be transferred to the 60-day Disabled List at some point. Josh Tomlin made a rehab appearance over the All-Star Break, and may be activated (though likely he'd be optioned to the minors) in early August.