Carlos Santana's grand slam propels Cleveland Indians to 12-1 victory

Indians 12, White Sox 1

box score

Indians improve to 73-73

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A quick glance at the box score and you might notice that Chris Sale only allowed one earned run Friday, but that doesn't do a very good job of telling the story.  Sale was far from sharp and gave up some huge clutch hits, leading to seven Indians runs in the Tribe's lopsided victory Friday night.

Sale entered with a 3.55 ERA on the year and an amazing 250 strikeouts, but hasn't been his normal self lately.  Coming into Friday's game, the lanky left-hander had allowed thirteen earned runs in September, including a three inning outing against Minnesota where Sale gave up nine hits and six earned runs.

After two quiet innings to start the ballgame, Sale ran into lots of trouble in the third.  A one out single from Roberto Perez was followed by a Carlos Sanchez error that allowed Jose Ramirez to reach base.  After a Francisco Lindor strikeout, it seemed very possible that Sale would buckle down and get the light-hitting Mike Aviles to end the threat.  Well Aviles didn't go along with that plan, as the veteran singled on a bloop into short center field.  Perez scored on the play and Michael Brantley followed with an opposite field single to plate Ramirez.  Sale then got sloppy and walked Ryan Raburn to load the bases, bringing Carlos Santana to the plate.

Santana has been the target of much criticism this year from fans, especially the cle.commers who point to his low batting average as a sign of how overrated he is.  I refuse to visit the comment section of that site, but if I did, it would have been to gloat after Carlos took a 90 mph Sale cutter deep to the left field bleachers for a humongous grand slam to give the Tribe a 6-0 lead. Beat writer August Fagerstrom said it best:

Carlos Santana has a higher OBP than Machado, more HRs than Hosmer, more RBI than Tulowtizki, more SB than Trout and a higher wRC+ than Cano

— August Fagerstrom (@AugustF_MLB) September 19, 2015

From there the Indians cruised thanks to another strong outing from Cody Anderson.  Anderson went six and 2/3 innings allowing just one earned run on five hits.  One of his most impressive moments was striking out Jose Abreau with two men on in the third inning with three really nice changeups.

The Tribe tacked on one run in the seventh thanks to a Lindor opposite field home run (off of Sale) and five more fun runs in the eighth.  Lindor and Brantley finished with three hits on the evening, with Aviles and Perez adding two.

Chicago turns to another high-powered left-handed starter on Saturday, as rookie Carlos Rodon is scheduled to take the mound for the White Sox.  The Indians will counter with Carlos Carrasco.  First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM ET . . . Let's Go Tribe!

Win Probability Chart

Source: FanGraphs

Roll Call

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