Carlos Carrasco dazzles in Cleveland Indians win over the Royals

Indians 6, Royals 0

box score

Indians improve to 76-76

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Carlos Carrasco has ace quality stuff.  If some fans had forgotten, Friday night was a very friendly reminder.  Carrasco was simply amazing, toying with a no-hitter and ending up with a one-hit shutout in the Indians 6-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals.

Carrasco dazzled from the start, striking out four of the first six Royals he faced.  A walk in the third inning was quickly taken care of thanks to a ground ball double play.  After two more strikeouts in the fourth, the special meter started buzzing.

The big right-hander kept the Royals off-balance with an awe-inspiring mix of five pitches:  fwo-seam fastballs (33), four-seam fastballs (31), changeups (21), sliders (20), and curveballs (8).  Carrasco would snap off a sharp slider and calmly come back with a 98 mph fastball on the black, making the Royals hitters job plenty difficult.

The trend continued with two more strikeouts in the fifth, and then working around an inning-opening walk in the sixth.  After a Ben Zobrist strike out to start the seventh, Alex Rios got the Royals first hit with a sharp line drive single to center field.  Bummer indeed, but no matter, as Carrasco went back to work and struck out both Paulo Orlando and Jonny Gomes to end the inning.

Carrasco struck out the side as well in the eighth and worked a clean ninth to finish off the one-hit gem.  The 28 year old finished with fifteen strikeouts on the night, giving him 211 punchouts on the year, and his 10.51 K/9 rate is third in the American League, behind only Chris Sale and Chris Archer.

Offensively, the Indians were helped by the long ball, hitting three home runs on the night.  Jose Ramirez got the scoring started with a homer off Edinson Volquez in the first, and Abraham Almonte followed with a blast in the second.  Those home runs were the fifth of the year for both Ramirez and Almonte.  Roberto Perez joined the fun with a two run bomb off lefty Franklin Morrales in the seventh.  Jason Kipnis and Ramirez both finished with two hits on the night.

The Indians Wild Card hopes continue on Saturday evening as Josh Tomlin looks to keep his hot streak going.  Tomlin enters with a 2.43 ERA and sparkling 0.74 WHIP in 55.2 innings pitched this year.  The Royals counter with right-hander Kris Medlin.  Let's Go Tribe!

Win Expectancy Chart

Source: FanGraphs

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