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Winning yesterday's game was probably the most ideal outcome for the Cleveland Indians. After the previous 3 games, figuring out how to best the Minnesota Twins was almost imperative if for no other reason than to maintain some semblance of sanity on the interwebs among Tribe fans. And, to make things even better, the Tigers did their part and lost to the Chicago White Sox, giving the Tribe a cool 3 game lead in the AL Central as they head to the Bronx to begin a new series with the New York Yankees. With New York in a rebuilding mode (much to the confusion of one Tom Hamilton), one would assume that this series should favor Cleveland. Then again, this past series should have also favored the Tribe, and we all know how that worked out. Hopefully, with Detroit heading to face the better of the two New York teams, Cleveland get put some distance between them and their closest rival. And now, onto the news!
Indians 9, Twins 2
LGT Recap | Cleveland.com Recap | Box Score
After being outscored 35-16 and dropping the first three games, the Cleveland Indians were in desperate need of a) a good start by a starting pitcher and b) a win. Starter Mike Clevinger was not great (4.1 IP, 7 H, 4 BB, 3 K, 2 ER), but he did better than all of the other Cleveland starters during this series, and the bats came alive to the tune of four home runs (Kipnis, Santana, Lindor, and Ramirez) to give the Indians a much needed win to avoid the sweep. Kip's homer was his 18th of the season, giving him a new single season best for home runs with 56 games remaining. Terry Francona also made a fantastic decision by bringing Andrew Miller in to face a batter in the 6th as well as the 7th to face Dozier, Mauer, and Kepler. Miller pitched 1.1 fantastic innings and notched 3 strikeouts in the process; Tito, PLEASE keep doing this.
Indians news
This honestly makes no sense to me. If I wanted to see players try and fail to get bunts down, I would watch the National League.
See, we already have stellar veteran presence on the ballclub. Do we really want to try and jeopardize that by throwing Michael Martinez into the mix?
Now that I think about it, I'm not sure that Michael Martinez even has 46 hits total.
I don't know if it would be in poor taste to continue the Michael Martinez joke for this one, so let's just focus on how awesome Corey Kluber is both on and off the field. You know who isn't awesome on the fi...no, Tyler, you said you wouldn't do this. Take the high road.
Around the League
- Jim Bowden looks at whether or not Yasiel Puig or Jeremy Hellickson will get traded during the August waiver period. In order to do so, they would have to pass through waivers, much like Michael Martinez did.
- Jordan Zimmermann looks like he could be headed to the DL if MRI results are unkind. Zimmermann was doing well for the Tigers prior to his injury; Michael Martinez was never doing well and has no injury.
- LGFT (insert sad face) Clint Frazier is already looking for a date in New York. He's primarily been interested in Instagram Fitness Model (that's an actual title?) Jen Selter, which has prompted the creation of the hashtag #SelterFrazierDate. Frazier's skill as a baseball player may be an attractive quality for many; this is a quality that Michael Martinez does not posses.
- Andrew McCutchen was given an entire series off when Pirates manager Clint Hurdle opted to give him a mental break from playing. Oddly enough, Michael Martinez has taken every series off.
- And finally, in non-Michael Martinez news, Carlos Carrasco did something awesome yesterday and reminded us all that baseball players are people and that some things are more important than a game:
I'm so happy to say that, with help from family and teammates, I passed my citizenship test!!! pic.twitter.com/q1dvEouhCE
— Carlos Carrasco (@Cookie_Carrasco) August 4, 2016