Carlos Carrasco plays incredible encore in 7-0 victory

Yesterday, Corey Kluber shutout the Chicago White Sox on 110 pitches. Carlos Carrasco looked at that and decided that he too wanted to decimate the White Sox and pitched a shutout of his own. Sure, his didn’t go the full nine innings, but he looked like the ace for the entire time he was in. His final line on the day: 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 8 K on 106 pitches. Pure, unadulterated dominance. Most teams would be lucky to have an ace at the top of their rotation; the Indians have two and there’s absolutely no arguing that. Carrasco was throwing pure filth all game, and the only player to really find success against him was Tyler Saladino who somehow snuck two seeing eye singles into the outfield. Jacob May got a pinch hit single against Cookie in the bottom of the seventh, and this hit happened to be his first major league hit. While being down 6-0 against the Indians, I’m more than happy that May’s first hit was a garbage time single and not a game winning double or something else with more of an impact.

The offense came to life once again tonight, knocking out starter Mike Pelfrey in the fifth inning. The party started in the very first half inning when Michael Brantley bounced a ground ball off of Pelfrey’s foot, allowing him to get safely on base. And then, the Edwing took flight:

Over the past five games, Edwin Encarnacion seems to have slightly turned a corner, hitting .222/.391/.389. While not the numbers one would expect from the $60 dollar man, at least he isn’t a guaranteed strikeout like it seemed not too long ago.

Speaking of players who are coming around, Michael Brantley. Dr. Smooth added another home run to his 2017 campaign (now 3 total) in the seventh inning, and he has hit .400/.478/.600 over the past five games. If Edwin and Michael can get hot, look out because the Cleveland Indians are going to run away with the division. Oh, and Jose Ramirez hit another home run in the ninth just for funsies.

Some Tribe Tidbits:

• Jason Kipnis made his season debut yesterday but came up hitless. Today, he got his first hit of the season on a slow chopper to Todd Frazier. Keep on keepin’ on, Kip.
• Sadly, Francisco Lindor’s streak of getting on base every single game ended this evening as he went 0-for-4. He did, however, have a sac fly in the fifth when he hit a fly to deep center and scored Yan Gomes. Speaking of which...
• Yan Gomes continues to be the unluckiest man on the planet. He scorched the ball to the left side of the infield twice only to be thrown out at first after some great glove work by Tim Anderson and Todd Frazier. He did, however, manage to reach twice on a hit by pitch and a single (!!!). Don’t look now, but in the SSS of the past four games (12 PAs), Gomes is batting .400/.455/.500. Could this be the comeback?! Oh, and he threw out a runner from his knees today. #Don’tRunOnYan
• Jose Ramirez. Man is he good at baseball. Not only did he blast his fifth home run of the season, but he also made an incredible diving play in the sixth inning that prevented a double off of the bat of Tim Anderson. After making the stop, Ramirez got up, turned, and fired a dart to Carlos Santana at first to get the out. Don’t mess with the Hamster.

Top Tribe Tweets:

If you’re keeping score at home, the Cleveland Indians have now won five games in a row and have not given up a run in their last 23 innings. While standings don’t mean much at this point in the year, the team that everyone was worried about just a week ago is now 10-7 and sits atop the AL Central where they belong. Tomorrow, Danny Salazar gets the start for the Tribe against Derek Holland as they go for their second consecutive sweep. Baseball is fun. Let’s go Tribe.