Indians fall to Blue Jays in wild first-game of doubleheader

What a crazy game.

It featured a long rain delay, 24 runs, extra innings, crazy faceplant slide, big rallies, 32 hits, seven-run inning, and a zillion angry comments at cle.com.

When it was all said and done, the Indians lost game one of their scheduled doubleheader Thursday 13-11 to the Blue Jays in 11 innings. With the loss, the Tribe fell to 16-14 on the year.

Cleveland starter Carlos Carrasco wasn’t sharp. After a clean first inning, Carrasco got into trouble in the second, giving up a four hits and a homer to Blue Jays’ catcher Russell Martin. Luckily that only amounted to two runs for Toronto, but clearly Carrasco didn’t have his best stuff.

It got worse in the fourth, as Toronto plated three more, thanks to an RBI hits from Josh Donaldson and Yangervis Solarte. With a 5-0 lead and Carrasco on the ropes, things didn’t look so swell for the Tribe.

Thankfully, the Tribe’s offense came right back in the bottom of the frame to put up a HUGE inning. Michael Brantley led off with a single to right off Toronto starter Jaime Garcia. Edwin Encarnacion, last night’s hero, followed with another single and Brandon Guyer doubled to bring home Brantley. Bradley Zimmer got in on the action, driving in both Encarnacion and Guyer with his single, and just like that it was only a two-run deficit. But the party continued, as Erik Gonzalez luckily reached on a wild pitch K, and Francisco Lindor followed with a three-run blast to right field to give the Tribe the lead. Lindor’s homer traveled an estimated 362 feet and was his sixth of the year. After even more base-runners, Encarnacion singled again in the inning for a final tally of seven runs on seven hits for the good guys.

But folks, we were just getting started. The Blue Jays added two more in the sixth on a Josh Donaldson two-run blast and runs in the seventh and eighth gave them a 9-7 lead.

The Tribe plated two themselves in the bottom of the eighth, thanks to another Lindor homer, this time a monster shot to center field that went 445 feet.

Scoreless ninth and tenth innings were followed by Toronto getting a two-out rally going in the 11th that culminated in a Solarte grand slam. The Indians did score twice in the bottom of the 11th, but a Jason Kipnis line out to center ended it.

The Tribe’s bullpen had some rough moments, with Nick Goody, Zach McAllister, and Tyler Olson all giving up runs. Olson, who gave up the slam in the 11th, earned the loss.

On the bright side, Lindor, Brantley, and Encarnacion all finished with three hits and the Tribe’s offense had 15 for the game.