Indians rock the Reds (again)

Jose Ramirez homered (again) and the Cleveland Indians buried the Cincinnati Reds (again) by a score of 8-1, clinching at least a share of the Ohio Cup for the fourth consecutive season.

Reds starting pitcher Sal Romano had a rough night. The first five batters he faced all reached base, in a sequence that was as follows: a single (Francisco Lindor), a walk (Michael Brantley), a single (Ramirez), a single (Yonder Alonso), and a single (Melky Cabrera). By the end of the first inning, the Tribe had spotted Corey Kluber a 4-0 lead.

In fact, Kluber was at the plate before he even took the mound.

Interim manager Jim Riggleman pulled the plug on Romano in the second inning, after the Indians were able to extend their lead to 6-0 with a Brantley single, a Ramirez double, an Alonso sac fly, and Cabrera RBI single. Romano’s two- and four-seam fastballs weren’t fooling anyone, catching far too much of the strike zone, hence the short outing.

The Indians loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth inning, but were only able to scratch across a single run on a Greg Allen double play to make it 7-0. Then Ramirez put the final nail in the coffin with a solo home run in the sixth inning.

Kluber was on cruise control for much of the night. He pitched seven innings, allowing four hits and one earned run and striking out seven batters. The Reds’ lineup doesn’t exactly strike fear into opposing pitchers, but it was at least encouraging to see Kluber barely break a sweat after he allowed four earned runs against the Twins a week ago.

Predictably, Kluber did not fare well at the plate, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.

And that’s all she wrote.