Trevor Bauer shines as Indians smash Twins 10-0

Every once in a while the baseball gods toss you a game that doesn’t require any analysis beyond what a five-year-old could explain.

Tonight’s Game, Explained as if by a Five-Year-Old

Soooooo Trevor Bauer for the Indians was real good because he struck out a lot of batters and didn’t give up any runs cause of how good he was. And then the Indians hit a lot of home runs and they scored a lot of runs too cause of how they hit the ball hard so much. The Twins didn’t look good. Three of them got hits and that’s not good and I bet they feel kinda sad but the Indians probably feel real happy cause so many of the players got hits and games like that are fun.

A more reasonable recap

The Indians put this one to bed early with help from the bottom of the order. They entered the fourth inning with a two run lead, and then Yonder Alonso came to the plate. He blasted a solo home run to extend the lead to three. Leonys Martin struck out, but after this Jason Kipnis drew a walk. He scored from first on Roberto Perez’s double, and then Brandon Guyer actually hit a home run against a right-handed pitcher. Not a drill, folks. The man did it. This sequence stretched the lead to six and meant the Indians could sail smoothly for the rest of the game. Kipnis poured it on even further with a solo home run in the sixth inning. A general dismantling of Matt Belisle in the seventh turned it ugly.

Part of the reason that the Indians could just cruise along for the rest of the game is because Trevor Bauer demolished the entirety of the Twin’s batting lineup tonight. In six innings of work, Bauer struck out ten, walked three, allowed three hits, and needed 112 pitches to do it. 69 of those were strikes, and if any other pitcher were on the mound the idea of that being intentional wouldn’t cross my mind.

The more meaningful numbers here are 2.25 and 200. The first is what he lowered his ERA to on the season, and the second is the season strikeout milestone that he crossed. It’s his 10th double-digit strikeout game on the season. I don’t know if he’ll be able to catch Chris Sale to win the AL CY Young award, but if he puts together a handful of starts like this one he will earn himself a a few first place votes. He’s technically ahead in fWAR now, but I have a feeling Sale is going to get his de facto lifetime achievement Cy Young. Kind of like DiCaprio’s Oscar for The Revenant.

In other news, Edwin Encarnacion blasted home run number 25 on the season, the Indians went 2-6 with runners in scoring position, the bullpen looked fantastic, and Leonys Martin got another hit. Was it the bloopiest thing I’ve seen in months? Yes, but we’re still getting to know Martin. Maybe drop shots just over third base are his specialty.

The Indians face the Twins again tomorrow night with Carlos Carrasco on the mound. He is one of four Tribe starters that are in the top 20 in all of baseball in fWAR. Or as a five-year-old might say, “They are all really really good at baseball.”