Indians walk-off again, beating Twins 5-4

Back-to-back walk-offs are fun!

The Indians defeated the Minnesota Twins 5-4 on Thursday afternoon, with Michael Brantley driving in Greg Allen for the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. With the win, the Tribe improved to 64-50 on the year (that looks better!) and lead the amazing AL Central by 11 games.

Kluber Throws 117 Pitches

Indians’ starter Corey Kluber was solid on Thursday, but not lights-out amazing, and ended up giving up four earned runs over seven innings. It took him 117 pitches to get through those seven innings.

Kluber made it look easy early, with a shutout through four innings. A Max Kepler double in the fifth was followed by a Jake Cave (great name) sacrifice fly for the Twins’ first run. The real trouble came in the sixth, thanks to a Melky Cabrera drop (should’ve had it, but not ruled an error) and subsequent three-run homer from Jorge Polanco.

Greg Allen, Have A Day

The Tribe called up Allen before Thursday’s game due to Leonys Martin’s stomach issues. Allen has had a tough year and plenty of Indians’ fans aren’t sure if he’s ever going to be good enough to be a starting MLB outfielder.

Allen had two singles Thursday, including a big one to start off the ninth. He stole second, moved ahead to third on a Francisco Lindor ground out, and scored on Brantley’s single.

While Allen is slashing just .232/.264/.305 (yuck), he likely will have more opportunities these next few weeks to help the big Tribe out.

Other Fun Notes

Yonder Alonso went deep, a solo shot in the second inning. That’s 20 bombs for Alonso.

Lindor added three more RBI’s and now has 74 on the season. Awesome.

Andrew Miller got the win after throwing a clean eighth inning. The lefty hit 94 mph on the radar gun and looked solid.