Trevor Bauer outduels Gerrit Cole in Tribe’s 2-1 victory

A night of rivalries.

Indians vs Astros. Trevor Bauer vs Gerrit Cole. Major League Baseball vs the NFL Draft. Yep, it was a big evening.

Bauer and Cole were both excellent, but it was the Tribe’s former Bruin who got the last laugh Thursday evening in the series opener, as Bauer led the Indians to a hard-fought 2-1 victory.

Bauer racked up another high pitch count, but as Rick Manning likes to say (a lot), “he’s a machine.” The right-hander threw 118 pitches over eight innings of work, allowing just four hits and one run. Bauer’s final line looked a bit odd, with six walks allowed and only three strikeouts, but in reality Bauer is normally a high walks guy. The only run he gave up was a solo home run to George Springer in the third inning. It was Springer’s 8th homer of the year and it came on a off-speed hanger/mistake from Bauer.

The Tribe’s two runs, both off Cole, also came on solo home runs. Leonys Martin hit his solo dinger in the third too, which gave the Tribe an early lead. Martin turned on and pulled a 97 mph Cole fastball and snuck it over the right field fence for his 4th of the season. Jake Bauers homer (his 3rd of the season) in the fifth inning was an opposite-field shot to left field and would end up being the last run of the ballgame.

Other Interesting Notes

• Cole, the tough-luck loser, threw a ton of fastballs by Indians hitters, striking out 10. Both he and Bauer throw plenty hard, even late in their outings, with fastballs routinely at 97+ mph.
• Franciso Lindor singled in the 9th inning and was limping badly on the basepaths. Not sure if it’s the brace or just the ankle being far from healed, but regardless, that’s not a fantastic sight to see.
• Brad Hand earned his seventh save of the year, throwing a clean 9th inning.
• Roberto Pérez had a heck of a game behind the plate and threw out both Michael Brantley and José Altuve at second base.

Next up in this four-game series is a Corey Kluber vs Colin McHugh matchup. Let’s win another.