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The Indians sweep, finish year 18-1 against Tigers

We’ll miss ya Detroit . . .

By Jason Philipps
Detroit Tigers v Cleveland Indians Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images

Winning is fun and sweeps are even better.

The Tribe finished off a great series on Thursday evening with a 7-0 victory and three-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers. Cleveland’s three-game sweep of Detroit was just what the doctor ordered as we are thick in the crucial, super-important, nothing-left-in-the-tank, must-win phase of the postseason races. Thursday’s victory jumped the Indians back into a tie with the Rays for the second AL Wild Card spot.

Mike Clevinger earned the win (his 12th of the season), throwing six innings of shutout baseball. Yes, his pitch count climbed too high early, but it was absolutely another strong performance from the big right-hander. Clevinger allowed seven hits and struck out six, walking just one batter.

Clevinger allowed two singles in the first and walked Jeimer Candelario (great name!) to load the bases with two outs. Clevinger got Jordy Mercer to fly out to end the threat.

The Tribe’s offense got the scoring started in the bottom of the inning. Francisco Lindor doubled and moved to third on a sacrifice from Oscar Mercado. Carlos Santana followed with a sacrifice fly that was just deep enough to score Lindor and give the Tribe an early lead.

While Clevinger settled down, the Indians jumped on the Tigers’ second pitcher, Drew VerHagen in the fourth. Daniel Norris, the Tigers starter, is still on a pitch count, so VerHagen entered and promptly gave up a single to Santana and double to Yasiel Puig. Later in the inning, Franmil Reyes absolutely annihilated a hanging breaking ball, launching it high into the left field bleachers of Progressive Field for his sixth homer as an Indian. Verhagen would go on to give up six runs in just 1 1⁄3 innings. Ouch indeed.

Fun Game Notes

  • James Hoyt and future Hall-of-Fame closer James Karinchak both pitched scoreless innings in relief.
  • Lindor finished with three hits, while Puig and Roberto Perez added two hits.
  • The Indians finished the year 18-1 against the Tigers. Amazing. It’ll never get old beating ‘em.

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