Jason Kipnis victorious in return to Cleveland

A beautiful baseball sky in Cleveland was ruined tonight by the Chicago Cubs. Former friend Jason Kipnis played a big part of it, even after the Indians were nice and gave him a tribute video and everything.

Not a whole lot to analyze about this one — it was a dud all around. Francisco Lindor, Carlos Santana, and Franmil Reyes recorded the only Indians hits, the latter two adding doubles and the team’s only run. If anything, Reyes was the offensive bright spot tonight as he turned on a couple of inside pitches for hits, including an ill-fated attempt to start a rally in the ninth.

Adam Plutko was thrust into the starting role because Mike Clevinger can’t find a way to stay in a 5-star luxury hotel for a night without sneaking out to do who knows what. He was a fielding independent pitching nightmare over his 4.0 innings of work, but even with just two strikeouts to one walk, he only allowed one run on the night. He relied almost entirely on his slider and fastball and induced swings and misses just eight times. But he kept hard contact to a minimum and most of the hard hits found defenders.

Cam Hill was the biggest pumpkin on the mound tonight. He threw 28 pitches, didn’t induce a single whiff and was consistently hit hard. Logan Allen and his fresh-from-Eastlake arm potentially saved a full burnout of the ‘pen by pitching the final three innings over 63 pitches. His fastball touched 95.7 mph, but plenty of balls found their way onto the field.