Cleveland turns no-hit bid into 7-5 win

We live in interesting times at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. Despite waiting for most of the game to put a run on the board — and this after waiting more than three hours to start the game after a nasty tarp invasion — Cleveland rallied from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Boston Red Sox by a final score of 7-5. Bryan Shaw earned a win to rise to 6-6 on the season, while Emmanuel Clase earned his 19th save.

Eli Morgan struggled in three innings of work today, but remember — he waited around for three hours after the expected start of the game. It is difficult for a pitcher to remain limber that long and then pitch well. He came pretty close. A shame that the two hits he allowed were home runs, but what are you going to do?

Justin Garza, Blake Parker, and Trevor Stephan held things together by allowing another three runs in four innings of relief. I know this doesn’t sound promising, but let me explain:

Tanner Houck pitched a no-hitter through five.

BUT THROUGH ONLY FIVE.

José Ramírez overcame Tanner Houck’s no-hit bid with a solo home run in the sixth inning. This first run scored via entirely conventional means, but Houck vowed to mix things up by hitting the next two batters. Bobby Bradley grounded out but advanced them, allowing Wison Ramos to drive both in with a single.

Cleveland entered the seventh trailing 4-3, though Boston extended this lead one when Rafael Devers nearly reached the concourse beyond right-center field. They earned it back when Ramírez hit a long fly ball to deep left that most outfielders would have caught, to be honest. Kyle Schwarber is not most outfielders.

I am not going to lie — I watched our outfield butcher way too many games earlier this summer to not enjoy his attempt at a catch: waving his glove at the ball with the nonchalance of a child holding a bubble wand.

Cleveland could not close the gap as Franmil Reyes struck out looking on a nifty slider from Hansel Robles. This turned rally duties over to Bryan Shaw. He Shawed, He Bryan’d, He Pitched A Scoreless Eighth.

This set the stage for hero Austin Hedges to blast a home run to the porch in left. Oscar Mercado singled, then scored on a Yu Chang double. Kind of. Was he tagged out at home? Of course he was. He was out by a mile.

THE THING IS, he was interfered with between second and third base. This caused the home plate umpire to rule that, as a result, he should be awarded the run. Also, let’s send Yu Chang to third! Just here to report on what happened. Glad I’m not an umpire.

Regardless, Cleveland took the lead and added to it when Myles Straw drove Chang home on a sneaky single over the glove of Xander Bogaerts. Emmanuel Clase entered with a 7-5 lead. He also Shawed and Bryan’d on his journey to Pitch a Scoreless Ninth.

Ballgame.

Cleveland hops back to .500 with a 64-64 record. They are ten games back in the AL Central and nine games back in the wild card chase.

I will additionally note that Wilson Ramos crumpled to the field after making a throw during today’s game. Team officials confirmed that he sustained a left knee injury and further updates will follow after he receives imaging.