Weekend Recap: Indians split series thanks to starters and Lonnie

The Cleveland Indians traveled westward to Oakland, California for a four-game series against the AL-worst Oakland Athletics with the hopes of continuing their momentum from a 12-run outburst against the Kansas City Royals in the last game of an otherwise miserable homestand¹ . The pitching remained golden in the Golden State; however, the lineup brought back memories to when the Oakland Coliseum clubhouses had as much raw sewage as a Brazilian triathlon.

In the end, the Indians managed to split the series with the Athletics by taking the first two games before dropping the Saturday and Sunday affairs.

Also, as a cruel twist of fate to the struggling lineup, injuries and illnesses began to stack up for the ballclub. After being utilized as a designated hitter in three of the previous five games, Jason Kipnis sat altogether on Sunday, and Terry Francona noted that he had a MRI on his shoulder with a trip to the DL being a possibility. Additionally, Ryan Raburn last played on July 26 as he has been battling an as yet disclosed illness. One of the potential outfield callups, Tyler Naquin, ran into an outfield wall with the Columbus Clippers and is currently being monitored for concussion symptoms, while on the DL.

The injuries still do not come close to fully explaining the struggles of the offense. The Indians are now 6-10 since the All-Star break with the team averaging a ridiculously low 1.4 runs/game in those 10 losses.

Thursday: Indians 3, Oakland 1

Carlos Carrasco (W, 11-8): 9 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 7 K
Chris Bassitt (L, 0-4): 7 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 6 K

Carlos Carrasco carried over the consecutive complete game streak from the Kansas City series. Thursday’s game marked the third straight in which an Indians starter pitched every inning for the Tribe, which is exceedingly rare in the modern era of specialization.

The runs, strangely, all came in the first inning, so if you were an Indians fan that nodded off a bit early, then you did not miss any of the offensive action. Jason Kipnis was once again caught on the basepaths as he attempted to steal second base (he was caught three times during the Royals series as well). However, Francisco Lindor beat out an infield hit, Michael Brantley knocked him home with a double, then Carlos Santana cleared the bases with a 399 foot rocket over the center field fence.

Carrasco gave one of those runs back in the bottom of the first after Billy Burns reached on an infield single before stealing second and having Josh Reddick knock him home with a double. However, Carrasco was done giving gifts on the night right then. No other Athletic would obtain a hit the rest of the game and only Sam Fuld (reached on throwing error by Kipnis) and Brett Lawrie (reached on walk before Stephen Vogt hit into a double play) would even reach first base safely the rest of the night.

Friday: Indians 2, Oakland 1

Danny Salazar (W, 9-6): 8 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 4 K
Kendall Graveman (ND): 6.2 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 6 K

Not to be outdone by Carrasco, Danny Salazar held the Athletics to a mere one hit in his start. However, he allowed his pitch count to rise to 111 after the eighth inning, and the complete game streak ended as he was replaced by Cody Allen. Allen got the save and he also held up the 1-hitter for Salazar.

The only trouble that Salazar had at all in the game was the third inning. A leadoff walk to Mark Canha was followed by that lone allowed hit from Eric Sogard. The Athletics were able to plate a run when Giovanny Urshela made an error on a shot off the bat of Marcus Semien. At the time, Oakland held a 1-0 lead and it appeared possible that the Indians would make Salazar an extreme hard-luck loser.

After not even putting a scare into starter Graveman in the first six innings, the Indians finally started a rally with two outs in the seventh inning. Yan Gomes singled, Lonnie “Baseball” Chisenhall continued his hot bat with a double, then Eric Semien committed an error, returning the favor granted him earlier and allowing Urshela to be safe and the Indians to tie the game.

Lonnie Baseball continued to be the offensive hero in the ninth inning when he led off with a single, stole second base, and scored what would be the game-winning run as Michael Bourn hit a ground rule double to the gap in right-center.

Saturday: Indians 1, Oakland 5

Cody Anderson (L, 2-3): 6.2 IP, 3 ER (4 R), 6 H, 2 BB, 4 K
Aaron Brooks (W, 1-0): 7 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 5 K

In what would be the worst pitching performance by any starter during the series, Cody Anderson actually pitched moderately well. Other than an Ike Davis double that led to an early run, Anderson was getting the Athletics to hit the ball on the ground, which plays to his strengths. Unfortunately, Indians hitters were not helping and that lone run stood by itself until the fifth inning when Lonnie Baseball belted a home run to even the score 1-1.

The solo scoring event of the evening for the Indians was unfortunately immediately followed by the Athletics’ best offensive display of the weekend. With one out, Max Muncy hit a ground rule double, followed by a Marcus Semien walk.

Lonnie Baseball was able to preserve the tie on an Eric Sogard single as he threw out Muncy at home plate on a great throw (right field seems to suit him just fine, thank you), but Sam Fuld followed up with a single that scored Semien. When Semien was rounding towards the plate, Lonnie Baseball attempted to make lightning strike twice with a strong throw, but Carlos Santana cut it off and attempted to catch Sogard at third base. The throw was wild and another run scored. It was 3-1 at that point and the Athletics would tack on a couple more late.

Sunday: Indians 1, Oakland 2 (10 innings)

Trevor Bauer (ND): 6.2 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 6 SO
Sonny Gray (ND): 7 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 7 SO

With Kipnis out of the lineup, Terry Francona gave the leadoff position to Lonnie Baseball, and he somewhat delivered. It’s hard to complain about a 1-for-3 effort with an additional two walks, and he scored the only run of the game courtesy of a Jerry Sands sacrifice fly. However, his teammates did not take advantage of a situation that included having the bases loaded with one out in the first inning (Urshela struck out after Sands’ sac fly).

For a while, it appeared that Bauer would allow that early run to hold up. He made quick work of the Athletics in the first four innings, with no runner advancing past first base. Unfortunately, his penchant for walks came up to bite him in the fifth. Bauer walked the first two batters and Burns was able to deliver a run scoring single. In addition to tying the game, the inning upped Bauer’s pitch count, which eventually caught up to him in the seventh inning.

The 1-1 game lasted into extra innings though, as both bullpens looked to support the outstanding efforts of their starter. Then, in the 10th inning, both teams had a chance to score (and seemingly win) the game.

The Indians had runners on first and second with one out and their best hitter of late, Lonnie Baseball, at the plate. Chisenhall grounded into a fielder’s choice, but did advance Michael Bourn to third base with Francisco Lindor coming up. Lindor struck out.

Cody Allen started off the bottom of the 10th by getting the first two outs, but Fuld singled and Canha doubled to the deepest part of the cavernous Coliseum in left center field allowing Fuld enough time to score the walk-off run.

1. The 12-1 finale win was the only win during the seven game set. [↩]