Ball Played: Finally, an Indians win

The Cleveland Indians came into the 2015 season supposedly offensively superior to the Kansas City Royals, especially when considering power hitting. The Royals invested so many resources into their defense and bullpen that it was thought to have left them a bit short at the plate. The Royals have been the better team at the plate so far, but Wednesday the Indians demonstrated some of their own hitting potential in powering to a 7-5 win to drop the Royals into second place in the AL Central.

The Royals owned an MLB-best run differential of +40 coming into Wednesday night behind their bats as well as their fielding and bullpen¹. Kansas City boasts MLB’s best OBP (.360) and batting average (.302), and a surprisingly respectable 12th in isolated power (.144) after being the worst in baseball in that category in 2014.

Conversely, the Indians rank in the bottom ten of OBP (.300) and batting average (.234), though they are a respectable middle of the pack team in isolated power (.137), which was supposed to be a team strength. Missing Nick Swisher and Yan Gomes for a considerable amount of the season has hurt, but slow starts from Jason Kipnis, Michael Bourn, and others have put a damper on what was largely expected to be a good offensive team.

Key Moments of the Game

Keep Calm and Carry On: On April 12, Yordano Ventura incited both the Royals and Los Angeles Angels benches to empty by arguing with Angels star Mike Trout. In his next start, Yordano was ejected after he hit Oakland Athletic Brett Lawrie on the elbow. Then on April 23, Ventura and Adam Eaton of the Chicago White Sox got into an argument that led to a bench clearing brawl that involved punches being thrown before things were able to be broken up.

So, there was pause when Ventura located a fastball just above the head of Michael Bourn, causing Bourn to hit the dirt in self-defense. There was even more pause when Danny Salazar lost control of an inside fastball that ran up and hit Alcides Escobar in the helmet². However, there was not any retaliation for the hit from Ventura, nor were benches cleared or any blows exchanged. Perhaps it is due to four Royals currently appealing the suspensions from the April 23 brawl, but for a night, there was relative peace with Yordano Ventura on the mound.

By the power of grayskull: The Indians were hitting the ball really well on Wednesday, and the result was some of the best displays of power of the season. Jason Kipnis and Roberto Perez had the home runs, but Lonnie Chisenhall, Michael Bourn, and Roberto Perez (hello again) each had a double as well. Against the Kansas City defense, only well-hit line drives are going to fall in for hits, and the Indians hit plenty of them.

It also helped the Indians as each of the doubles occurred in the bottom of the sixth inning, which allowed the Indians to score three runs and take a lead they would not relinquish.

The Royals started the game hitting the ball just as hard off of Danny Salazar. But Danny Salazar kept the Royals off-balance the rest of the game by mixing in an unusually high (for him) amount of breaking pitches. Only Eric Hosmer’s sixth inning home run was a truly well hit ball once he changed his approach. MLB.com’s August Fagerstrom has been tracking Salazar’s development as a pitcher and also tracked the pitch type for the night:

Danny Salazar, career:
Fastball: 74%
Split: 14%
Slider: 12%
Curve: 1%

Danny Salazar, today:
Fastball: 49%
Split: 23%
Slider: 10%
Curve: 15%

— August Fagerstrom (@AugustFG_) April 30, 2015

Closing time, so gather up your jackets, and move it to the exits. The Indians got us a win:
Zach McAllister set things up by cruising through the seventh and eighth innings. He only gave up one hit to Christian Colon, and struck out three even though he had to go through the top of the Royals lineup.

However, despite McAllister’s ability to pitch three consecutive innings and the fact that he was locating pitches with ease on Wednesday night, it was a save situation and Terry Francona called upon his closer. Cody Allen came into the game and immediately reminded everyone in attendance that the game was not over by giving up a hard hit double to right center. After Michael Bourn made an ill-advised dive at the ball, Brandon Moss completely misplayed it, allowing Alex Gordon to reach third base.

Thankfully, the lead runner did not mean much by then. Omar Infante harmlessly knocked in Alex Gordon³, but Salvador Perez struck out before Infante and Paulo Orlando and Christian Colon both flied out after, ending the threat and giving Allen his fourth save.

Key Moment Scorecard:
Kansas City Royals: 0
Cleveland Indians: 2
Peace & Harmony: 1

The Nine

Jason Kipnis: Jason has shown a mixture of patience and aggressiveness in the past week. He started the year overly aggressive and wound up getting harmless outs when he did not receive a good pitch to hit, but over the past week he has been watching the bad pitches and put up an OBP of .357 as a result. He only went 1-4 on Wednesday, but he had a good night and his first home run of 2015 was the difference in the game.

Jose Ramirez: 0-for-4 on the night. Batting line of .175/.221/.238 on the season. If anyone can come up with a good reason for him to be batting the second most often in our lineup, then please let me know. He also had another poor throw, which is not helping his case.

Michael Brantley: He kept Eric Hosmer and Omar Infante busy as he hit the ball directly at one of them in each of his four at bats.

Carlos Santana: He reached base three times. Yes, each time was on a walk. Unfortunately, on a night when the bottom of the order was strong, the rest of the middle of the lineup struggled, leaving Carlos stranded (hitters 2, 3, 5, and 6 went 1-for-16 around Carlos).

Brandon Moss: He, like Brantley, decided to keep Infante busy on the night as he hit it right to him three times.

David Murphy / Ryan Raburn: Francona has developed the DH spot into a full blown in-game platoon situation as both hitters played in this game. David Murphy got the start and managed a hit, while hitting the ball hard in each at bat. Raburn continued to struggle as a pinch hitter as he hit an infield pop fly in his only at bat.

Lonnie Chisenhall: He was swinging hard on Wednesday. It led to two strikeouts and an infield pop fly, but also to a double that helped open up a big sixth inning.

Roberto Perez: It was said ad nauseum that Roberto ended an 0-for-18 slump with a 3-for-3 night including a home run and a double. However, it was even worse than that. Brett Hayes went 0-for-6 during Perez’s slump, meaning the last time that an Indians catcher had a hit in a game was April 21 against the Chicago White Sox (Roberto did at least manage three walks in that time). It was not expected that Roberto could keep pace with the Silver Slugger Award winner Yan Gomes in batting, but it was expected that he would be able to get on base and manage to look capable at the plate. Wednesday hopefully marked the start of him doing so.

Michael Bourn: Michael continues to thrive at the bottom of the order. He went 2-for-4 on the night, and he was aggressive on the bases as well (taking third base on a wild pitch in the sixth). He may have been a bit too aggressive in the ninth inning in diving after the Gordon hit, but he knew that Moss was there to back him up. Or, he expected that Moss could handle backing him up.

The Arms

Danny Salazar: Danny struggled in the first inning (giving up two runs) and allowed the 2-run home run to Eric Hosmer in the sixth. However, he was in control of the game at all other points and managed to strike out the Royals seven times, which led the Indians to striking the Royals out 11 times on the night. It was only the second time this season that the Royals struck out in double-digits as it only trailed the total number to the April 26 game against the Chicago White Sox.

Zach McAllister: Meet your 2015 version of 2014 Carlos Carrasco in the bullpen. Since moving to the ‘pen, Zach has pitched 11.2 innings, allowed 12 hits, 3 runs, struck out 10, and walked 4. He has an ERA of 2.31 despite the defense contributing to a .333 BABIP. Altogether, he is the reliever that I hope to see coming into a close game.

Cody Allen: Another shaky outing for him, but in the end, he got the job done and his beard was perfectly groomed. In fact, it appears that he and Roberto could be brothers with the way they currently have their beards aligned.

1. After Wednesday they have a +38 run differential, with the St. Louis Cardinals second in MLB at +31. [↩]
2. And Danny was visibly upset after that pitch, pacing and muttering to himself on the mound [↩]
3. Infante managed to reach second base on a passed ball by Roberto Perez [↩]