Daily Rundown and Coffee Takes – 08/31/15
Indians sweep Angels
The Cleveland Indians wrapped up a sweep of the Angels Sunday with a 9-2 win and won their 5th straight in the process. The Indians, despite sitting three games below .500 at 63-66, are five games back of the final AL Wild Card spot after winning 8 of their last 10.
Michael Brantley and Carlos Santana spotted Josh Tomlin an early lead with RBI doubles in the first. Abraham Almonte expanded the lead with a grand slam in the 5th inning as the Tribe went up 6-0. Tomlin improved to 3-1 and won his third straight start since returning from shoulder surgery by pitching into the 8th (7 complete, 1 batter in the 8th) and allowing 2 earned runs on 4 hits with 8 strikeouts and no walks.
Tomlin, in four starts, has racked up 26 K's to just 2 walks, which both came in his second outing. In all four of his starts he's pitched at least six complete innings.
Santana, who went 3-for-4 at the plate, drove in two more in the bottom of the sixth with his second double of the evening. Following Mike Trout's run scoring single in the 8th, Francisco Lindor drove in a run with a ground out as the Tribe padded the lead.
The Indians are in action tonight in Toronto, which is interesting considering it was just announced this morning that Indians President Mark Shapiro will be leaving Cleveland to become the President and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Hear the game on WJAW FM 100.9 at 6:37pm.
Pirates blanked by Rockies
Jorge De La Rosa and four relievers combined for a shutout as the Rockies downed the Pirates 5-0 to avoid being swept.
De La Rosa tossed six scoreless innings for Colorado, allowing just 4 hits with 7 strikeouts to improve to 8-6. Charlie Morton allowed 5 runs, 3 earned, on 6 hits in 6 innings and dropped to 8-6.
Interestingly enough, De La Rosa was ejected from the game by home plate umpire Jeff Nelson along with Colorado manager Walt Weiss in the bottom of the 7th for arguing balls and strikes. This happened as Weiss was coming out of the dugout to pull De La Rosa from the game.
It's worth noting that every time I see a player or manager has been ejected from the game, I automatically assume Angel Hernandez was involved somehow. This was not the case this time, but I just want to point out that this assumption has been right more than wrong over the years.
The Pirates will have an off-day today before opening a series with Milwaukee tomorrow.
Reds fall to Brewers
Ryan Braun had an early solo home run and Jonathan Lucroy picked up two RBI as the Brewers took the rubber game with the Reds 4-1.
Brayan Pena's run scoring single was all the offense the Reds could put on the board. Brewers starter Wily Peralta improved to 5-8 by tossing 7 innings of one-run ball, allowing 7 hits while fanning 6. John Lamb is still seeking his first big league win, falling to 0-3 after going 5 innings and allowing 2 earned runs with 8 K's and no walks.
The Reds are set to open a series with the Cubs tonight. Hear on at 8pm on WMOA AM 1490.
