Good Pitching = Wins
Both the starters in this series pitched fantastic games these past two days. Justin Masterson started things off on Wednesday, lasting 6 innings and giving up only 4 hits and 1 run, a solo homer by Joey Votto in the 1st inning. He settled into his groove after that mistake and struck out 7 Reds batters, his two-seam fastball breaking down and away from hitters beautifully. He did walk 4 batters but that was a minor blemish on an otherwise perfectly pitched game. Masterson picked up his 8th win of the season in the process, a quite amazing feat considering how hard he struggled last year to earn victories. He's on track to get a career high in wins if he can continue this pace. The bullpen came in after Masterson finished his 6 innings and were relatively incident free for once, Cody Allen and Joe Smith combining well to get the Tribe to the 9th. Vinnie Pestano, newly elected closer, came in and immediately gave up a lead-off homer to Xavier Paul which helped unsettle the Tribe faithful but he dug in and got through the rest of the inning unscathed. The Indians won 5-2 in the end and snapped out of their losing streak in the process. Masterson got his run support from Mark Reynolds and Jason Giambi, the heavy hitters both striking for home runs to fuel the Tribe offense. Reynolds hit his homer, his 13th of the year, in the 3rd inning to tie the game and Giambi smashed a 3 run bomb with 2 outs in the 6th inning for 3 RBI to put the game beyond the Reds.
Scott Kazmir went one better than Masterson last night, lasting 7 innings, surrendering 8 hits and only giving up 1 run. Kazmir also limited his walks, allowing just the 1, and struck out 5 Reds batters to earn his 3rd win of the season. It was a very impressively pitched game by Kazmir, a performance he was due after going through a bit of a rough patch lately in his comeback tour. He got all the run support he needed when the Tribe exploded in the 4th inning for 7 runs, chasing Reds starter Homer Bailey from the game. With 2 outs in the 4th, the Indians were relentless and kept lining hits into the corners to pad their lead. With such a commanding lead, the bullpen could relax when they relieved Kazmir in the 8th and Nick Hagadone and Matt Albers pitched a clean inning each to get the Tribe to the finish line for a 7-1 Indians win and the series sweep.
Player Of The Series
There are many deserving candidates for the award this series, with nearly everybody having a good game. But my award goes to Yan Gomes, who despite playing in just one of the two games, had a fantastic day at the plate yesterday. This award is as much for his great game yesterday as it is for his impressive performance so far in 2013 and I thought it was about time I recognised his greatness here at England Tribe. Gomes got 3 hits yesterday, leading the team, and an RBI as well, which leaves him with a .319 batting average with 5 home runs and 13 RBI in total so far. The 25 year-old Brazilian backstop is impressing every day he plays and has grown into the perfect back-up catcher when Santana needs a day off behind the plate. Keep it up Yan, and congrats!
So the Indians have broken out of their funk just in time, as they begin what is arguably the toughest stretch of the schedule this campaign. The Tribe welcome the resurgent Rays to Cleveland for a three-game series beginning today, before jetting off to New York, Detroit and Texas for a long and season-defining road-trip.
Thanks for reading.
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