Tribe Too Much For Toronto

Are we beginning to turn things around against the AL East? Possibly, or maybe we're just pretty good against the Blue Jays, the cellar-dwellers of that monstrous division (hey, they're still pretty good). Either way, the Indians faithful can celebrate another series victory today, closing the gap on the Tigers a little bit more. Detroit fell to the White Sox this afternoon so the distance has been narrowed down to just 2.5 games.

The Tribe kicked the series off on Tuesday with a 3-0 win, thanks to a solid effort from Ubaldo Jimenez, who managed to keep the Jays scoreless through his 6 innings of work. He wasn't flawless and ran into trouble more than a few times, but he remained calm and escaped danger to earn his 7th win of the season. I managed to watch the entire game and kept fearing the worst, that Toronto would finally make us pay for Ubaldo's awful location, but the big hit never came for the Jays and the Indians emerged victorious. Ubaldo only walked 2 Jays during his outing, but he really struggled to get ahead in the count and constantly went deep into at-bats. He has to be more efficient and effective with his pitches in the future because when he pitches like this, he'll never make it past 6 innings. We're often lucky to get 5 from him. But I'm not going to be too negative, he worked hard and earned the Tribe the win and that's all you can ask for at the end of the day.

Cleveland dropped game two of the series 5-4 to even things up. Justin Masterson was decent through 6 2/3 innings but had location trouble again, walking 5 batters. He did enough to keep the Tribe in the game though but it all came crashing down in the top of the 9th inning, the Jays striking for 3 runs off Rich Hill and Joe Smith to put the game beyond the Indians. The home side did try to rally back into the game, scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th, but it wasn't to be.

The Indians quickly put Wednesday's loss behind them and wrapped up the series in style today, winning 4-2 to take the series win. On a beautiful summer's day in Cleveland, rookie right-hander Danny Salazar made his first major league start for the Indians and pitched an absolute beauty, carrying a no-hitter into the 6th inning. He out-duelled Jays ace and reigning NL Cy Young winner R.A Dickey for the first big league win of his young career. It was quite a debut for the 23 year-old and he'll be the happiest man in town tonight. Salazar lasted 6 innings (he was on a pitch count) and gave up just 2 hits for 1 run, with 1 walk and 7 strikeouts. It's unlikely Salazar will stay with the big club though, today was just supposed to be a spot-start, but his superb performance might earn him an extended stay past the All Star break.

Player Of The Series

Is there any question? I have to go with the rookie from the Dominican Republic. To step up the way he did was amazing, to pitch with such confidence on your big league debut. Danny Salazar fully deserves the award for this series. He may have elevated himself above Trevor Bauer and Carlos Carrasco in the Tribe rotation pecking order as well. He showed no nerves on the mound and left the game to an enthusiastic ovation from the home fans. Well done Mr Salazar. I'm looking forward to his next start already.

The Tribe welcome the Royals to Progressive Field tomorrow for the final series before the All Star break. Friday's game will see Corey Kluber (6-5, 4.23 ERA) take the mound against KC's Bruce Chen (3-0, 2.41 ERA). The Indians can hopefully take this winning momentum into the series against the Royals tomorrow and close the gap on the Tigers even more before we send Kipnis and Masterson off to NYC for the Midsummer Classic.

Thanks for reading.