Carlos González goes deep to pull away from Marlins
Trevor Bauer was solid but not sharp through seven innings of work
Carlos González’s three-run homer in the third inning Tuesday night gave the Cleveland Indians the lead for good against the Miami Marlins, opening the two-game series with a 7-4 road victory.
Trevor Bauer was solid... I think? He tied a season high with 10 strikeouts over seven innings, but tied another season high by allowing four earned runs. Bauer also walked four batters for the second consecutive start and has now walked at least four batters in three of his seven starts this season. If he can cut down on the free passes, he’ll create less chaos on the basepaths like we saw in the second inning, when the Marlins did most of their damage.
In Bauer’s defense, I spent most of the second inning pulling my hair out, but not because of Bauer. Bauer did get it started by walking Miguel Rojas to lead off the inning. Rojas then advanced to second when Roberto Pérez fumbled a knuckle curve from Bauer with Isaac Galloway at the plate. Galloway followed with a grounder to Francisco Lindor, who made a split second decision that he immediately regretted, throwing to third to try and catch Rojas. The throw was too high for José Ramírez to make a play, leaving runners at the corners with one out.
Up comes Marlins starting pitcher Sandy Alcántara to the plate. He bunted to Ramírez, who tried to force Rojas back to third, but with no one covering third base. So Ramírez fired to first, barely beating Alcántara to the base, allowing Rojas to score and tie the game. Bauer then walked Curtis Granderson, setting up a Martín Prado RBI bloop single to give the Marlins’ a 3-2 lead.
Fortunately, Carlos Santana was able to tie the game the following inning with an RBI single before González’s three-run shot, which proved to be the difference in the game. It was a return to form for Santana, though, snapping a 2-for-27 slump by going 3-for-5 against Miami.
Nick Wittgren, who seems to be settling into a set-up role out of the bullpen, worked around a hit and a walk in the eighth to keep the Marlins from making things interesting. Brad Hand proceeded to slam the door shut with a scoreless ninth inning.