Pair of homers carry Indians over White Sox

Carlos Santana is going to be an All-Star and there’s nothing you or any pitcher can do about it

The Indians were on the bad end of a few outstanding defensive plays, comitted a few errors, bunting in a terrible situation, had their starting pitcher injured, and couldn’t string together hits to save their lives. Somehow, against all odds, they still won, 5-2.

Mostly, it was the power of Carlos Santana and a surprising blast from Leonys Martin that was the difference. The former’s sixth-inning solo shot left his bat at 109.5 miles per hour — the hardest-hit ball of the game. Martin’s two-run homer came after an ill-advised bunt from Greg Allen in the seventh, in which he moved the speedy Jake Bauers, who was already in scoring position, to third. This set up the eighth and ninth hitters in the order to try and do something useful. In this case, the eighth failed (Kevin Plawecki flied out to shallow right field), and the ninth came through with Martin’s homer. For those of you keeping track at home, no, the bunt didn’t make a difference. And unless you only are guaranteed to need one run to win a baseball game, it rarely will make a positive one, anyway.

The was close until the bitter end, but things could have been worse if Tyler Clippard hadn’t backed up a throw late. In the bottom of the seventh, after Eloy Jimenez doubled, Tim Anderson flied out to deep center field, which gave Jimenez enough room to move up a base. Leonys Martin put a playable ball in front of José Ramírez at third base, but José bobbled it and it went by him to the veteran glove of Clippard. If Clippard had just been watching the action instead of getting into position, the White Sox easily add another run and make it a 3-4 ballgame.

It’s the little things this team has been missing. They’ve also been missing hitting and good starting pitching. But also the little things.

Jefry Rodriguez turned in another positive effort on the mound, walking three and allowing one earned run off two hits. He left early, though, with a strained lat. He induced nine swinging strikes on his 58 pitches, and six of those came off his curveball. That’s a positive sign for the young hurler.

The bullpen continued to be stellar, allowing just two hits and one earned run over the 5.0 innings they picked up for their injured starter. One of those hits and the only run came off Adam Cimber’s rocky inning of work, while Brad Hand struck out two of the three batters he faced to get his 16th save of the year.

Anyway, I typically end recaps based off the emotion of the end of the game, but it’s hard to feel particularly excited or disappointed in this one — it’s just a baseball game that happened and I’m happy the Indians didn’t lose it.