Photo Credit: Erik Drost/Wikimedia Commons

By: Sean Fitzgerald

The Cleveland Indians went 3-3 to open the second half of their season on the west coast, coming back home Thursday to play host to the Tampa Bays Rays. 

19,338 fans came to watch the Tribe on a cloudy but pleasant evening and came away empty, taken down by the Tampa Bay Rays in extra innings by a final score of 5-4

Cal Quantrill walked leadoff man Brandon Lowe who was erased on a fielder’s choice by Randy Arozarena. Wunderkind Wander Franco followed Arozarena by lacing a single up the middle to give the Rays two on with one out to put the pressure on early.

Quantrill didn’t let the two base runners rattle him as he responded by striking out slugger Austin Meadows and getting Joey Wendle to pop up to escape danger. 

Luis Patino similarly allowed the leadoff man to reach base to start the home-half of the first inning. Patino managed to get the next three outs without much effort. 

There wasn’t a ton of action to speak of until the Indians came up to bat in the third, as Oscar Mercado smashed a ball towards the left field corner off the wall and cruised into second with a double. 

With two down and Jose Ramirez intentionally walked to put two runners on, Franmil Reyes made Patino pay for it with a three-run rocket to the bleachers that traveled 406 feet. 

Tampa Bay started their comeback with a triple from Yandy Diaz in the next inning and scored on a sacrifice fly to left. 

The Indians upped their lead back up to three after Harold Ramirez singled and came around to score on a shallow sac-fly from Austin Hedges.  

The young Patino wasn’t brilliant but slogged through 5 ⅓ innings, coughing up four runs on five hits to pair with three free passes and four punch outs, most of the damage coming on the long ball. Patino’s pitch count climbed up to 98, with 66 pitches called strikes.

Quantrill has seemingly begun to find his footing in the rotation, lasting through six innings for the second time in three outings. Quantrill gave up one run on four hits to go along with three walks and two strikeouts, throwing 50 of his 94 pitches for strikes. 

With Quantrill out of the game, Phil Maton nearly had a ball leave the yard off the bat of Mejia, who instead hustled his way into third with a triple and scored on a fielder’s choice by Taylor Walls. Maton still managed to send down two Rays hitters on strikes to end his outing. 

Things got dicey in the ninth as James Karinchak relinquished a two-run lead as the Rays tied the game with a solo blast from Yandy Diaz and a Brandon Lowe two-out double scoring pinch runner Brett Phillips.

The Indians got a runner on but couldn’t score in the bottom of the ninth, sending the game into extras.

Meadows singled Arozarena in with one out off Bryan Shaw to give Tampa Bay their first lead all night. Yandy Diaz added a base knock and advanced to second on a throwing error but Meadows ended up stranded at third.

With Amed Rosario the runner to start on second in extras for the Indians, Jose Ramirez hit a deep fly ball to the warning track for an out but advanced Rosario to third with one down and sending Reyes to the plate against Diego Castillo. 

Reyes struck out, as did Bobby Bradley, as the Indians lost a game they had fully in their grasp.

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Rays nab a thumper

Tribe fans won’t have to see much more of Nelson Cruz. The AL Central rival Minnesota Twins, having a nightmare season after being picked to contend this season, flipped the veteran slugger and minor league righty Calvin Faucher in exchange for two minor league right-handers in Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman. 

There is a catch: Cruz will likely play some of the remaining games for the Rays against Cleveland this weekend, with the two teams not scheduled to play each other again baring a playoff matchup in October. 

Tribe fans will have to put up with Cruz just a little longer. 

Tampa Bay Indians

One-third of the Rays starting lineup were former Cleveland Indians farmhands. Listed in the order of the lineup: second baseman Joey Wendle, corner infielder Yandy Diaz and former top catching prospect Francisco Mejia. 

Wendle went to Oakland in a deal for Brandon Moss, back in the 2014-15 offseason before being flipped to Tampa three offseasons later. Diaz was a part of the three-team trade that involved Carlos Santana coming back from Seattle. 

Mejia went to the Padres in the Brad Hand deal in 2018 in a return where the Indians also got submariner Adam Cimber, and later traded to Tampa Bay this past offseason in the Blake Snell blockbuster. 

Franimal feasting

With his third inning three-run blast, Franmil Reyes is 16-for-56 with six home runs and 16 RBI since returning from the injured list on July 2 against the Houston Astros

Quantrill turning the corner? 

With Cal Quantrill throwing two quality starts out of four July outings, has the right-hander started to figure things out to stick in the rotation? Quantrill has given up three runs twice and two runs in his other two starts, totaling 22 ⅓ innings with a 3.84 ERA. 

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Sean Fitzgerald is a Kent State graduate and the press box correspondent for Mark One Sports and CLE TribeCast. Follow him on Twitter @fitzonsportsbsr.