By: Sean Fitzgerald

Thursday night’s rubber match between the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers wasn’t much of a contest for the 10,827 in attendance. Timely hits and several long hit baseballs gave the Indians a win by a final score of 10-6. 

Sam Hentges cruised through the first three hitters, throwing only two pitches to each batter, resulting in a line-out and two groundouts. 

Jordan Lyles wasn’t as fortunate, seeing Myles Straw line the second pitch he saw down the right field line 340 feet for his fourth homer of the year and second with the Indians to draw first blood. It was his first career leadoff home run and the Tribe’s seventh of 2021. 

Jose Ramirez walked and swiped his 17th bag of the campaign, coming around to score on a Franmil Reyes double that reached the left field wall. 

Bradley Zimmer got in on the action, demolishing a Lyles four-seamer 465 feet and into the second deck out in right field to stake the Tribe and Hentges to a 4-0 lead after the first inning of play. 

Sam Hentges couldn’t hold up his end of the bargain. The Rangers went to work with a one-out RBI double from catcher Jose Trevino, who came around to score on a Nick Solak base hit to cut the Indians’ lead in half. 

The Rangers attacked Hentges again in the third, opening with two hits to put men in scoring position. 

Nathaniel Lowe continued his assault on Cleveland pitching, smashing a liner to the left side of the infield that Ramirez couldn’t corral. That error allowed both runners to score before Lowe was called out while advancing to second. 

The Indians tried to scrape a few runs back in the home half of the third, with runners in scoring position, Owen Miller hit a one-hopper to short for the final out, letting Lyles escape from a jam. 

Hentges yet again put runners on base and was able to finally end it without giving up another run after back-to-back two-run innings. 

With runners on first and second in the fourth, Andres Gimenez came through with an RBI over the first base bag to bring home Daniel Johnson and put the Tribe back in the lead. Rosario and Ramirez would each tack on two more RBI combined in the inning. 

Franmil Reyes poked a ball over the head of Isiah Kiner-Falfela to double the Indians lead for an 8-4 advantage.

Lyles got rocked over 3 ⅔  innings, giving up nine hits and eight runs. He walked a batter while sending three down on strikes, throwing 57 of his 87 tosses in the zone. 

Hentges finished with a slightly better line of four innings with four runs --two of them earned-- on five hits. He amassed three strikeouts and two walks and a wild pitch, tossing 41 of 68 pitches for strikes. 

The bats kept rocking for the Tribe with Miller launching a fifth-inning solo blast for his third long ball of the season. 

In the back and forth see-saw of balls hit deep into the night, Solak drove a ball up the right-center alley and into the seats, the tape measure shot going 379 feet, but Texas still trailed 9-5. DJ Peters added another solo-shot to make it 9-6 in the eighth for Texas and Zimmer an RBI Single to give Cleveland a cool 10 runs on the night.

Emmanuel Clase put a stranglehold on his former employer to finish off the series with a solid Boston squad coming into town tomorrow.

------Tidbits------

Clement to the injured list. 

Infielder Ernie Clement (undisclosed) has been placed on the injured list. In his place, the team has recalled RHP J.C. Mejia to take his place. 

Mejia has struggled most of the year in Cleveland, pitching in 14 games with 11 starts. He has a 1-7 win-loss record with an 8.75 ERA over 47 ⅓ innings, only striking out 43 and walking an alarming 23 batters while serving up 11 long balls. 

Bet on the sixth (inning)

The Indians have been very productive hitting in the sixth inning this year. They’ve tallied 88 runs during the sixth frame, tied with Minnesota for most in the Majors. 

Cleveland also is tied for first in 6th inning batting average (.284), second in doubles (37), tied for second for triples (5) and OBP (.352), third in stolen bases (12), fifth in slugging percentage (.437) and sixth in total bases (220).

Zimmer making his case

Bradley Zimmer had long been a highly regarded prospect. His star had dimmed with injuries and inconsistency over the past few years. With his play over the last few months, expect Zimmer to have earned a spot on the 2022 roster. 

Hello, 911? We have a base thief

Jose Ramirez had a fun night on the bases, swiping three bags off Jordan Lyles. He stole his 17th base of the season in the first inning after a walk, his 18th and second of the night in the third, and his 19th total and third of the evening in the fourth inning following an RBI single.

Ramirez managed the triple base swiping feat once previously, back in August 2016 against the Los Angeles Angels. 

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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.