Defensive miscues sting as Indians fall to Rays 10-5
Photo Credit: Erik Drost/Flickr
By: Sean Fitzgerald
The Cleveland Indians blew a late lead Thursday night to the Tampa Bay Rays, losing four straight this season and nine straight losses to Kevin Cash’s team since 2018.
With the announcement Friday morning that the Indians will become the Cleveland Guardians at the conclusion of the 2021 season, one could hope the change might provide some good mojo for the ballclub.
Unfortunately, the mojo didn’t last and 23,180 fans left disappointed, with the Tribe dropping two in a row by a final score of 10-5.
Zach Plesac worked a scoreless first inning, picking up a strikeout and getting Nelson Cruz to ground out in his first Tampa Bay at bat.
Southpaw Julian Fleming also fired off a scoreless inning, but did give up a walk to Jose Ramirez before a questionable called third strike on Franmil Reyes.
With one out in the second inning, a bizarre sequence of events led to three Rays scoring on a little league home run. Randy Arozarena laced a single that scored Yandy Diaz, with Wander Franco and Arozarena each scoring on two separate errors on the same play. An inning later, Cruz hit his first home run for the Rays going 358 feet to right field.
The Indians finally put a dent on the scoreboard in the third with a Jose Ramirez 410-foot laser to the bleachers, with the Tribe suddenly trailing by a run in front of an energized home crowd. The home run snapped an 0-for-11 skid by the All-Star third baseman and accounted for the runs given up on his two errors.
An inning later, the Indians threatened with runners at the corners and two down but couldn’t punch through another hit to knot the game up.
Fleming was pulled after four innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a pair of walks to go with a lone strikeout. He tossed 72 pitches with 41 strikes.
Plesac didn’t have a terrible outing given the defensive miscues in the second frame, giving the team 6 ⅔ strong innings with four earned runs, eight hits allowed, two free passes and three batters sent down on strikes, firing 64 strikes out of his 99 pitches.
Jose Ramirez gave the Indians another jolt of offense in the seventh frame. With Hernandez off and running on the pitch, Ramirez smashed a two-out triple that nearly cleared the right field fence, plating Hernandez to knot the game at four apiece.
The game began to unravel again for the Tribe in the ninth, as a pinch hit appearance by Joey Wendle with two on and no outs gave way to an RBI base hit off reliever Nick Wittgren to push the Rays ahead.
Ji-Man Choi added three more insurance runs for the visitors and two more from other Rays batters to put a six-spot on the board in the ninth.
Even with Daniel Johnson’s pinch hit solo blast, it wasn’t enough to overcome the reigning American League champs.
------Tidbits------
Big Bopper Cruz
Nelson Cruz entered his Rays debut with 436 home runs before taking on his 437th in the third inning. He’s third among active players in home runs through his 17 big league seasons, trailing only Albert Pujols (675) and Miguel Cabrera (494).
Indians 2021 Draft Picks Update
First rounder Gavin Williams was one of several players to officially sign with the Indians this evening. Of their 21 selections, the team expects a couple of their remaining selections to put pen to paper sometime tomorrow.
Mercado exits early
Oscar Mercado left the game in the sixth inning with Bradley Zimmer pinch hitting and taking over center field. Mercado looked visibly hobbled but still managed to grind out a base knock before leaving the game.
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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.
