By: Sean Fitzgerald

A 4:10 baseball game on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon had 31,406 strong at Progressive Field to see the Cleveland Indians take on the Los Angeles Angels, the largest crowd of Cleveland’s 2021 campaign. 

Great pitching and the long ball were the Indians friends for the afternoon matchup, taking the series with one game to go by a final score of 5-1.

Triston McKenzie dazzled in his last start, flirting with perfection in Detroit. He picked up right where he left off by striking out American League MVP favorite Shohei Ohtani. He got David Fletcher to pop out and Justin Upton swinging. 

As for young lefty Reid Detmers, he allowed a hit to Amed Rosario with one down, but Rosario got cut down at home on Jose Ramirez’s double. 

With Mercado up to bat, Ramirez and Franmil Reyes worked a double-steal, giving each their 16th and fourth stolen bases, respectively. 

A Mercado drew a walk to juice the bases and put Detmers up against Bradley Zimmer, who grounded out to Fletcher to get the Angels out of a pickle.

McKenzie was dealing and had a check swing by third baseman Jack Mayfield called for a ball, with the replay showing he went on the swing and deprived McKenzie of his fifth strikeout. Mayfield would end up doubling to deep center. He got Ohtani swinging for the second time to end the third frame. 

The top of the Tribe’s order kept rolling, with Myles Straw and Rosario notching back-to-back hits in the third and putting runners on the corners for Ramirez. 

Ramirez didn’t miss, lifting his third blast in as many days to the bleachers, good for 395 feet and his 29th home run of the season. 

With a successful managerial challenge giving Owen Miller a single and moving Oscar Mercado to third in the same frame with two down, though little came of it with Austin Hedges popping out to Fletcher to send McKenzie back into action. 

Detmers got yanked before having to face Ramirez a third time. He was roughed up over 3 ⅔ innings, giving up three runs on seven hits, racking up four strikeouts and three walks, tossing 43 strikes out of 70 total pitches. 

With Ohtani’s third at-bat of the day, McKenzie got the two-way phenom out swinging for the third time to end the sixth inning. 

Rosario tacked on another insurance run via the long ball in the home half of the seventh to give the Tribe a four-run cushion.

Later in the frame with the bases loaded, Zimmer hit a sac fly to deep left field to drive in Ramirez.

McKenzie’s final line was nearly as impressive as his last, throwing seven innings of two-hit baseball, allowing one earned run while piling up eight strikeout victims over 95 pitches, firing 68 in the strike zone. He was pulled after walking Jose Iglesias for his only free pass of the day.

Emmanuel Clase locked the game down for Cleveland, getting Shohei Ohtani to groundout in his final at-bat and putting the Tribe in position to sweep tomorrow night.

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Moving up the leaderboard

Following a 2-for-4 showing last night, Jose Ramirez moved into 41st place on the Indians all-time hit list with 945, passing Sandy Alomar Jr.

With two more hits today, Jose can move into a tie with Grady Sizemore for No. 40 on the team’s hit list. Sizemore ended up with 948 hits in a Cleveland uniform, with injuries derailing a potential superstar career. 

Give the replay guy a raise!

DeMarlo Hale challenged and overturned Owen Miller’s out into a single in the third inning. The team’s replay coordinator Derek Barnett has helped win 23 of the team’s 33 challenges this season, good for 70%. 

I say that’s worthy of a raise. 

LLWS on the Big League stage

Tomorrow’s game will be a primetime event in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where the Little League World Series is taking place. Only United States teams are playing due to the COVID-19 pandemic with hopes of international teams coming back in 2022. 

Upcoming game coverage

For the remainder of this home stand, I’ll be covering games on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. If you see me, say hello. We had a little fun today trying to see if anyone could spot me out and about. 

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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.