Indians overcome sloppy defense, beat Tigers on late Zimmer blast
By: Sean Fitzgerald
Another day, another delay to a Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers ball game, though only pushed back 23 minutes for the Sunday matinee compared to the hour-plus delay the day before.
After leaving ten men on base in yesterday’s loss, the Indians took the weekend series by a final score of 7-5.
Zach Plesac looked like he’d send the Tigers down in order, but an error on shortstop Andres Gimenez allowed Robbie Grossman to reach safely and steal a base before striking out Eric Haase.
Willy Peralta needed four pitches for the first two outs, though Jose Ramirez laced an opposite field extra base knock to left to move into scoring position for Franmil Reyes to knock him in with a single to right and a 1-0 lead.
Plesac’s control began to spiral in the second with two straight walks. While he managed to get two outs, Derek Hill just narrowly hit his first career home run to give the Tigers a three-spot in the second.
Owen Miller immediately cut the Tigers lead to one with a 380-foot shot to the dead center field seats in the bottom half of the inning.
The Indians defense added another error that continued the third inning, with Ernie Clement letting the ball get away and Jonathan Schoop advancing to third on the play. A wild pitch brought in Schoop and a Jeimer Candelario double plated Haase.
Plesac struck out Zack Short to get out of dodge, but he’d already thrown 71 total pitches by that point.
The home half of the fourth saw the Tribe showing some life. With runners on second and third following a fielder’s choice with a throwing error, putting two runners in scoring position.
Gimenez drove Oscar Mercado home on a sac fly to left followed by Austin Hedges’s bloop single to plate Owen Miller.
The defensive miscue hurt even more when Ernie Clement slashed a double down into the corner, scoring Hedges from first and Clement advancing to third to knot the game at five apiece.
Plesac struggled with his control all afternoon, languishing through four innings on the mound, allowing only two hits and five runs, four of them earned. He did whiff six batters but also walked three on 84 pitches, tossing only 48 strikes.
Peralta’s outing lasted a little longer, pushing through five innings of work while giving up five runs on six hits, with only two of the runs earned. He also struck out four with one free pass and 53 of his 88 throws called for strikes.
The Tigers did strike with runners at the corners with two gone in the sixth, but Nick Sandlin’s whiff of Derek Hill canned any threat to break the tie.
Bradley Zimmer already had a good day and made it even better by adding a two-run rocket good for 413 feet into the right field seats to give Cleveland their first lead since the first inning at 7-5.
Jose Ramirez added a base hit plus two stolen bases, losing his helmet on the slides for good measure.
Emmanuel Clase locked in his 16th save to close out the ninth. Cleveland now has to prepare for a seven-game week that includes Cincinnati, Oakland, and one final three-game set in Detroit.
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Pitching in sevens
Tribe starters Triston McKenzie, Cal Quantrill and Eli Morgan all recorded outings that lasted seven-plus innings in three consecutive games for the first time all year.
The last time Cleveland starting pitchers pulled the feat off dates back to July 22-24, 2019 when Mike Clevinger (7 IP), Trevor Bauer (7 2/3 IP) and Shane Bieber (9 IP) pulled the hat trick.
Sloppy defense
It’s not often you have two teams each score five runs the way Cleveland and Detroit did through four innings.
Detroit managed only two hits with their five runs, with two errors charged to the Tribe. Cleveland did manage to put up five of their own base knocks with Detroit also committing an error on their end.
Battle for Ohio and the Ohio Cup resumes tomorrow
The Cincinnati Reds come into town tomorrow to make-up the rained out May 9 finale for the Ohio Cup. The Reds hold a 3-2 series edge and would win the trophy back for the first time since 2014. If the Indians win, they get to keep the Ohio Cup for another year.
The media will vote on the Frank Robinson Most Outstanding Player award to be presented to the top performer through this season’s six games between the two clubs.
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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.
