By: Sean Fitzgerald

A game delayed by an hour and six minutes with a raucous crowd of 24,560 for Saturday night’s contest between the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers ended with a whimper. Wasting two bases loaded chances, the Tigers clawed out a 2-1 win at Progressive Field. 

Eli Morgan breezed through the first few hitters without much fanfare, allowing a single to Jonathan Schoop. 

Tyler Alexander worked a clean inning to open his evening with no hits allowed and one strikeout.

Going out for his second inning of Work, Morgan found himself on the back foot, allowing a leadoff double to Jeimer Candelario followed by an Eric Haase single to put runners on the corners. 

Ernie Clement saved a run by diving and nabbing Haase’s single. Myles Straw continued his defensive excellence in center field with a feet-first slide to nab the first out and keep Detroit off the scoreboard momentarily. 

Zack Short managed to drive in Candelario with a sacrifice fly to deep center field for the second out and the Tigers’ first lead in the series. 

With the bottom third of the Tribe’s order due up in the third, the recently promoted Wilson Ramos ripped a base hit through the left side of the infield. Ramos was erased on a twin killer with the Cleveland offense looking lifeless after three innings. 

The Tigers continued to chip away at Morgan in the fifth. Victor Reyes knocked a double past a laid out Myles Straw and scored on an Akil Baddoo base knock and advanced to second on Myles Straw’s first career error on the attempted throw home. 

In a fast moving game, Alexander was surprisingly removed by Manager AJ Hinch after only 62 pitches through 5 ⅓ innings after singles by Clement and Straw, with each batter accounting for two of his four hits allowed. He also whiffed four batters and threw 44 strikes and left the game in line to earn the victory.  

Following Alexander’s exit, Amed Rosario topped a weak dribbler down the third base line off of Michael Fulmer to load the bases. Jose Ramirez worked the count full before flying out to left field, with Tigers basher Franmil Reyes grounding out to escape the jam. 

Oscar Mercado and Wilson Ramos singles and each advancing into scoring position with two down on a wild pitch got the home crowd roaring again, as Clement drew a walk and brought in Jose Cisnero for Kyle Funkhouser. 

It was an unusual lefty-righty matchup, with Myles Straw having reverse splits against opposite-handed pitching. Hinch’s strategy worked, getting Cleveland’s leadoff hitter to ground out on the eighth pitch of the at-bat.

Morgan set a new career-best in innings pitched, delivering quality two-run ball through seven innings on six base knocks and three Tigers sent down on strikes compared to one free pass. Morgan’s pitch mix ended with an efficient 63 of 88 tosses for called strikes. 

Amed Rosario continued the late-inning success for Indians hitters, with their sixth hit since the start of the sixth frame. This gave Jose Ramirez another shot at tying the game up, tapping the ball back to the mound with Cisnero firing the ball to second and the poor throw resulting in an error, with pressure mounting on the Detroit bullpen once again.

The theme of the night of the Tribe not making the most of their opportunities continued, with Reyes, Harold Ramirez and Mercado recording three straight outs in the eighth.

Wilson Ramos finally got Cleveland on the board, hitting a skyscraper off of Gregory Soto’s 98-mph sinker 431 feet to the left-center field bleachers. Owen Miller followed up the solo-blast with a bloop single to shallow right.

Miller was erased on a fielder’s choice with Straw now the winning run on first with Rosario up to bat with two gone and ended the game as Soto’s second strikeout victim.

In the end, not capitalizing on earlier opportunities and leaving 10 runners stranded won’t do any team favors in winning a baseball game.

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

Andres Gimenez, come on up!

The Indians recalled INF/SS Andres Gimenez prior to tonight’s contest, optioning J.C. Mejia down to Columbus. The team will need a starter for Monday’s make-up game against the Cincinnati Reds, though who might get the call is up in the air. 

After skipping Triple-A entirely with the New York Mets and going straight to The Show in 2020's 60-game season, the extra seasoning at the highest level of the minors aided his development and gives him a chance to perhaps stick for good if he can hit with his already great fielding.

On the record

Since the start of 2016 and before the two AL Central foes locked horns tonight, the Cleveland Indians had gone 74-25 against the Tigers.

Schooping an extension

Not long ago, infielder Jonathan Schoop’s career appeared to be nearing its end. Instead, he’s found himself again in the Motor City and now has a new two-year extension in hand worth $15 million. Schoop, a client of The Boras Corporation, can opt out of the deal after the 2022 campaign. 

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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.