CLEVELAND: An estimated 1 million people made it into Cleveland on Wednesday. It’s possible none want to leave the city as much as the Tampa Bay Rays’ hitters.
Trevor Bauer kept them guessing all night and threw a complete game in the Indians’ 6-1 win over the Rays Wednesday. It followed Corey Kluber’s complete-game shutout in Tuesday’s 6-0 victory.
Bauer allowed one run on just three hits — the same number of hits allowed by Kluber — and struck out 10. It was his second career complete game and his sixth consecutive quality start, the longest stretch of his career.
Indians manager Terry Francona has often referred to “consistency” as one of more important words in baseball. Finally, Bauer is showing it and providing the Indians (41-30) a fifth strong starting option, joining the rest of the rotation and proving it has as much depth as any in the American League.
Bauer (5-2, 3.20 ERA) was able to pitch with the lead nearly all night. In the bottom of the first, the Indians knocked around Chris Archer (4-10, 4.70 ERA), the Rays’ ace who has struggled to limit the big inning early in his starts.
Wednesday night was a similar story. Carlos Santana opened with a walk and Jason Kipnis drove a two-run home run over the center-field wall, putting the Indians up 2-0 two batters into the game. Francisco Lindor also drew a walk, advanced to second on a groundout and scored on Jose Ramirez’s single, making it a three-run first inning.
In the fourth, Lonnie Chisenhall continued his solid month with a double and then scored on a double by Santana that just got by a diving Taylor Motter in right field.
The Rays (32-38) finally got to Bauer in the seventh, but it likely would have been more if not for Lindor.
Brad Miller walked and Logan Morrison doubled to put two runners in scoring position, the first time any Rays runner made it to second base. With two outs, Corey Dickerson lined a ball toward left field, but Lindor made a horizontal, diving play to field it to first save a run. He then got up, surveyed the field and threw to third base behind Morrison, who had taken too big a turn expecting it to get through the infield. Uribe applied the tag to end the inning and hold the Rays at just one run.
Santana added an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh, scoring Tyler Naquin, who had singled. Lindor then brought home Santana with a sacrifice fly to left field, pushing the Indians’ lead to 6-1.
It was the Indians’ sixth consecutive win, trying their season high, and the 11th in a row at home.
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanLewisABJ