Here are 14 Walk-Off Thoughts on the Indians’ 5-3 win against the Detroit Tigers Monday night (Tuesday morning).
1. The Indians took down the Tigers again and are now 10-0 against Detroit this season. It’s the longest winning streak over the Tigers in a single season since the Indians won 12 straight in 1996. It’s also the longest active winning streak in the majors involving any team over another.
2. The Indians’ 12-game home winning streak is the longest since they won 14 straight at Progressive Field in 2011. And it’s the longest home winning streak in a season for any team since Arizona won 15 consecutive home games, also in 2011.
3. A lot has been made about attendance at Progressive Field. But in recent weeks, and especially during the Cavaliers’ run to the title, the Indians have noticed the increased support at games.
4. Said Mike Napoli, “It’s a good time to be in Cleveland right now. We got to be here for the parade and when they clinched. It was exciting to see the fans out there and really excited about it. Hopefully, it keeps up because it definitely helps us out to be able to play in front of a lot of fans, just the adrenaline being out there.”
5. And said Danny Salazar, “That was amazing. That was great—all the fans here. I wish the game would've started earlier at 7, so everybody could watch the game. I know a lot of people left, because they have to work tomorrow. But, we really appreciate that. It's great every time we have a crowd like that.”
6. Monday’s sellout crowd had to wait more than two hours for this one to start due to rain. To just about everyone’s credit, the stadium still looked pretty full at the 9:31 p.m. first pitch. And it appeared as though most stayed well into Tuesday morning for the final out.
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7. It was Napoli’s bat that sent them home happy. Tied 3-3 in the seventh, Napoli crushed a two-run home run off Bruce Rondon to the bleacher seats in left field. Per Statcast, it had an exit velocity of 109 mph, a launch angle of 32 degrees and a distance of 430 feet. It landed two-thirds up the bleachers, and it was the difference Tuesday morning (that term isn’t used often).
8. Said Napoli, “I went down there and looked at it on video to just see what my hands did. He throws pretty hard, so I was just trying to stay short to the ball, drive it gap to gap. My hands just reacted and caught it right.”
9. It’s the kind of power the Indians have enjoyed with Napoli this season. He’s already hit 17 home runs in 76 games after the hit 18 home runs in 133 games last season, to go with a team-leading 55 RBI. To date, he’s been exactly what the Indians had hoped they would get in their free-agent signee and middle-of-the-order first basemen.
10. Said Indians manager Terry Francona, “He had taken some good swings in his previous at bats. He hit that double. Even that at-bat he struck out he took some pretty good swings. Man it’s nice because he’s done that so many times. We don’t live by the home run a ton but when he’s up, I mean that’s why he’s here. We certainly try not to run into out because we like to get to him and let him take three good swings.”
11. And Napoli was asked after the game where the party was. “It's at Napoli’s for sure.”
12. Danny Salazar cruised until Steven Moya and Nick Castellanos each hit home runs off of him to tie it 3-3. They both came off of his split-change, which has become one of the best pitches in the game.
13. Said Salazar, “Not command [as the problem]. I was throwing it for a strike the whole game, actually. Sometimes I was trying to throw it down. Even when I struck out Victor Martinez, I was trying to throw the pitch down. I was just leaving it up for a strike the whole time.”
14. Said Francona, “Really good stuff. He left a changeup up for the home run that kind of change the game a little bit. He had some traffic but pitched out of it. Then just left one up to Castellanos and he hit it a long way and that kind of changed things. I thought he got a little bit tired. Not that he had warmed up but he had gone out and thrown before then we had to sit for awhile. He was at 96 or 98 and we thought that was enough. [Jeff Manship] did a great job. He came in and got outs. He finished the inning and then went out and had a nice inning. That was really big for us, to have a chance to regroup so when Nap hit the home run it was meaningful.”