CLEVELAND: Indians starting pitcher Josh Tomlin is scheduled to fly back to Cleveland on Friday and make Saturday’s start against the Toronto Blue Jays, according to manager Terry Francona.
Tomlin was placed on the Family Medical Emergency List on Wednesday to deal with a family matter and flew to Tyler, Texas. He can remain on the list for three to five days.
“I told him that he has our blessing, all of us, [and] if he’s not comfortable coming back, to let us know,” Francona said. “But as of right now, he’s planning on coming back [Friday].”
Danny Salazar was activated off the 15-day disabled list to take Tomlin’s spot on the active 25-man roster. Salazar missed a couple of starts while dealing with elbow inflammation. He didn’t need a rehab appearance, though he might go a start or two before getting back to his full pitch count.
Salazar isn’t on a set pitch count, though his outings will be monitored a little more closely. In that way, the Indians hope to take advantage of the two weeks off so Salazar can return to his pre-break levels.
“The two weeks down will be really good for him,” Francona said. “Depending on how he commands [Thursday], things like that, we’re not going to go 100 and some pitches tonight. But getting him back and feeling good for these last six weeks should really be helpful. But we want to make sure we do it incrementally so these two weeks do help.”
Instant impact
The Indians’ acquisition of outfielder Brandon Guyer was somewhat overshadowed by the addition of all-star reliever Andrew Miller. But in his time in Cleveland, Guyer has made an impact.
Entering Thursday’s game, Guyer is hitting .462 with the Indians, the best mark on the team since his debut. Most of his damage has come against left-handers, which is the main reason he was acquired, although he had a three-hit day on Thursday, all against right-handers.
“I came in here with the goal just to, whatever situation they put me in, whether it’s left-handed pitching, pinch-hitting, right-handed pitching, whatever, just do whatever I can to contribute,” Guyer said. “It feels great to help this team. It’s already such a good team. Whatever little thing I can do to help them stay in this race and hopefully get to the playoffs, that’s what I’m going to try to do.”
Taking the blame
Cody Allen gave up five runs in the top of the ninth inning, which began with two infield singles and a walk and ended with a bloop single and a grand slam, in Wednesday’s 10-7 loss to the Chicago White Sox.
Francona said after the game that Miller, who pitched two innings a night earlier, was unavailable. He also took part of the blame for the blown save.
“I know he got a blown save, but I’d probably take half that blown save, because I was on the fence if he should’ve pitched,” Francona said. “He’d been up a lot lately. And he didn’t get hit hard. He gave up the home run, but the other ones were [not hit hard].
“But, I still felt like, he’s out there throwing a lot of pitches under a lot of intensity. So, I kind of wore that one a little bit last night when I went home.”
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians.