Cabrera Comes Through in the Clutch
The Wednesday night matchup between the Boston Redsox and Cleveland Indians started off with a 2 hour and 28 min rain delayed which caused the final game of the series to end just 2 min after the 2a.m. ET mark. Even though it took along time to get to the first pitch of the game it was completely the opposite for the Tribe’s bats as they opened up the bottom of the 1st with an RBI single to center from Michael Brantley to score Asdrubal Cabrera from 2nd base.
The game would soon become a defensive and pitching battle up until the top of the 6th inning, as Corey Kluber issued a HBP to Xander Bogaerts then gave up a 2 run blast to the Boston DH David Ortiz just two batters later. However the Tribe would respond in the bottom of the 6th as Jason Kipnis singled to center to score Cabrera and Murphy would follow two batters later to score Brantley and Kipnis on a single to right field. As the top of the 7th rolled around Brock Holt tied the game up at 4 apiece with a single to center scoring Drew and Nava for the Redsox.
The game would then sit in a stand still all the way up to the bottom of the 12th as the Indians bullpen came to pitch! Out of all 6 pitchers the Indians went to after the departure of Corey Kluber (6.1 innings, 5 hits, 4 runs, 2BB’s and 4 K’s) the most impressive was Carlos Carrasco as he seemed untouchable out there on the mound pitching 2 innings of no hit ball and striking out 4 batters in the process, he ould later pick up the win.
Now with the Indians going into the bottom of the 12th all tied up at 4, Mike Aviles would get on via the infield single after Raburn was set down looking, so with one out Michael Bourn would also single to right field advancing Aviles all the way up to third. John Farrell would now come out to make a few changes with his defensive positioning as the Boston skipper sent his first base Holt to the middle infield and brought in Daniel Nava from right to play 1st base leaving only two players in the outfield and in steps Asdrubal Cabrera. As a fan all we could ask from Cabrera was a fly ball to the outfield to win the game, but Cabrera had something else in mind, as he took a first pitch splitter for a strike. With the crowd sitting in anticipation Asdrubal jumped on the next pitch and drove it off the bullpen screen over the right field fence sending the Tribe home with a 7-4 win and a series sweep over Boston!
The Indians are now riding a 6 game win streak and are headed to Arlington to face the Texas Rangers to kick off a 10 game road trip on Friday!
-Cameron T. Lopez
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