Indians Win Series, Thrash Royals 15-3

Less than 24 hours after watching their modest three game winning streak come to an end, the Indians bounced back in a big way on Sunday. Looking to win the rubber match of their final series of the season versus the Royals, the Indians unleashed an offensive onslaught, the likes of which we hadn’t seen since… well, last Sunday when the Indians beat these same Royals by a score of 15-4. It was an absolute thing of beauty.

Things got off to a modest start for the Tribe yesterday afternoon. In the bottom of the second they took a 1-0 lead thanks to a fine piece of hitting by Lou Marson. With the count even at 2-2 Marson sent a Luke Hochevar fast ball to right, scoring Jack Hannahan from third. That’s all the damage the Indians would do that inning, but little did we all know what was about to unfold just three innings later.

Eric P. Mull-USPRESSWIRE

In the bottom of the fifth, still leading by 1-0, the Indians began an attack that would result in 10 runs scored on 6 hits, 3 walks, and one heck of a dramatic moment from Asdrubal Cabrera. Without further adieu, I present to you the bottom of the fifth inning for the Cleveland Indians in all of it’s glory:

• Shin-Soo Choo doubles and then steal third
• Jason Kipnis ground rule double scores Choo (2-0)
• Asdrubal Cabrera bunt single to third
• Lonnie Chisenhall strikes out
• Jack Hannahan doubles, scoring Kipnis (3-0)
• Brent Lillibridge walks
• Casey Kotchman RBI fielder’s choice (4-0)
• Lou Marson walks to load the bases
• Jason Donald hit by a pitch (5-0)
• Choo singles, Kotchman and Marson score (7-0)
• Kipnis Walks, bases loaded

And then…

• Asdrubal Cabrera grand slam to left field (11-0)
• Lonnie Chisenhall grounds out

And that was pretty much the ball game. All the Indians had to do was cruise to victory without anything disastrous occurring. Mission accomplished.

The Royals responded in the top of the sixth inning thanks to a two run homer by Alex Gordon, his 13th of the year. In the top of the seventh, the Royals added a third run when Tony Abreu hit an RBI single to left to cut the Tribe lead to 11-3. Sensing that the Royals must be on the verge of a comeback, the Indians decided to put them away once and for all over the course of the next two innings.

In the bottom of the seventh, Matt LaPorta made an appearance when he double towards the corner in left. Both Jason Kipnis and Asdrubal Cabrera scored on the play to make it 13-3. In the bottom of the eighth, the Tribe added their final two runs when Cord Phelps single to right, scoring Marson, and then a wild pitch by Louis Coleman that allowed Donald to score. By the time it was said and done it was 15-3. Ball game.

Not to be lost in the shuffle of the Indians’ offensive explosion was a solid pitching performance from Zach McAllister. He went 6.2 innings allowing just 3 runs on 5 hits and 2 walks to earn the victory. His record on the year is now 6-8. McAllister was followed up by a solid 1.1 innings of work from Tony Sipp and then a near perfect ninth from Frank Hermann.

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The Good: Ummm… How about all of it? Yesterday’s game was incredible. They scored 15 runs on 19 hits. he highlight of the day had to be Asdrubal Cabrera’s grand slam. It capped off a spectacular inning and put an exclamation point on the game. At that moment everyone knew it was over, barring a miracle by the Royals.

The Bad: As soon as I find one, I’ll let you know. Until then, there were none.

The “Huh?”: Even though the Browns played on Thursday this past week, this is still the second week in a row in which the Indians had a score to compete with them. Last Sunday they outscored the Browns 15-14. This week they fell short by a score of 16-15. I’m not sure if this says a lot about the Indians offense or very little about the Browns.