Indians and Tomlin Toy With Mariners in Win

Kyle Seager broke up Josh Tomlin‘s no hitter with a single to left in the top of the 5th, but Tomlin’s early-game dominance was overshadowed by the Indians offense, who took advantage of some Roenis Elias control problems that led to some friendly hitter counts early, resulting in two runs in the first inning. After an Asdrubal Cabrera double, Michael Brantley singled him home, followed by a Carlos Santana double to plate the second run. Mike Aviles resumed the scoring for the Tribe in the top of the 5th when he singled and scored on a Michael Bourn double. Bourn advanced to third on an Elias balk (he fumbled the ball when setting in the stretch), and would score on a sacrifice fly by Cabrera. Yan Gomes was given an extra strike after Mariners’ manager Lloyd McClendon interfered with Mike Zunino on a foul ball, and he promptly homered to left to make it 5-0 Indians through six. Tomlin kept rolling, pounding the strike zone and dominating the Mariners.

Tomlin moved to 5-5 and lowered his ERA to 3.78 with the performance, while Elias took the loss for Seattle to fall to 7-6 on the season. The series will wrap up Sunday when Felix Hernandez takes the mound for the Mariners against the Indians’ T.J. House.

Positives

– Tomlin reached a career-high 11 strikeouts in his second career complete game and first career shutout. One hit…one batter over the minimum. Zero walks. 11 strikeouts. He threw 111 pitches with 77 of them for strikes (69 percent strikes). He is now 4-0 in four career starts in Seattle with a 2.12 ERA and a 0.64 WHIP over 29.2 innings. Maybe Seattle should trade for him?

– Ryan Raburn did this to rob Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager of extra bases in the bottom of the 2nd inning:

– Michael Brantley has hit safely in 13 of his last 15 games and has eight multi-hit games during that span. Brantley is 31-for-85 (.365) in June, with 20 runs scored and 10 extra-base hits in 22 games.

– Michael Bourn now has a seven-game hitting streak (.375/.417/.688) that has increased his batting line from .263/.306/.358 to .277/.324/.383.

– Josh Tomlin was dealing and it wasn’t all that surprising based on his (small sample size) 2014 splits. The Mariners had eight left-handed hitters in the lineup against the Indians’ right-hander, but he had been better against left-handed batters (.259/.284/.464) than he had been against right-handed batters (.281/.308/.482). Possessing a solid changeup certainly has helped Tomlin, but the greatest Tomlin had also been much better on the road than at Progressive Field, and Safeco Field provided some space for a nice night (numbers entering Saturday’s start):

Negatives

– Yan Gomes made a throwing error after a wild pitch in the bottom of the 5th inning. Kyle Seager was able to advance on the throw when Michael Bourn’s throw to third was off-line while backing up second. The Indians have 10 errorless games in their last 13, and Gomes had thrown out seven of the last ten would-be base stealers prior to Seager’s attempt. While no one is perfect, the throw was a pretty bad idea considering that it bounced about six to eight feet away on Gomes’ block of Tomlin’s wild pitch. This goes to show how well the game went for the Indians tonight, as Gomes certainly made up for it with his 9th home run of the season (his last five on the road).

– It seemed a bit premature to have Marc Rzepczynski warming up in the bottom of the 8th with Tomlin at 88 pitches. Certainly, it was late in the game and fatigue could have led to a Seattle outburst, but with the way Tomlin was pitching, he shouldn’t have had to be looking over his shoulder. Perhaps…that is why he struck out the side in the 8th, though.

Check It Out

– The Indians announced that they will honor the late Mike Hegan, TV/radio broadcaster from 1989-2011, prior to the club’s July 7 game against the New York Yankees. Hegan passed away at the age of 71 on December 25, 2013 from heart failure, and his heart issues were responsible for his retirement from the booth. He served as the Indians alumni ambassador in 2012. You can hear Hegan, along with Tom Hamilton, on the call of the great comeback against the Seattle Mariners:

– The Indians haven’t been shutout in 48 games (since May 5 against the Minnesota Twins), and have been shutdown just twice all season. Only the Angels (once), have been shutout fewer than the Indians in 2014, and the Tribe was only shutout eight times in 2013, 2nd lowest in the American League.