Indians Stay Alive with 6-4 Win

Sep 24, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Indians left fielder Michael Brantley (left) and center fielder Michael Bourn (24) celebrate a 6-4 win over the Kansas City Royals at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Indians Remain Alive in Wild Card Race

Are we having fun yet? With their 6-4 victory over the Royals on Wednesday night, the Indians kept their faint playoff chances on life support Stayin’ Alive: Indians Beat Royals 6-4for at least one more day. At 83-76, they will need a lot of things to fall in their favor along the way if they want to secure one of the two wild card slots, but without last night’s victory that thought wouldn’t even be possible.

After two straight days of failing to score in the first inning, the Indians finally broke through on Wednesday night. With two on, Yan Gomes blasted a home run to center field. The three run shot gave the Tribe an early 3-0 lead and meant they would be playing from out in front for the first time all series long.

Sep 24, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Indians shortstop Jose Ramirez (11) celebrates his RBI double in the fifth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Progressive Field. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

Unfortunately, the lead would not last. Trevor Bauer, who has taken strides this season to become a legitimate member of the starting rotation, could not keep the Royals off the board. Allowing four runs to cross the plate in 4.1 innings of work.

The Royals began their scoring in the fourth with a RBI single off the bat of Billy Butler. One inning later it would be Butler, along with Eric Hosmer that put the Royals out front. Hosmer’s RBI single cut the lead to 3-2. Butler followed with an RBI double to put the Royals ahead 4-3.

Luckily, the Indians responded quickly. In the bottom half of the fifth, Michael Bourn led off by getting hit by a pitch. The speedy Jose Ramirez then drove him home with a double into left center, tying the game up at 4-4. Two batters later, Ramirez scored on a fielder’s choice. The run put the Indians back ahead 5-4, proving their was the faintest bit of a pulse remaining.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Indians got a much-needed security run thanks to a sacrifice fly off the bat of David Murphy. That put the Tribe up 6-4 with three frames to go.

From that point, it was up to the bullpen to close the door, and slam it they did. Zach McAllister, Marc Rzepczynski, Bryan Shaw, and Cody Allen combined to throw 4.2 innings of scoreless relief. They allowed only two hits and a walk and thus limiting the Royals opportunities to put anything together offensively.

With the victory, the Indians now find themselves 3.5 games back of both the Royals and the A’s who sit tied atop the wild card standings. In order to clinch a spot, the Tribe will have to win out and hope that at least one team loses their next four games.

With the Indians idle today, at the very worst they would enter play on Friday looking to push for a playoff to get into the playoffs. But that’s a story for a different day.

Math is hard.