Reaction: Kluber remains winless despite strong effort

Apr 17, 2015;

singles in the fifth inning off

. Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

On an unseasonably warm night in Minnesota, the Tribe bats remained cool, as the Minnesota Twins defeated the Cleveland Indians 3-2.  The teams needed eleven innings to complete the affair, with Trevor Plouffe playing hero for the Twins.  Plouffe hit a monster shot off Bryan Shaw in bottom of the eleventh.  The loss drops the Tribe to 3-6 on the season, with five of their last six resulting in losses.

The Positives

• Roberto Perez and Jose Ramirez put together a beautiful hit and run in the fifth inning. With Perez on the move, Danny Santana vacated short to cover second.  Ramirez did a stellar job of staying inside the ball and driving it to left field.  Perez showed great awareness and hustled to third base.  This allowed him to score on a subsequent wild pitch by Mike Pelfrey.

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• Brandon Moss went yard in the top of the 6^th. It was his first homerun of the season.
• Corey Kluber was really good, again. He was perfect through five innings.  He left the game tied after eight, allowing just two runs on three hits.  He walked one and struck out eight.
• Michael Brantley returned from his stiff back, albeit at DH. He went 2-5 with two singles.

The Negatives

• Defensive miscues sunk the Tribe in the sixth. On the play in which the Twins plated their first run, Moss committed a throwing error, as well as a poor decision, in throwing the ball to the plate.  This allowed the tying run to move into scoring position when a play at home was unrealistic.  On the next play, Jose Ramirez, playing up the middle, takes a ground ball and fires to third in an attempt to eliminate the lead runner.  The attempt fails, and Lonnie Chisenhall fails to keep the tag applied.  Chris Herrmann actually fell off the bag, and, had Lonnie stayed with the play, he would have recorded the out.  After the bases are loaded with no one out, Herrmann scored on a wild pitch.  This bizarre scenario was all the “offense” the Twins could muster.
• The Indians, who did manage eight hits on the evening, left 18 batters on base.
• Nit-picking a bit when it comes to Kluber, besides his walk, he uncharacteristically threw two wild pitches and hit a batter. He had three wild pitches in all of 2014.

Check It Out:

• Danny Salazar will make his 2015 debut for Cleveland tomorrow at 2:10 pm. Salazar started the year in AAA, but he appears poised to remain with the Tribe for the foreseeable future.  On Friday, manager Terry Francona informed the media that Zach McAllister would be pitching from the bullpen, the role in which he thrived in 2014.  On Friday, he entered the game in the ninth.
• After testing his back in game 1, the progression of Michael Brantley will be important. Will he be back in the lineup on Saturday and Sunday, and will it be in the outfield or at DH?
• Can Bryan Shaw and the rest of the bullpen right the ship on this road trip? Shaw’s ERA climbed to 7.71 and Marc Rzepczynski, whose ERA sits at 13.50, walked the only batter he faced Friday.

Next: Friday 5 - Indians to watch during road trip