Cleveland Indians: Tribe Get Through Chris Sale in Postseason Push

Indians earn their win by beating tough lefty in Chris Sale

With the number of games dwindling and the elimination number growing smaller by the day, the Cleveland Indians couldn’t have been excited seeing Chris Sale and the White Sox on the schedule. Then again, maybe they don’t really care who they mow through on their way to a hopeful Wild Card spot.

Okay, so only one of the runs was earned, so statistically it won’t look like Sale took a big hit. But the scoreboard told a completely different story in the Tribe’s 12-1 win. The Indians beat the White Sox best to keep pace in the race. That’s huge.

My focus immediately wants to move towards Francisco Lindor because, well, the kid is just that damn good. Another three hit performance and he’s batting .319 as well as adding his 10th home run of the year. He gets my vote for AL Rookie of the Year, although my #IBWAA vote is a little different–but it’s mine.

With 13 hits, the Indians had plenty of traffic on the basepaths. Carlos Santana managed to leave five stranded, normally a bad thing. But when you can clear them once with a grand slam while driving in four? We’ll let you slide on that “Slamtana” (I told myself I wouldn’t use that, but it’s just too easy).

After a short outing by Corey Kluber as Terry Francona was erring on the side of caution, a solid outing was needed from Cody Anderson. He provided that with 6 2/3 innings allowing just one run–a Melky Cabrera home run in the fifth. Anderson has been a pleasant surprise after being called-up to help solve the pitching rotation woes this season. 

More from Cleveland Guardians News

• Cleveland Guardians tantalizingly close to locking up AL Central tiebreakers
• Cleveland Guardians: Terry Francona becomes meme in profanity-laced ejection
• Say goodbye to defensive shifts and hello to bigger bases, pitch clock in 2023
• Cleveland Guardians: Shane Bieber second-fastest to 800 strikeouts in major-league history
• The next week will make or break the Cleveland Guardians’ season

The White Sox aren’t very good, but Sale is still one of the toughest lefties in the game today. It may have taken an error to allow the floodgates to open–pointing back to the fact the Sox aren’t very good–but it’s a win over a top of the line starter.

And they’ve been doing this without the help of Jason Kipnis who hasn’t been the same since his DL stint. Once an MVP candidate in the first half, he’s struggled mightily since his return.If he isn’t healthy, he needs to shut it down for the year and prepare for next year. But that’s a whole other topic to discuss.

Next: Will the Indians call up more this September?