Cleveland Indians: Walk-off win salvaged Corey Kluber’s dominant night

Yan Gomes gave the Cleveland Indians an emphatic win Tuesday night, with his big hit getting Corey Kluber a much-deserved win after another amazing outing.

The memorable shot from Tuesday night’s exciting win will be Yan Gomes getting mobbed as he touched home plate to seal a walk-off victory for his Cleveland Indians.

Gomes was the hero after Austin Jackson tied the game at 1-1, with both men preventing what would have been a brutal loss for the Indians.

Yet while the late-game heroics stand out, Corey Kluber‘s performance was by far the best of any player in the game.

Kluber threw his second straight complete-game, striking out 11 batters and allowing a single run on three hits. That one run? A solo home run by Charlie Blackmon, who was the first batter of the game for the Colorado Rockies.

So while losing the game in general would have been frustrating, the fact one bad pitch from Kluber would have been enough to lose would have been a disaster. Luckily, his catcher came through in a big way.

Kluber’s 11 strikeouts mark his fifth straight game with double-digit strikeouts, but it is his 13th straight game with at least eight strikeouts. Randy Johnson is the only pitcher with a longer streak.

More from Away Back Gone

• 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 Cleveland Guardians offense is suddenly inept

Kluber’s strikeout numbers are absurd considering the month he missed may have had some fans worried about whether this would be an off-year for him. It is so far opposite of being an off-year that Kluber may still win the AL Cy Young Award with one less month to rack up great numbers.

His only competition for the award is Chris Sale, but if Kluber keeps up his strikeout numbers and logs a few more complete-games, Sale will need to have himself a dominant six weeks to end up with the award.

Awards are nice, but Indians fans just want a championship and Kluber puts this team in a great position to compete for one in 2017.

Next: 5 best first-round picks in club history

The goal of chasing a title also makes personal stats irrelevant, but it is truly special to watch Kluber go out and put up such great numbers every five days. His offense now just needs to get things going before the team is down to its final out.