Aaron Civale’s dominant start leads Indians to fifth straight win

Aaron Civale’s dominant outing guided the Cleveland Indians won their fifth straight game Wednesday with a 6-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park.

The Cleveland Indians clinched a series victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday behind a masterful performance from right-hander Aaron Civale.

The first five innings off Wednesday’s game saw a pitchers duel between Civale and Pittsburgh’s Steven Brault. Both pitchers kept their opposition scoreless as Civale struck out four batters and allowed two hits through five while Brault struck out three while also allowing just two hits.

In the top of the sixth, with Brault out of the game and Dovydas Neverauskas into pitch for Pittsburgh, the Indians found the scoreboard as Carlos Santana slammed a three-run home run for the second straight night to put the Tribe on top 3-0.

The Indians would tack on three more runs in the top of the eighth as Domingo Santana delivered a clutch, two-out, bases-loaded double to clear the bases and put Cleveland on top 6-3.

Six runs would be more than enough for Civale as he went onto toss his first career complete game and did so on just 109 pitches. The right-hander allowed just one run, struck out five and did not issue a walk as he picked up his third win of 2020

With the win, the Indians have now won five straight games, clinched a series win over the Pirates and improved to 15-9 on the season. The loss knocks the Pirates to 4-16 on the year as they currently have the worst record in baseball.

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On Deck: The Indians will send their ace to the mound in Thursday’s series finale as Shane Bieber will make his start of the season. Bieber has been tremendous thus far as he’s 4-0 with a 1.30 ERA and has struck out at least eight batters in each of his starts. Pittsburgh will counter with right-hander Trevor Williams who is 1-3 with a 3.98 ERA so far this season. First pitch from PNC Park is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. EST.