Shane Bieber strikes out 11, Indians sweep Pirates

Shane Bieber continued his quest for the AL Cy Young Award Thursday as he struck out 11 Pirates to lead the Indians to a series sweep.

The Cleveland Indians picked up their sixth straight victory and clinched a sweep of the Pirates Thursday with a 2-0 victory behind another tremendous pitching performance for Shane Bieber.

The Indians struck first blood thanks to an unlikely source as backup catcher Beau Taylor delivered an RBI single off Pirates starting pitcher Trevor Williams to score Franmil Reyes and put Cleveland on top 1-0.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Pirates threatened as Kevin Newman and Josh Bell hit back to back singles to put runners on the corners with nobody out. This would not phase Bieber as he went onto escape the jam with a pair of strikeouts and a fly ball.

The long sixth would be Bieber’s last frame as he finished the night with six innings, 11 strikeouts and no walks. It was Bieber’s fourth start of at least 10 strikeouts as he lowered his ERA to 1.11 on the year.

In the top of the eighth, the Indians added a second run as with the bases loaded and nobody out, Reyes scored on a Bell throwing error to push the Cleveland lead to 2-0.

This would be more than enough for the Indians bullpen as Oliver Perez, Nick Wittgren, James Karinchak and Brad Hand combined to toss three innings of scoreless relief to finish off the Pirates.

With the win, Cleveland extended their winning streak to six games and improved their record to 16-9. Pittsburgh fell to a woeful 4-17 with the loss. The two teams’ will meet again to finish the regular season at Progressive Field.

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On Deck: After a perfect road trip, the Indians will return home to Progressive Field to open a three-game series with the Detroit Tigers Friday night. Cleveland has won 20 straight games over the Tigers dating back to 2019, including sweeping a three-game series in Detroit last weekend. The Indians will send Adam Plutko to the mound to open the three-game set to match up with Detroit’s Michael Fulmer. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.