The Cleveland Indians are finding new, inventive ways to win baseball games. Yesterday the Tribe used a 10-run 4th inning to put the Seattle Mariners to bed. Tonight, it was great pitching followed by timely hitting - and a huge mistake by the Mariners - to win their 6th straight game 2-1 at Safeco Field in Seattle.
A night after having 10 hits in the 4th inning alone, the Tribe could only muster 7 hits, but they got the hits when they needed them. Again it was the 4th inning for the Tribe, when they scored both runs and took advantage of a huge throwing error by former Indian Milton Bradley in left field.
After Asdrubal Cabrera singled to left field, Shin-Soo Choo followed with a single of his own. After a ground-out by Carlos Santana moved the runner to 2nd and 3rd, the Mariners intentionally walked Travis Hafner to load the bases. That's when the fun started. Orlando Cabrera hit a routine sacrifice fly to Bradley in left field. Asdrubal Cabrera tagged and scored easily to give the Indians their first run. Instead of throwing the ball to the cut-off man, however, Bradley looked to be throwing the ball to third base. No one was there and the ball sailed towards the Indians dugout. Mariners pitcher Doug Fister tried to stop it but ended up kicking the ball into the dugout allowing all the baserunners to advance. That meant Shin-Soo Choo was allowed to score giving the Indians the deciding run.
Right now everything is going the right way for the Indians and they are taking advantage of it by piling up the wins in April.
After going nearly twenty decisions without a win from 2009-2010, Justin Masterson won his 2nd decision of the season going 6.1 innings allowing 1 run on 4 hits while striking out 9. Rafael Perez, Tony Sipp and Chris Perez went 2.2 innings to protect the lead with Chris Perez picking up his third save of the season.
Doug Fister fell to 0-2 for the Mariners, who have now lost six straight games. Fister went six innings, gave up six hits and one earned run.
The series concludes Sunday afternoon with Josh Tomlin set to face Eric Bedard at 4:10PM et.