In tonight’s game, the Indians went quietly in the first inning against Bruce Chen, and in the Kansas City half of the first, Jeanmar Gomez looked as if he might duplicate the feat, getting the first two Royals, one on strikes.
A base hit to Alex Gordon — who then stole second — and a walk to Billy Butler followed, but, with two outs, Gomez got out of trouble in his first inning of the season by getting Jeff Francoeur to ground back to the mound.
Carlos Santana led off the Tribe second with a walk, but Chen then retired the next three hitters, giving up a long fly ball out to Shelley Duncan for the first out, and the game moved to the bottom of the second with Chen having thrown only 21 pitches.
Jeanmar Gomez had a stronger second, retiring the side in order and recording his second strikeout. The only dark cloud on Gomez’s horizon at that point was having thrown 35 pitches in only two frames, a pace that would see him probably pulled after six innings.
Adam Everett walked with one out in the Indians’ third after Lou Marson was caught looking at a 3-2 pitch. Michael Brantley — batting lead-off tonight with Grady Sizemore not in the starting lineup — followed with a single in his second AB, for Cleveland’s first hit of the game. But Asdrubal Cabrera grounded into a double play to end the threat and the inning.
Alcides Escobar led off the Kansas City third with an infield single. Chris Getz then tripled to shallow right on a full count, and the Tribe was down 1-0, with a second run only 90 feet from home plate. Melky Cabrera got the run home with a ground out, and the Indians trailed by a pair.
Gomez got out of the inning without any more damage, surrendering a two-out single, and we head for the middle innings with the Tribe looking at their largest deficit of the series.