When Ezequiel Carrera opened today’s game for the Tribe by reaching on an error, stole second, moved to third on a ground-out, and scored on a wild pitch, things looked good for the Indians.
That is, before Carrera became the only baserunner for Cleveland until Lonnie Chisenhall walked in the eighth.
The Angels’ Ervin Santana no-hit the Indians 3-1 this afternoon at Progressive Field, in a game in which the Tribe committed five errors and had a passed ball to score a Los Angeles run.
It was the first time that the Indians have been (officially) no-hit since Jim Abbott did it for the Yankees in September of 1993. Of course, we all remember the perfect game that wasn't last year, but this time, there was no chance for an umpire to decide things, as the last out of the game came on a fly ball to left-center off the bat of Michael Brantley.
Santana threw 105 pitches, and only Jason Kipnis came close to a hit, but was retired on a nice play by the Angels’ Howard Kendrick in the sixth.
Amazingly, only one of the five errors led to any runs, that coming in the ninth when Carlos Santana airmailed a throw into center field on an attempted steal, with Kendrick scoring immediately thereafter on a single from Peter Bourjos.
David Huff started for the Indians and deserved better (but how many pitchers for the Tribe have we been able to say that about since the end of May?).
Huff worked 5.2 innings and gave up two runs, only one of which was earned, but fell to 1-1 after allowing five hits, striking out four and walking none.
The Indians held their 1-0 lead until the fifth, when Bourjos tripled leading off and was brought in to tie the game on a sac fly from Mike Trout.
Los Angeles took the lead for good in the sixth. Torii Hunter doubled leading off and moved to third on a one-out single by Kendrick, but when Mark Trumbo fanned, Huff was almost out of the inning.
That was when Carlos Santana let a pitch get by for the go-ahead (and, the way the Indians played today, how appropriate) run.
Nothing much more needs to be said about this one, except to say this: there is a saying that it can’t get much worse than this, and that things can only get better, yes?
Well, today’s game would fit that bill.
Congratulations, Ervin Santana.
The Indians are off until Friday, when the Royals come to town — although some would say that they have been off since they loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth last night.