With the American League Central race continuing to heat up, the Cleveland Indians rallied to negate a poor start by pitcher Justin Masterson on Wednesday night in a clutch 10-6 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Masterson walked a season-high seven batters over just 4.1 innings, and served up four Tampa Bay runs before exiting the game much earlier than he initially hoped. After four consecutive two-out singles by Indians hitters in the seventh inning that saw them jump out to a 5-4 advantage, Cleveland catcher Carlos Santana promptly smashed his first home run in more than two months to break the game open and take Masterson off the hook.
Cleveland shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera also continued to reverse his latest trend after suffering through a 1-for-25 slump earlier in the month, and posted a 3-for-5 night to record his fourth hit of the series. Along with connecting on 14 base knocks as a team, Indians batters No. 1-6 in the lineup combined to go 13-for-29 against Rays pitchers, and managed to score a run against three different Tampa relievers.
Now with a 2-1 lead in the series, the Indians can try to keep things going on Thursday as Ubaldo Jimenez will take the mound to close out the four-game set.
For more on the Indians, be sure to visit Let's Go Tribe. For more on the Rays, check out DRays Bay. And of course for the best MLB analysis on the web, head on over to Baseball Nation.