CLEVELAND: The Indians led after their first batter of the day, eventually fell behind and then retook the lead and held on for a 5-4 Mother’s Day victory over the Kansas City Royals.
“That was good. We needed to,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “Sometimes it’s easier said than done. We played pretty good baseball, we just didn’t get a key hit or things you get on the road or in an extra-inning game, and those things happen. It was really important or us to jump right back and we did a really good job.”
Carlos Santana, hitting leadoff on Sunday, belted a solo home run to right field off Royals starter Edison Volquez, giving the Indians a near-immediate 1-0 lead. The Royals, as they so often do, came back against Indians starting pitcher Josh Tomlin.
Tomlin (5-0, 3.72 ERA) cruised until the fourth inning, when Lorenzo Cain doubled and Eric Hosmer crushed a two-run home run to center field, giving the Royals a 2-1 lead. That advantage was extended to 3-1 when Salvador Perez later doubled home Alex Gordon.
The Indians rallied in the fifth, and a couple of nice defensive plays later helped the Indians’ bullpen hold the retaken lead.
Mike Napoli slugged his team-leading sixth home run in the fourth to bring the Indians to within 3-2. Francisco Lindor then opened the fifth with a single, stole second base and scored on a single to left field by Michael Brantley to tie it 3-3.
A bloop single by Lonnie Chisenhall scored Brantley, putting the Indians back in front 4-3 and ending the day for Volquez (3-3, 3.89). Marlon Byrd followed with a ground-rule double to center field to score Yan Gomes, who had walked.
The Royals got one run back in the seventh, but it easily could have been more. Perez doubled to open the inning and send Tomlin to the clubhouse in favor of relief pitcher Zach McAllister. Chelsor Cuthbert reached on an infield single and Christian Colon ripped a double down the left-field line to score Perez to make it 5-4 and put two runners in scoring position.
Jarrod Dyson grounded a ball to Lindor. As Cuthbert broke for home, Lindor turned and fired to Yan Gomes to throw out the potential tying run at the plate. Bryan Shaw entered and induced a 4-6-3 double play to escape the seventh with the lead.
Lindor’s play was key, maintaining the Indians’ lead while recording the first out of the inning.
“We were hoping for a lot,” Francona said. “You’ve got second and third, nobody out. Frankie made a real nice play not rushing, not leading it speed up. We went from a real bad situation to at least manageable.”
Some more defense got the Indians out of the eighth inning. With out one and Eric Hosmer on first after a walk, Shaw struck out Kendrys Morales as Hosmer broke for second and Gomes threw him out to end the inning.
The Indians didn’t know if Shaw would be available Sunday after he had a stiff neck on Saturday. He was, and he recorded five of the more important outs of the ballgame.
“That’s huge,” Gomes said. “I said it before — when that kind of situation comes in, whether he had his miscues early in the year, we’re going to need him in the end. Especially against a team like this, shutting down any kind of momentum they can get is huge.”
Cody Allen closed out Sunday’s game and the three-game series with a 1-2-3 in the ninth inning to record his eighth save of the season.
Tomlin finished with four earned runs allowed on seven hits to go with no walks and three strikeouts in six innings. He also improved to 12-0 since the start of the 2015 season after an Indians loss.
Sunday’s win ended the Indians’ homestand at 5-1, all within the division. It was a positive week after the Indians dropped a two games in walk-off fashion in Minnesota and then were swept in Philadelphia.
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanLewisABJ