CINCINNATI: Indians starter Josh Tomlin pitched well Thursday night and still doesn’t have a loss this season. But for one night, he might have been even better with the bat.
Tomlin threw 7⅔ strong innings and went 2-for-3 at the plate in a 7-2 Indians win that completed a four-game, home-and-home sweep of the Cincinnati Reds.
Tomlin first singled in the third inning, a hard-hit ball up the middle. Not done, he doubled down the left-field line in the fifth inning and then came around to score on Rajai Davis’ RBI double to center field in which Tomlin had to stay at the bag until it dropped.
Tomlin was already the last Indians pitcher to record two hits in a game, doing so on June 28, 2011, against Arizona. He also became the first Indians pitcher since Steve Dunning in 1972 to have a single and a double in the same game.
As for his more traditional responsibilities, Tomlin (6-0, 3.56 ERA) allowed two runs on five hits and struck out seven. He became the first Indians starter to begin a season 6-0 since Cliff Lee in 2008, when Lee won the American League Cy Young Award.
It was another productive offensive night for the Indians (21-17), who scored 43 runs in four games against the Reds. Carlos Santana led the way Thursday with two two-run home runs — his sixth career multi-home run game — in back-to-back innings.
Davis continued his torrid series. In back-to-back innings, Davis hit RBI doubles, bringing his series totals to nine hits, six walks, nine RBI and 10 runs scored. After the game, he was named the Ohio Cup’s Most Outstanding Player.
Davis tormented the Reds (15-26) each game. He reached base four times in Monday’s 15-6 win, reached base five times in Tuesday’s 13-1 win and hit two home runs in Wednesday’s 8-7 extra-innings victory before adding the two RBI doubles on Thursday for good measure.
Following two blowouts and an extra-innings thriller, the Indians took the lead in this one, lost it momentarily and then pulled away for good.
In the fourth, Santana’s first home run put the Indians on top 2-0 against Reds starter Tim Adleman. Joey Votto answered in the bottom half of that inning with a two-run home to tie it 2-2.
After that, it was all Indians. Davis’ first of two doubles put the Indians on top 3-2 in the fifth, Francisco Lindor — who had at least two hits in all four games — added an RBI single to left field to make it 4-2 and Santana drilled his second home run to push it to 6-2.
An inning later, another Davis double scored Juan Uribe, who had singled, to cap the Indians’ scoring.
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