CLEVELAND: It appears the Indians have taken three years of frustration and tightly packed the redemption for it into 11 games.
The Indians pounded the Detroit Tigers yet again on Tuesday night, this time by a score of 12-1. They are now 11-0 against the Tigers this season, the longest winning streak within a year since they won 12 in a row against the Tigers in 1996 and the longest active streak of any team over another in the American League.
Many of these 11 wins, like Tuesday night’s, have been beat-downs — the Indians have now out-scored the Tigers 77-24, a complete reversal of pre-2016 trends.
The Indians (51-32) had four multi-run innings within the first six. In the second inning, Rajai Davis doubled home a run off Tigers starter Anibal Sanchez (5-9, 6.52 ERA) and was followed by Tyler Naquin, who grounded out but scored Lonnie Chisenhall, who had singled.
Chisenhall made it 3-0 in the fourth with an RBI double and, with Jose Ramirez on third, Davis extended the lead to 4-0 with a sacrifice fly to center field.
The Indians kept piling on. The fifth inning included an RBI double by Francisco Lindor, a run-scoring groundout by Ramirez and Chisenhall’s second RBI double in as many innings, making it 7-0.
Naquin belted his seventh home run of the season, a solo shot, to begin the sixth. After three consecutive walks issued by Buck Farmer, Mike Napoli singled home a run and Ramirez scored another on a fielder’s choice.
In the eighth, Carlos Santana added a solo home run, his team-leading 19th of the season, which matches his 2015 home run total. Chisenhall also collected his fourth hit of the game, an RBI single to right.
Lindor, who was selected to his first All-Star Game Tuesday night, added some defensive highlights as well.
With two on for the Tigers (44-40) in the fifth, Jose Iglesias grounded to Jason Kipnis, who made a nice stop, turned and threw to Lindor at second base for the second out of the inning. Realizing he didn’t have a play at first, Lindor turned and fired to third to nail the lead runner and end the inning. Lindor also ended the sixth with a diving stop and throw to beat Justin Upton to first base, another in a long line of 2016 highlights.
Carlos Carrasco (5-2, 2.47 ERA) tossed six innings, allowed one run on only three hits and struck out three, earning the easy victory as the Indians yet again crushed Tigers pitching.
Mike Clevinger threw two scoreless innings after being called up Monday.
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