CLEVELAND: There’s nothing wrong with getting a little lucky in the middle of a rally.
The ball bounced the Indians’ way a couple of times in a seventh-inning rally and, combined with some timely hits, it propelled them to a 5-3 win over the Oakland A’s Friday night at Progressive Field.
The Indians entered the seventh trailing 3-1, heading toward another quiet offensive night after Wednesday’s 4-1 loss to the Washington Nationals. Then, an opportunity.
Facing A’s starter Kendall Graveman, Rajai Davis reached base thanks to an error on shortstop Marcus Semien with one out. Tyler Naquin followed with a single and Abraham Almonte, who’s struggled since being reinstated, singled home a run to make it 3-2 and put runners on the corners.
The A’s (47-56) called on left-hander and former Indians reliever Marc Rzepczynski to face Carlos Santana, who drew a walk to load the bases.
Then, on a pivotal pitch, Jason Kipnis’ bat splintered. As most of the bat sailed toward right field, the ball found the little ground in shallow left field that the A’s couldn’t cover, falling for a game-tying single.
Ryan Dull relieved Rzepczynski and threw an errant pitch in the dirt that trickled away from catcher Stephen Vogt, allowing Almonte to score and give the Indians a 4-3 lead. Francisco Lindor followed with a sacrifice fly to right field, deep enough to score Santana from third.
Now operating with a lead, Bryan Shaw worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning and Cody Allen notched save No. 20 in the ninth, though it came with a close call as Josh Reddick, with two runners on and two out, hit a ball to the wall in center field that was caught by Naquin.
It was enough to support starting pitcher Trevor Bauer, who threw 5⅓ innings, allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits and struck out four. Bauer kept the A’s at a 1-0 advantage until the sixth inning, when Reddick and Khris Davis hit back-to-back home runs. It was reminiscent of Bauer’s struggles last year, much of which were driven by home runs.
Dan Otero worked out of a sixth-inning jam to keep it 3-0 and Cody Anderson threw a scoreless inning in relief, his first action in a week.
It took time Friday night for the Indians’ offense to find a rhythm. They were held scoreless until Santana belted a solo home run to right field, his 22nd of the season, which tied Mike Napoli for the team lead.
The Indians (58-42), 6-6 since the All-Star break, maintain their hold on the best record in the American League and still lead the Detroit Tigers by 4½ games in the Central Division.
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.