CLEVELAND -- Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor is one of the game's most talented young players, and he reminded the Astros of that Thursday. Lindor's two-run, go-ahead homer in the seventh powered the Indians to a 4-3 victory over the Astros in the series finale at Progressive Field.
"It was fun to see," Lindor said. "As soon as I hit it, I knew it was going to go out, especially with how the ball was carrying today. It was special, because I was capable of helping my team win today."
Lindor's sixth home run of the season gave Cleveland its first lead of the game, one it wouldn't lose. The Astros made it interesting in the ninth as they put runners on the corners with one out against Cody Allen, but the Indians closer worked out of the jam to close out the game.

Lindor's homer allowed Indians starter Corey Kluber to pick up his third win of the season, as the right-hander went seven innings and allowed three runs on eight hits while striking out a season-high 10. Kluber's 10-K performance was his 25th career game with double-digit strikeouts.

"I thought his stuff was good, and as he got into the game and started using his changeup, he was real good," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "For him to give us seven, at least it gave us a chance."
The Astros were able to get to Kluber early. Marwin Gonzalez hit a solo homer to center in the second, and a pair of RBI hits from Evan Gattis and Alex Bregman in the third allowed the Astros to hold the early lead. But Kluber held them scoreless in his final four innings of work before turning the ball over to the Tribe's bullpen.

"That was a great game, and a great series," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. "We came out on the bottom end of it, but a lot of good in that whole series, [Chris Devenski] being one of them. That was an incredible display there, coming in in the fifth inning. Obviously, I called on him early. He made his pitches, and then they won the biggest at-bat, they won the biggest defensive play, they won the game by one."
Edwin Encarnacion and Abraham Almonte added solo home runs in the second and fifth, respectively, off Astros starter Mike Fiers. The right-hander went 4 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on five hits.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Lindor hits a blast: After Devenski worked two scoreless innings -- which included getting out of a one-out, runner-on-third jam in the fifth -- the right-hander walked Indians catcher Yan Gomes with one out in the seventh. Devenski then struck out Carlos Santana, but fell behind 2-0 to Lindor. Devenski's next pitch was his last, as Lindor belted a two-run, 456-foot home run to center, to give the Indians the 4-3 lead. The go-ahead shot was Lindor's longest home run of the Statcast™ Era.

"I haven't seen it on the video. Everybody knows he has it. He clearly sat on it and got it elevated," Hinch said about Lindor's homer, which came off a changeup. "I don't know where the pitch was from the side. Their guy beat our guy. That's really the equivalent of that matchup on a big pitch and a big swing."
Astros score two in the third: After striking out Norichika Aoki to start the third, Kluber gave up back-to-back hits to Carlos Correa and Brian McCann. With Correa on third and McCann on first, Gattis connected for an RBI single to left to give the Astros the lead. Kluber retired Yuli Gurriel for the second out of the inning, but then surrendered a bloop RBI double to shallow right to Bregman, giving the Astros the 3-1 lead. Per Statcast™, Bregman's double had an exit velocity of 60 mph and had a hit probability of 25 percent.

QUOTABLE
"Really? I'm not supposed to be hitting the ball that far."
-- Lindor, on his home run
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Encarnacion's home run represented his second-lowest launch angle (19.6 degrees) on a home run in the Statcast™ Era. His lowest (18.4) came on Aug. 29, 2015. Entering Thursday, only 37 of the 714 home runs hit in the Majors this year had a launch angle of 20 degrees or lower.
GOMES GETS ALTUVE
The Astros led off the ninth with three hits against Allen, but didn't get any runs. That's because Jose Altuve, who came off the bench and led off with an infield hit, was thrown out at second base by Gomes while trying to steal before Josh Reddick and Carlos Beltran followed with singles.

"Yeah, you know, it was a breaking ball that stays a little up," said Altuve, who had been 7-for-7 in stolen bases. "He made a good throw, Lindor made a good pick. It seems like they put all the things together to throw me out."
REPLAY REVIEW
Hinch lost a challenge in the first inning on Almonte's terrific catch at the wall with two outs and the bases loaded off the bat of Gurriel. The review confirmed Almonte caught the ball without it contacting the outfield wall.

"We thought it might have changed direction off the wall," Hinch said. "We couldn't tell; it was blurry. With that situation here, you've got runs coming across the board and a little bit of chaos in the outfield, I wanted to take a shot at it. I know they confirmed it. It looked like the change of direction was actually inside his glove. We missed out on that one, but it changed the whole complexion of the game."
WHAT'S NEXT
Astros: Right-hander Charlie Morton (1-2, 4.29) will face the A's for the first time in his career in Friday's 7:10 p.m. CT series opener at Minute Maid Park. The Astros are 15-4 against the A's since May 1, 2016, including an 8-2 record in Houston.
Indians: The Indians will begin a three-game weekend series with the Mariners on Friday at 7:10 p.m. ET at Progressive Field. Right-hander Carlos Carrasco (2-1, 1.65 ERA) is scheduled to make his fifth start of the season. Carrasco went eight shutout innings and allowed just three hits while striking out eight against the White Sox in his last start on Saturday.
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