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Smoke signals

• In the bottom of the first inning of Monday's 13-5 win over the Cubs, a comebacker off the bat of Chicago outfielder Darnell McDonald struck Indians starter Carlos Carrasco in the side of the head. Carrasco dropped to one knee and underwent a series of concussion tests by Cleveland's medical staff. After a few minutes, Carrasco resumed throwing, and then went on to log three innings.

"We made him pass every test there was," Francona said. "We quizzed him out on the mound, and we took a while. Even after the inning, we even took him up to the clubhouse and really put him through a pretty good rundown of stuff. If we were going to err, we were going to err on the side of caution."

Francona said the team would follow up with Carrasco on Monday night and again on Tuesday morning.

• Asked which rookie he felt could impact the Indians' big league team at some point this season, Francona mentioned starter Danny Salazar. The right-hander went a combined 5-2 with a 2.36 ERA in 22 starts last season for High A Carolina and Double-A Akron. Over those outings, Salazar had 76 strikeouts against 27 walks in 87 2/3 innings.

"You hate to start getting into names," Francona said, "because you'll leave somebody out. But the guy that comes to mind when you say something like that, for me, is Danny Salazar. He doesn't have a lot of experience and needs to get some, but his stuff and he's got that presence about him. It wouldn't shock me if he came [to the big leagues] quick."

• Indians right-hander Brett Myers worked three innings in a Minor League "B" game on Monday morning, logging 45 pitches in his outing. Reliever Matt Capps, who is competing for a bullpen job as a non-roster invitee, threw 17 pitches in one inning in the same game.

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