Carrasco K's 11 as Indians clobber Tigers

July 7th, 2017

CLEVELAND -- beat the Tigers for the third time in four meetings this season, aided by a heaping helping of Indians offense. 's two-run double, 's two-run homer and 's two-run triple powered the Tribe to an 11-2 win Friday night at Progressive Field.
"It was just a nice game to see the guys play the way they did," said bench coach Brad Mills, who's managing the Tribe while Terry Francona recovers from a heart procedure. "Offensively, Brantley had some big at-bats, he could have had even a bigger night. We had big hits all the way around. Shoot, [] had a good night. [Chisenhall] had that big blow that really kind of gave us a couple extra runs as a cushion there. But there were some good at-bats."
Carrasco, who hasn't allowed more than two runs in a game against the Tigers in their past nine meetings, struck out a season-high 11 over seven innings, including all three outs of the fifth and sixth. J.D. Martinez and had RBI singles in the fourth and sixth, respectively.

"It's fun [to play behind him]," Lindor said of Carrasco. "I know he's got the stuff to be a No. 1 starter and he deserves to be in the All-Star Game. It's just whenever he goes out there and does what he does best, it's pretty special. It's pretty cool. Whenever you see big league hitters miss the ball by five feet that means he's doing something right."
By then, Cleveland was comfortably in front thanks to a third-inning barrage off , fueled by Brantley's double and Chisenhall's 12th homer. 's fifth home run and Lindor's two-run triple began a four-run sixth against Chad Bell and Alex Wilson to put the game away.

"Just not a good day pitchwise for us," Tigers catcher Alex Avila. "Behind in a lot of counts, a lot of pitches over the middle of the plate."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Ramirez keeps it going:  Zimmermann nearly survived the third with just two runs allowed thanks to a highlight stop from deep in the hole on . Iglesias fired against his body, but couldn't get enough on the throw to get Ramirez. The two-out infield single scored Brantley and continued the inning for Chisenhall, who hit Zimmermann's ensuing breaking ball out to right for a 5-0 lead.

V-Mart 2K: became the ninth active Major League player with 2,000 hits. His milestone hit, an opposite-field single off Carrasco in the second, came in the same ballpark where he had his first big league hit 15 years ago as a Tribe September callup. The crowd of 32,307 gave him a standing ovation.

"It was really special for me," Martinez said. "I never thought they were going to stand up and clap, but like I said before, this was the organization that gave me a chance to be a professional baseball player, gave me a chance to become a Major Leaguer." More >
QUOTABLE
"It's starting to come together. I'm sure that he'd like to have the at-bat back in that fourth inning. But at the same time, he had some real good at-bats tonight. He's getting there and making progress and moving in that direction." -- Mills, on Lindor's improved approach at the plate

"We all love Victor and what he did for this organization and the quality hitter he is and the type of hitter he is. We were talking in the dugout, we go, 'That's a lot of hits.' And I know there's some guys with 3,000, there's some guys, couple guys with 4,000 or whatever. Man, that's a lot of hits. It couldn't happen to a better guy and that's something. Some of the guys were saying, you kind of wonder if people really understand how many hits that is. That's pretty cool." -- Mills, on Martinez's 2,000th hit

SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
The Tigers gave up double-digit runs for the eighth time, with three of those games coming against the Indians.
CARRASCO'S IMMACULATE INNING
In the fifth, Carrasco threw an immaculate inning. He struck out , and Iglesias in order, each on three pitches. It marked only the second time in Indians history that a pitcher has recorded an immaculate inning, with the first by on June 2, 2014, against the Red Sox.

"What Carlos [did], I thought it was huge," Mills said. "We had the bases loaded, nobody out and didn't score in the bottom of the fourth. And he came out in the top of the fifth, when you might think the momentum might be swinging or something, he used nine pitches, struck out the side and set them down. That was sure [a] big key." More >
WHAT'S NEXT
Tigers: (5-5, 4.96 ERA) revisits his demons at Progressive Field, where he gave up nine runs over four-plus innings in April and ended up searching for hints of pitch-tipping or sign-stealing. He'll face an Indians squad that has hit him around for 18 runs on 24 hits over 14 1/3 innings this season. The Saturday matchup starts at 7:15 p.m. ET.
Indians: Right-hander Mike Clevinger (4-3, 3.33 ERA) will take the mound in Saturday's game against the Tigers at Progressive Field. Clevinger will make his second straight start against Verlander after outpitching him Sunday in an 11-8 win. He went six innings and allowed one run on two hits with seven strikeouts, but tied a career high with five walks.
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