CLEVELAND – The Indians needed this one.
Losers of 5 of their last 6 heading into Friday nights game, the 6-5 victory over the New York Yankees was a big win. As big as wins can be in July, this one felt important.
The largest crowd (35,078) of the season watched the Indians offense get started early when Jose Ramirez grounded out for his first of two RBIs on the evening.
New York tried multiple times to make this one interesting but the insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth inning proved to be enough in the second game of the four game weekend series.
Next Up: Saturday 7:10: New York Yankees ( CC Sabathia 6-4 3.34) @ Cleveland Indians ( Mike Clevinger 7-4 3.34)
Some Postgame thoughts from Progressive Field:
1. First Things First
Jose Ramirez got things going in the bottom half of the first, when he hit an RBI groundout that scored Francisco Lindor. This marked the third straight game in which the Indians offense scored in the 1st inning. Lindor’s run was the 72nd run scored by Cleveland in the first inning, which is the 2nd most behind Colorado who has accomplished the feat 80 times this season.
The Cleveland offense is producing runs (36.96%) of the time in the first inning, which is good for third best in MLB behind a pair of NL West clubs (Colorado and Arizona.) The Indians are (20-10) when they hold the lead after the first inning,in other words things usually end well for the Tribe when they get the scoring started.
2. Home Cooking
Friday night’s victory was the Indians 30th of the season at Progressive Field. Which coincidentally was the highest attended game of the season, as a crowd of 35,078 watched the Tribe win. Those who have been here throughout the first half the season have seen the Tribe offense average just over six runs per game, while Tribe pitchers have held opponents to under 4.5 runs per game. Cleveland has won 17 of their last 24 home games. The Indians have two more home games against the Yankees before the All-Star break begins on Monday.
3. We’ve Got Your Back ‘Rook’
Some early offense for the Indians gave Cleveland starter Rookie Shane Bieber a 4-0 lead after two innings, and Bieber looked like he was going to cruise to an easy win, that was until the 5th inning.
The Yankees were able to make Bieber sweat a little bit as he struggled to throw strikes, and a few timely base hits allowed New York to cut the Tribe lead to 4-3. Rather than keeping the pressure on the young kid, the Indians offense took matters into their own hands as an RBI triple by Jose Ramirez and an RBI single by Yonder Alonso extended the Cleveland lead to 6-3.
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