CLEVELAND – It took an awful long time for the Indians and Angels to play a game on Thursday night due to Mother Nature, but it was worth it for the Tribe, who put up 14 runs in a blowout 14-4 win.
The victory puts the Indians back up to four games ahead of the Tigers in the AL Central at 64-49, as Detroit was off Thursday before starting a series with the Texas Rangers on Friday in Arlington, TX.
There was plenty of good in the 11-run win, including a huge night at the plate for Mike Napoli who was 4-for-4 with two doubles and a homer and four RBI.
Napoli now has a team high 29 homers and 83 RBI. He also raised his average eight points on the night from .253 to .261.
He wasn’t the only Indian to have a big night at the plate, as the team had a five-run inning in the first, and then a four-run inning to end their scoring in the 5th.
Abraham Almonte had three hits and is now hitting .292 on the season after a slow start, and Lonnie Chisenhall had two hits and four RBI to bring his run batted in total to 40 on the season.
Everyone in the starting nine for the Indians had a hit minus Tyler Naquin who was 0-for-3 on the night with a couple of strikeouts.
The team did lose DH Carlos Santana to a contusion on the right side of his head, as he was hit in the dugout by a foul ball and was helped to the clubhouse.
Santana, who hit a leadoff home run in the first inning, was struck by teammate Francisco Lindor’s foul ball in the fifth.
The Angels, who fall to 49-65 with the loss and are in last in the AL West, got an early homer from Mike Trout to take a quick 1-0 lead off Indians starter Corey Kluber in the first.
It was about the only thing to go their way, as they were down 5-1 after the first, and by the time the first of two rain delays hit they probably would have wished the rain had never ended.
Kluber went six innings, allowing three runs on four hits with two walks and three K’s in the win to improve to 12-8 on the season.
He was able to go on cruise control after the Tribe built the quick early lead and never looked back.
The Indians slammed Angels starter Jhoulys Chacin for seven runs on six hits in just 1.1 innings of work. The Angels used six pitchers on the night, and none lasted longer than 1.2 innings.
The same two teams will do battle Friday at Progressive Field, as Carlos Carrasco (7-6, 3.17) will throw for the Indians against Tyler Skaggs (1-0, 2.04) at 7:05pm.
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