Cleveland-Kansas City: Indians Sweep Royals in Double-Header and in Series

The Indians and Royals played two on Thursday, and you’d never know the same two teams played in both. 

The first was an offensive breakout for both, as Cleveland won 9-6.  The second translated into a pitching gem on both sides of the diamond, with the Tribe coming out on top again 2-0. 

That amounted to a three-game sweep of Kansas City.

The Indians leave Kansas tapping their ruby red baseball cleats together and chanting “I want to stay here… I want to stay here”.

The offense scored 26 runs in three games.  The pitching gave up seven.  Cliff Lee pitched a complete game shutout in the 2-0 win, dropping his already microscopic ERA to 0.28. 

Let’s hope no one pinches Lee and wakes him up, because he has been the most dominant pitcher in baseball this year, now sitting at 4-0.

Rafael Betancourt picked up his first save of the season in his newly assumed closer role in the first game.  That came after a wild contest.

Four frames into the nine inning affair, the Indians had a 7-2 lead and Cleveland fans had to assume this one was over.  The Tribe put up a one, two, four mathematical progression of runs the first three innings.

In the first, Jamey Carroll scored on a walk and a Martinez single.  In the second, Ben Francisco and Casey Blake scored after they each singled and Grady Sizemore singled, rounding out the two run inning. 

Blake and Sizemore registered the RBI.  Even though Casey Blake’s batting average is .250, he is the leader in RBI for the Tribe with eighteen.

In the third, Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez each singled, putting runners on the corners for Ryan Garko.  He reached first on a KC throwing error, scoring Hafner. 

Francisco doubled, scoring Martinez and moving Garko to third.  Michaels singled in Garko and Francisco

Kansas City answered the run in the first with one of their own on a bunt single by Joey Gathright, a walk to David DeJesus, and a Billy Butler single to right, scoring Gathright. 

An interesting perception, Billy Butler sounds a lot like belly button if you are distracted during a baseball game.  You then have to wonder how a belly button could get a single, thus concentrating heavily on the replay.

The rest of the evenings’ scoring came in the fifth and the seventh, the Indians scoring one in each frame, and the Royals answering with two of their own every time. 

It made for a lively and interesting first game.  It also lasted three hours and thirty seven minutes—not what you’d hope for as a first-in-a-double-header length of game if you were a baseball player.

Fausto Carmona did end up with the win, going five shaky innings and giving up four runs on nine hits.  The walk was his enemy yet again in this outing; he dished up four of those. 

Indians Masa Kobayashi picked up a hold in relief.  An interesting side note in this game was the fact that Royals reliever Yasuhiki Yabuta, who came on in the fifth, used to be Kobayashi’s set up man back in Japan.

Game two was all about the pitching in a game that lasted two hours and fifteen minutes.  The Indians Cliff Lee and the Royals Brian Bannister both went six innings without giving up a run. 

The seventh proved to be Bannisters' undoing, when the Indians scored the only two runs of the game. 

David Dellucci homered to right, giving Cleveland a 1-0 lead. Hafner doubled and moved to third on a Ryan Garko groundout, and scored on an Asdrubal Cabrera double.  That chased Bannister.  While the Indians couldn’t plate anyone else, they didn’t need to. 

Cliff Lee finished the complete game giving up only three hits and striking out nine while not allowing a walk.  The Indians got two runs on five hits in this one.

They head home for a four game home stand against the New York Yankees.  Andy Pettitte takes the hill for New York, Paul Byrd for Cleveland.  Game time is 7:05.