Tribe bullpen is human after all
After rocking it since the start of the season, the Indians bullpen finally proved to be human on Sunday.
Rafael Perez and Joe Smith couldn’t hold an eighth-inning lead and the Tribe fell to the Angels, 6-5, to finish their six-game road trip at 3-3.
While it would have been great to see the Indians go 4-2 on the trip, there are still several positives to take from the past week.
The Indians hit the road to Oakland last week with a 4.5-game lead over second-place Kansas City. They come home with that lead still intact.
The Indians faced some top-notch pitching on the trip, but the offense kept battling. They scored three runs in the ninth to beat Oakland 4-1, scored two in the 12th to beat Oakland 4-3, put up four against the Angels after falling behind 2-0 in their 4-3 win, and scored two in the eighth on Sunday to take the lead, and put up another run in the ninth and had Asdrubal Cabrera in scoring position when the game ended.
The starting pitching was once again lights out. The Tribe went through the starting rotation one complete turn, with Fausto Carmona going twice, and the starters went 41 innings and gave up only eight earned runs, a 1.76 ERA.
The Tribe’s starters went pitch-for-pitch with the two best staffs in the American League and more than held their own. We’re now five weeks into the season and the starting pitching shows no sign of slowing down.
The Indians come home this week to Progressive Field to take on Tampa Bay, who are 2-17 at Progressive Field since 2006. The Tribe is also riding a 13-game home winning streak.
Don’t worry, Tribe time is rolling along just fine right now.
Red Right 88 