Cleveland Indians Win Team Record 14th Straight in Marathon

In a 19 inning marathon, the Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays 2-1 for their franchise-record 14th straight win. The rare Friday afternoon game lasted 6 hours and 13 minutes as the Indians spoiled Canada Day in Toronto, moving to 49-30 on the season. They will remain at least six games ahead of the Kansas City Royals in the Central division. The loss drops the Blue Jays to 43-39 on the season.

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Once again the Indians got a good outing from their starter as Josh Tomlin went six strong innings allowing just one run. He allowed seven hits, walked two, and struck out eight Jays on the afternoon. The lone run he allowed came in the bottom of the 6th inning on a solo home run off the bat of Justin Smoak. It was Smoak’s eighth homer of the season and tied the game at 1-1.

That’s where the game would remain for the next 12 innings as neither team could score. On the afternoon, the Indians used eight relievers, including tomorrow’s scheduled starter Trevor Bauer. The only reliever that didn’t pitch was closer Cody Allen who was unavailable after working the previous three games. Despite the high workload, the Indians bullpen held the Blue Jays scoreless for 13 innings. Even more impressively, they allowed just four hits though they did walk six. Overall the Indians struck out 18 Blue Jays. The aforementioned Bauer got the win moving to 7-2 on the season after working five innings of relief to close out the game. He threw 83 pitches in relief, allowing just two hits, walking three and striking out three.

The Indians offense had (mostly) a game to forget. They scored just one run off Jays’ starter Marcus Stroman coming on an RBI single by Jason Kipnis in the 3rd inning, scoring Carlos Santana and giving the Indians an early 1-0 lead. That was all the Indians would get though for the next 15 innings. It wasn’t for lack of chances either. The Indians had runners on 1st and 3rd with no outs multiple times late but were unable to get a runner home. All told the Indians went 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position and left a staggering 17 men on base. However, thanks to the pitching they were able to get the win on Santana’s 19th inning home run, his team-leading 17th of the season, giving them a 2-1 lead. The home run came off Jays’ second baseman Darwin Barney, the second position player to pitch for them on the night after Ryan Goins worked a scoreless 18th inning.

The Indians will need a starter for tomorrow with Bauer unavailable now. On the radio, former Indians’ coach Tim Belcher mentioned Shawn Morimando as an option to start. He’s on the 40-man roster already and is scheduled to pitch on normal rest tomorrow having pitched Monday for the Double-A Akron Rubberducks. Morimando is 10-3 with a 3.09 ERA on the season for the Rubberducks. The Indians aren’t able to turn to Cody Anderson or Ryan Merritt as both are on the disabled list in Columbus and Mike Clevinger started Wednesday night so he’s unavailable as well. T.J. House, another option, has been moved to the bullpen at Triple-A Columbus though has the ability to still start. The other options could be adding a veteran to the roster like Ross Detwiler or going with a “bullpen day” and starting someone like Zach McAllister for a couple innings.

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Whichever direction the Indians go, they’ll look to take the third game of series and clinch the four-game set in Toronto. They will face off against Marco Estrada (5-3, 2.81 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 1:07 pm again at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.

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