Cleveland Indians: Tribe scores 11 runs to earn first Spring Training win

While it doesn’t really matter, it’s always a great feeling to get that first Cleveland Indians win since October. And the Tribe made it one heck of a win.

The Cleveland Indians earned their first Spring Training victory on Saturday with an 11-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks; giving Tribe fans something to smile about on top of the return of baseball. The game was not televised, but those fans who listened to the game or followed along online know the score was a tad bit misleading.

Diamondbacks stud first baseman Paul Goldschmidt knocked in the first run of the game in the bottom of the first with a groundout that allowed David Peralta to score from third. Tyler Naquin answered for the Tribe in the third with a two run blast in his second at-bat, that gave the Indians a 2-1 lead. Giovanny Urshela then extended the Indians lead with an RBI double in the fourth.

After the Diamondbacks brought the game within one in the fourth, the game became a pitchers battle. The two teams swapped pitchers for the remainder of the game with one run separating the two.

The Indians then opened things up in the eighth. Eric Haase and Greg Allen both had RBI’s to give the Tribe a 5-2 lead. They left no doubt about it in the ninth. The Tribe had four straight hits to open up the inning; three of them homers. A sac fly from Brandon Barnes and a Rob Refsnyder RBI single closed things out for the Cleveland Indians.

Game Notes

Shawn Morimando got the win for Cleveland and went two innings, making him the only Indians pitcher to work multiple innings. He and Tyler Olson were the only Indians pitchers to allow any runs. Nick Goody had two strikeouts to lead all the pitchers who combined for seven strikeouts in total.

As for hitting; 13 different Indians players had a hit while the team had a total of 18 hits. Yandy Diaz managed to draw a walk and double in his two at-bats. But he also committed a throwing error in the second which allowed the D-Backs to threaten with only one out.

Yu-Cheng Chang went 2-3 with a run scored in his first game of the spring where he actually played third base instead of his typical shortstop position. Tom Hamilton raised an interesting point in which he compared Bradley ZImmer’s 2017 season to Tyler Naquin’s 2016 season; with Zimmer surpassing him.

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The Indians will play at the 3:10 ET again Sunday against the Cincinnati Reds. A game which will actually be televised, but no one can fault you for choosing to listen to Hammy’s voice anyway.