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about 1 month ago: Cleveland Indians' Travis Hafner is welcomed in the dugout after scoring on a double by Trevor Crowe off Minnesota Twins' Scott Baker in the second inning of a baseball game Monday, July 19, 2010, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

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After sweeping the Tigers largely on the basis of pitching, the Indians won their fifth in a row (and a franchise-record fifth straight after the All-Star Break, for what it's worth) on the strength of their bats. Aaron Laffey was in the right place at the right time, given seven runs of support during his short five inning outing. Aaron continued to combine a low-to-mid 80s fastball with not much control, but because of the offensive support and a lot of luck, he got the "five and fly" victory. However, if the Indians want to give one of the Columbus trio (Carrasco, Gomez, or Tomlin) a look in the majors, they shouldn't feel any regret at sending Laffey down until his velocity and/or control returns.

The Indians jumped on Scott Baker early and often, scoring two runs in the second, and though stifled by double plays in the third and fourth innings, knocked him out in the fifth with another two runs (on four hits). That was it for Baker, but the Indians weren't done with the inning, scoring three more runs off relievers Alex Burnett and Ron Mahay. Four of the five runs came with two outs, and the only double of the inning came on Carlos Santana deep fly that Twins left fielder Delmon should have caught.

The Indians would eventually collect 20 base hits, 15 singles and 5 doubles. Seven of the nine starters had two or more hits; the only starter who didn't have one was Austin Kearns, removed from the game in the early innings with soreness in his knee.

The bullpen finally gave up some runs, though with the offense clicking, it didn't matter. What does matter is that the pen had to pitch another four innings, and that's too much a workload for a bullpen to shoulder on an everyday basis. Jess Todd, who will be the eighth reliever in the bullpen for this series, finished things off in the ninth after Tony Sipp and Frank Herrmann did the heavy lifting in the seventh and eighth innings.

via www.fangraphs.com