Rangers 10, Indians 8
Tribe falls to 20-24
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A comeback win is a whole lot of fun, and for a while today, that's what it looked like the Indians would have. Sadly, it was the Rangers who got to enjoy that sensation when the game finally ended, more than three and a half hours after it began.
Shaun Marcum reminded us all that one good game doesn't mean a guy who's years removed from consistently well well is back to consistently pitching well. (Hopefully in his next start he reminds us that just because a guy gets rocked one game doesn't mean he can't pitch well the next.) Marcum gave up back-to-back home runs to Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre in the top of the 1st, putting the Indians in a 3-0 hole.
Carlos Santana hit his 5th home run of the season in the bottom half of the frame, Roberto Perez hit a three-run shot in the 2nd and then Jason Kipnis doubled in another run, and suddenly the Tribe led 5-3. Marcum retired the first two batters in the 3rd, then gave up a double to Fielder. Francona decided that one failure against Beltre was enough, and called for Marcum to intentionally walk him. Beltre could retire today and get my Hall of Fame vote, but I don't like giving someone a free pass so early in a game that seems likely to feature a lot of scoring. Marcum accidentally walked the next man, then gave up a single that tied the game. Ryan Webb entered and gave up a double to Elvis Andrus, and like that, the Indians were back behind.
David Murphy and Lonnie Chisenhall started the bottom of the inning off with back-to-back hits, and each scored on a productive out, making it a 7-7 game before the 3rd inning ended. The Memorial Day crowd was getting its money's worth. Each team got some solid relief work for the next hour or so, but after Santana walked in the 6th, Michael Brantley doubled him in.
That brought the game to the top of the 7th, which is when things got really stupid.
Bryan Shaw retired the first batter, then gave up a single and was replaced by Marc Rzepczynski. Scrabble was overly concerned with Delino DeShields at first base, and threw a pickoff attempt into the seats. He got the batter out, but then gave up a single to Fielder (who had himself a day) and the game was tied again. Zach McAllister came in, and with two outs and two on, he got a tapper hit back to him, which he proceeded to throw about five feet over Santana's head at first. Back behind the Indians went, with the margin getting one-run worse when McAllister gave up a home run to Andrus.
If you're looking for a silver lining, 8 runs and 5 extra-base hits from the offense were nice to see. Santana continues to hit the ball hard (after not having done much for a couple weeks prior to the weekend), Kipnis was on base twice again, Perez made the decision to keep him with the team look like a good one. If you want to rain on that silver lining, the lineup wasn't exactly roughing up Clayton Kershaw out there.
The Indians have still won six of their last seven, so we shouldn't get too down about the loss, but watching Marcum get crushed and seeing not one but two relievers make throwing errors, it wasn't a pleasant way to spend the holiday. Here's to hoping Danny Salazar gets things turned right back around for the team Tuesday night.
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Win expectancy chart:
(down and up, down and up, down and down)
Source: FanGraphs
Roll call:
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