Getting shut down by Mike Minor seems like a bad loss. It really isn’t, as Minor has been great this year. The Texas left-hander held the Indians to just one run over eight innings in the Rangers 4-2 win Thursday afternoon. The loss drops the Tribe to 39-35 on the year.
Minor came into the game with a sparkling 2.52 ERA, which is tough to do when you pitch half your games in Arlington, and was plenty efficient in the Texas heat on Thursday. Minor didn’t give up his first hit until the fourth inning. The lone run he allowed came in the fifth on a Jordan Luplow two-out single.
Shane Bieber started for the Tribe and had good stuff, striking out eight over six innings and allowing just two runs. Those runs both came in the first, when the Rangers belted three extra-base hits.
Tyler Clippard followed Bieber, throwing a scoreless inning, and A.J. Cole was called on for the eighth. Cole gave up two homers, one a wind-aided shot from Danny Santana and the other a no-doubter by Elvis Andrus. For some reason, Cole was then followed by closer Brad Hand.
Those two runs gave the Rangers some breathing room, which helped as the Indians put a scare in closer Shawn Kelley in the ninth. Carlos Santana homered off Kelley to start the inning. Jason Kipnis singled later to bring the tying run to the plate, but Mike Freeman on an 0-2 slider to end it.
Fun Game Notes
- The game only took 2 hours and 35 minutes. That’s good.
- Francisco Lindor and Leonys Martin had a bit of a disagreement in the dugout after the first inning.
- Bobby Bradley had two more home runs today for Triple-A Columbus. Just sayin’