Indians offense held in check, fall to Orioles
The Cleveland Indians only managed to score one run on three hits in Friday night’s 5-1 loss to the visiting Baltimore Orioles.
After accumulating 23 runs on 25 hits in the previous two games, the Cleveland Indians struggled at the plate Friday. Baltimore held Cleveland to only three hits which led to one run scored. Needless to say, the Indians fell short as the Orioles won 5-1.
The only Cleveland players to gather a hit Friday were Francisco Lindor, Jason Kipnis and Jake Bauers. Others reached base via a walk (4), but a walk does not have the impact of a base hit. The only Cleveland run came courtesy of a Jake Bauers RBI single. Bauers drove in Jose Ramirez who reached on an error and proceeded to steal second base. Cleveland was just not able to string together hits. This can happen from time to time after back-to-back offensive explosions. Considering how things went in the previous two games, the performance on Friday night could be the outlier.
Jefry Rodriguez did not have his best game of his career. This was the first time this season that Rodriguez allowed more than three runs. However he could have allowed just two runs and Cleveland still would have lost. What really hurt Rodriguez was the top of third inning. Rodriguez allowed a leadoff double from Rio Ruiz. This was followed by a Austin Wynns single which saw Ruiz go to third. After striking out Richie Martin, Rodriguez surrendered a three run homer to Jonathan Villar. In the fourth inning Rodriguez gave up a solo shot off the bat of Stevie Wilkerson.
Neil Ramirez was the only other Indians pitcher to allow a run. Ramirez gave up an RBI double to Wilkerson in the eighth inning. Ramirez allowed one run on three hits in just two-thirds of an inning.
