The Cleveland Indians were able to defeat the Chicago White Sox by a score of 5-3 in Monday’s home opener.
Cleveland got a strong pitching performance from Mike Clevinger in his first start of the year. “Sunshine’ pitched well in the surprisingly sunny, but chilly home opener. Clevinger went seven innings, allowing one hit and striking out 12. Unfortunately Clevinger was not able to come away with a win as Oliver Perez gave up the lead in the eighth inning.
Perez gave up an RBI double to Yoan Moncada to tie the game. Jon Edwards would surrender a two-run homer to Ryan Cordell who came in as a pinch hitter. The Indians found themselves down 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth and that is when the rally started.
Leonys Martin reached on a walk. Jose Ramirez lined out for the first out of the inning. Jake Bauers would double with Martin going to third. Chicago intentionally walked Carlos Santana to load the bases. Hanley Ramirez would reach on an error, scoring Martin. Max Moroff would single to bring home Bauers. Roberto Perez was walked, this allowed Santana to score. Greg Allen came in as a pinch-hitter for Tyler Naquin and was also walked, Hanley Ramirez would score to make it 5-3 Indians.
Brad Hand came on in the top of the ninth and shut the door for the Indians, securing their first win at home in 2019. Hand struck out two of the three batters he faced.
Cleveland’s bats appeared to finally wake up after a rather unimpressive start to the year. Cleveland finished with eight hits and reached base via walk five times and managed to double their season run total in one game.
