The Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves split Saturday’s traditional doubleheader.
After Saturday’s doubleheader the series between the Cleveland Indians and Atlanta Braves is split 1-1. This leaves Sunday’s series finale on Sunday Night Baseball as the game that determines the winner of this interleague matchup.
Game 1: Indians 8 – Braves 4
The first game found the Indians on the winning side of things. Corey Kluber got the start and endured a rough beginning to the game. After striking Ozzie Albies and Josh Donaldson, Kluber walked Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuna Jr. Nick Markakis drove in a run to give Atlanta an early lead.
A similar rough patch occurred during the third innings. Albies led off with a double followed by a Donaldson infield single. Kluber was able to strikeout Freeman for the first out of the inning. Markakis would drive in another run via a sacrifice fly for his second RBI of the game.
Corey Kluber would allow two more runs in the game. Both came in the seventh inning. Brian McCann and Matt Joyce hit back-to-back solo home runs. Nick Wittgren and Brad Hand would pitch the final two innings of the game to secure the victory.
The Indians offense came alive in the first game, collecting 10 hits and scoring eight runs. Carlos Santana got things started in the first with an RBI single, this tied the game at 1.
In the fourth inning trialing by 1, Indians shortstop Max Moroff came to the plate and delivered with his first home run as a member of the Indians.
The fifth inning saw even more scoring. Cleveland batted around the order en route to a six run inning. Allen drove in the first run of the inning with an RBI double. Tyler Naquin would single allowing Allen to score. Moroff drove in Naquin with a single. Leonys Martin would get into the act with an RBI single of his own. Moroff would score on a passed ball, making it 7-2 Indians. Jason Kipnis would drive in Cleveland’s final run of the game with an RBI single.
Game 2: Indians 7 – Braves 8
In a similar fashion to the first game, the Cleveland Indians offense was on fire. Scoring seven runs over the first two innings, including batting around the order for the second time Saturday.
Cleveland’s batters took advantage of a shaky Touki Toussaint early in the game. Leonys Martin scored the first run of the game on a Toussaint wild pitch. Carlos Gonzalez would drive in Jose Ramirez on the very next pitch.
In the second inning Jose Ramirez would drive in two runs with a single off of Toussaint. Carlos Santana would follow with an RBI single making it 5-0. Jake Bauers would drive in Cleveland’s final two runs of the game to make it 7-0 Indians after the second inning.
Trevor Bauer got the start for the Tribe, allowing two runs on three hits in 6.1 innings while striking out 10. Bauer was fantastic and continued his dominant start to the season. If it were not for Bauer’s pitch count being over 100 going into the seventh inning he could have pitched longer, but it was and he was relieved in the seventh inning. That is when things fell apart.
Dan Otero relieved Trevor Bauer and gave up a two-run home run to Dansby Swanson, this closed the book on Bauer’s day as one run was charged to each pitcher.
Disaster in the ninth
In the top of the ninth with Oliver Perez already having pitched two thirds of an inning, Perez gave up a leadoff single to Nick Markakis. Adam Cimber game in for Perez and things went haywire afterwards. Although Cimber got off to a good start, getting Johan Camargo to line out for the first out of the inning, things ballooned quickly. Cimber would walk the next two batters he faced, Dansby Swanson and Tyler Flowers, loading the bases. Cimber managed to get the second out of the inning by way of a Ender Inciarte strikeout.
Now with two outs in the ninth innings the Braves rallied and the Indians bullpen imploded rather quickly. Ozzie Albies singled to drive in Swanson and Markakis. Cimber would walk Josh Donaldson to load the bases and Cimber’s night was done.
Tyler Olson came in for exactly one batter and walked in a run. This made it a one run game in the ninth. Cody Anderson came on for Olson and gave up a two-run double to Ronald Acuna Jr. Anderson would immediately walk the next batter and then end the ninth with another out by Johan Camargo.
Cleveland’s rally did not go as well as Atlanta’s. Jake Bauers, Tyler Naquin and Roberto Perez all struck out in the bottom of the ninth to end the game quite unceremoniously.
