The Cleveland Indians got an early 3-0 lead, but the Chicago Cubs were able to take advantage of some shaky bullpen arms to hand the Tribe a loss.
One would think that if this was a regular season game the result would be much different. The Cleveland Indians were up 3-0 going into the 7th inning and several non-MLB caliber bullpen arms surrendered six consecutive runs to give up the lead to the Chicago Cubs. Cleveland would be able to scratch a couple more runs across, but it was not enough as the Indians fall to the Cubs 8-5.
Francisco Lindor got the Indians offense going with a bang in the bottom of the 1st. Lindor homered off of the first pitch from Kyle Hendricks to give the Tribe an early 1-0 lead.
Jose Ramirez found himself in a lengthy battle with Cubs pitcher Jharel Cotton. Ramirez slugged a two-run homer on the fifth pitch of the at-bat to increase the Cleveland lead to three.
Adam Plutko got the start and did not allow a hit in 3 innings of work. Plutko walked two batters and struck out two others. This is an encouraging sign from Plutko as the Tribe are currently concerned with the status of Carlos Carrasco. If Carrasco were to miss any time, Adam Plutko would be counted on as an arm in the Cleveland rotation.
The Indians bullpen would have a bit of a meltdown in the 7th and 8th innings.
The 7th
Jean Carlos Mejia took the mound in the 7th and things did not go well. After getting Miguel Amaya to line out to first, Mejia walked Hernan Perez, Zach Davis would pinch run for Perez. Alfonso Rivas came through with an RBI double to get the Cubs on the board for the first time in the game. Mejia would manage to strike out Robel Garcia, but he was not out of danger yet. Zack Short came up to the plate and tied the game with a two-run homer. The 7th inning came to an end after Mejia was able to strike out Luis Verdugo.
The 8th
The 8th inning couldn’t be any worse than the 7th right? Well, it was. Anthony Gose replaced Mejia and proceeded to do his best Rick “Wild Thing Vaughn” impression and walked the first two batters he faced on eight straight pitches. Gose would do a complete 180 and strike out the next two batters on six straight pitchers. Perhaps Gose would be able to work his way out of this, maybe he just needed to regain his command. Well, it did not happen. Zach Davis would chase Gose from the game with an RBI single to give Chicago the lead for the first time in the game. Henry Martinez would relieve Gose and on his second pitch gave up a two-run single to Jared Young .The Cubs now had a 6-3 lead and would hold onto it the rest of the game.
The Indians would add two runs in the 8th thanks to back-to-back doubles from Connor Marabell and Cameron Rupp. Chicago would get both of those runs back in the 9th to give them their three-run lead back.
