Indians Lose Marathon Game in Puerto Rico Against Minnesota, Three Takeways From 2-1 Loss

3.) Bullpens, Small Ball, and a Costly Error

The first run of Wednesday’s matchup didn’t come until the 14th inning when Edwin Encarnacion hit a solo home run to left field to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the inning though, Miguel Sano answered back for the Twins hitting a solo home run of his own to left field also.

Cleveland’s bullpen put together 6.3 innings pitched following the exit of Carrasco and gave up 1 earned run. Matt Belisle was responsible for the one earned run given up out of the Indians relief pitchers. The Tribe’s bullpen struck out 8 Twins’ hitters and had thrown 98 pitches combined until Indians starting pitcher Josh Tomlin came in to start the 15th inning.

One thing that the Indians were not able to capitalize off of for most of the game was playing small ball and establishing a sacrifice bunt when Cleveland had runners in scoring position.

To start off the Twins’ half of the 16th inning, Eddie Rosario singled, followed by Logan Morrison grounding into a fielders choice but a major error was committed by Indians second baseman, Jason Kipnis, and everyone was safe. The Indians intentionally walked Eduardo Escobar with runners at the corners which loaded the bases for Ryan LaMarre, LaMarre put the long night to an end with a walk-off RBI single to center field. Unfortunately for Tomlin, he was charged with the loss and fell to 0-2 on the young season.

Pages: 1 2 3 4