Indians Top White Sox 4-2 To Pick Up Series Win; Three Takeaways

1. Bullpen Dominance

While Carrasco got the win and worked his way out of numerous jams early, the standout performers on Sunday afternoon were really the relief pitchers.

After five and a third innings of work, manager Terry Francona decided to go with Andrew Miller in the sixth inning.

Miller finished the inning with two strikeouts, and pitched the seventh inning as well, striking out one more. He finished the night allowing no hits and throwing only 22 pitches, 14 of which were strikes.

“That was the biggest spot in the game. It’s really nice to have a guy like that that can go out there and win more often than not in those situations,” Indians’ closer Cody Allen said.

Bryan Shaw and Allen finished out the game in the eighth and ninth innings respectively. The only hit the bullpen allowed came in the ninth inning off of Allen on a single from Yolmer Sanchez.

This sort of dominance is something that Tribe fans are familiar with, but with the off day tomorrow, Francona was able to go with Miller earlier than usual, making the relievers an even more formidable group.

“He’s just really good. And to boot, he’s really competitive. He’s not the loudest guy but when he’s on, everybody sees,” Francona said.

“When he’s not perfect, he has that ability to really compete. It’s a nice combination.”

The White Sox also talked about the difficulty of facing the Indians’ rotation.

“They’re good. That’s why they made it to the World Series last year,” Chicago third baseman Todd Frazier said.

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