Indians Wrap Up Reds Sweep with 7-2 Win in Cincinnati

While the Indians have already gone 6-0 against the Detroit Tigers this season, there’s another team they seem to love to play, that being in their rivals from Southern Ohio the Cincinnati Reds.

Thursday the Tribe beat up the Reds – yet again – this time with a 7-2 win to sweep the four-game set, and push their improving 2016 record to 21-17.

In case you were wondering, it’s the first time since the end of the 2014 season the team is four games over .500.

Yes, the Reds are a very bad team, but the Indians did what they needed to do to wrap up four straight against them, including the last two down at Great American Ballpark.

Francisco Lindor and Rajai Davis saved the team with the long ball on Wednesday, while on Thursday it was Josh Tomlin, the Tribe hurler who is now 6-0 on the season who got the team to their latest win.

Tomlin was very good, going 7.2 innings giving up two runs on five hits, with one walk and seven strikeouts. He’s the first Indians pitcher since Cliff Lee to start a season 6-0. That year, 2008, Lee won the Cy Young.

While that’s a long way away, the Indians seem to rise up when Tomlin is on the mound, they are now 15-2 over the last two season when he starts, and not only that, he even pounded out two hits in the win.

The club pounded the Reds into submission, beating them up to the tune of 42-16 over the four games, with two big wins at Progressive Field, a close win Wednesday in extra innings, and a solid win to end the series Thursday.

Another good sign was Carlos Santana, who powered the Indians offense on Thursday with two homers and four runs batted in. Santana is hitting .237 with seven homers and 21 runs batted in this season.

The Indians now can move on with a big weekend series with the Boston Red Sox starting on Friday night. They will start the series 2.5 games back of AL Central leading Chicago, who also won on Thursday beating the Astros.