Kluber Clamps Down the Tigers; Indians Roll 4-0 for 5th Straight Over Detroit

CLEVELAND – Indians ace Corey Kluber seems to be rounding into form, and the good news is it’s only the first week in May.

Wednesday night at Progressive Field the Tribe number one starter shutout the Detroit Tigers, continuing the club’s early season success against their biggest AL Central rival.

The Indians are now 5-0 against Detroit, and while Kluber had to get some things to go his way, overall he dominated, holding Detroit to just five hits.

His movement on his pitches were the key, and it seemed like vintage Kluber in that the longer the game got, the better he got, something that reminds many Indians fans of his success back in his Cy Young season two years ago.

“When he starts having that late movement, going both ways, you see some hitters maybe taking some swings that are not quite as aggressive as they normally would,” Tribe manager Terry Francona said.

That’s not to say that Wednesday’s win didn’t come without some tense moments, as Detroit did have one big threat in the 4th inning when they had runners on first and third with no outs.

Kluber was able to induce Tigers catcher James McCann into a grounder to third, and Indians 3B Juan Uribe looked Justin Upton back to the base, then completed a nifty 5-4-3 twin killing.

One batter later, the inning was over and the game remained tied, that is until the Indians broke it open with four in the bottom of the frame for their only needed runs of the night.

From there, Kluber dominated, as after that inning he allowed one hit, and shut down the Tigers ending the night with seven strikeouts.

“He was throwing a ton of strikes, he pitched in, used his breaking ball, it was really fun to watch,” Francona said. “We’ve seen when he gets going, and gets in that rhythm and routine what he can do every fifth day, and that’s exciting.”

Kluber’s season got off to a somewhat rocky start with an opening day loss to the Red Sox and David Price, but slowly he’s getting back to dominating, and Wednesday was the best he’s looked since a wild 18 strikeout outing against the St.Louis Cardinals last May 13th.

“Early on I didn’t feel like I was pitching that bad,” Kluber said. “It came down to having one big inning every game for the most part, really the key is to try and minimize the big inning.”

He didn’t give much at all to the Tigers, and with it the Indians are now 5-0 against Detroit, a huge shift the other way considering last season they started the first two series’ against Detroit going 1-5.

While there’s a long way to go in the AL Central and even against Detroit, but now sitting at .500 at 12-12 and 7-3 in the AL Central, the team is off to a much better start against division opponents than a season ago.

“I don’t know if we are necessarily looking at it like we are 5-0 against them, we won tonight’s game and tomorrow is going to start fresh, and come out and try and win tomorrow’s game,” Kluber said.