Offensive firepower leads to 12-5 Tribe win over Royals; three takeaways

Not Justin.#PlayersWeekend | #RallyTogether pic.twitter.com/IF3tJbXaE6

— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) August 26, 2018

2. “Not Justin’s” afternoon

Shane “Not Justin” Bieber went 5 1/3 innings on Sunday and struck out seven while giving up four earned runs. All of those runs came on homers for the Royals.

In the first inning, Whit Merrifield hit a solo homer to center on a four-seamer in the heart of the zone, giving the Royals a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the fourth with the Tribe leading 5-1, Salvador Perez hit a solo homer of his own on another misplaced fastball.

Finally, in the bottom of the sixth inning, Lucas Duda hit a two-run homer to right center to narrow Cleveland’s lead to three runs, ending Bieber’s night. While there are certainly a few pitches Bieber wishes he could have back, the fact that he still struck out seven and issued zero walks shows that there was still plenty of good in his afternoon.

Pages: 1 2 3 4