CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Franmil Reyes wished that he would get an opportunity to end the Indians nine-game losing streak.
His wish was granted, and he did.
Reyes clubbed a three-run home run to dead center with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to give the Cleveland Indians a 7-4 walk off victory, ending their losing streak at nine and keeping the club above .500.
“When I saw Carlos [Santana] hit the homer I said to myself, I’m going to be the one and do this for my team,” Reyes said. “I went there almost like hoping they’d walk José [Ramirez]. I was like, ‘Please, walk him. Give me this shot. I want it.’ And I get a pitch. There it is.”
Reyes' blast allowed everyone to exhale, especially manager Terry Francona.
“I actually didn’t care how he won. Just the fact, we needed to win a game,” Francona said. “And it was a hard one to win. But we won it.”
Zach Plesac, on a ’60-ish’ pitch count as he made his first start since May 23 when he broke his right thumb aggressively removing his shirt after he gave up five runs in 3 1/3 innings against the Twins, threw 55 of them over four innings as he allowed three earnedruns on five hits with four strikeouts.
“I’m so glad to be back,” Plesac said.
Plesac cruised through the first two innings and retired the first seven Royals before Michael Taylor doubled and Whit Merrifield followed with a two-out smash that got by shortstop Amed Rosario to give Kansas City a 1-0 lead in the third inning.
Indians left fielder Oscar Mercado led off the bottom of the third with a double, ending the team’s string of nine consecutive innings without a hit dating back to Wednesday. Bradley Zimmer followed with a walk, but the inning fizzled. Cesar Hernandez reached on a fielder’s choice by hitting a one-hopper to second that turned into a double play, wiping out Mercado and Zimmer.
With one out in the top of the fourth Carlos Santana hit a 418-foot moonshot to right off Plesac to double Kansas City’s advantage, 2-0, and one out later Hunter Dozier clobbered one to left, his eighth homer of the season, to make it 3-0.
The plan is to stretch Plesac out during the All-Star break, but for now Francona is just glad to have a member of the rotation back on the mound.
“It’ll be really nice when he’s back and has his full pitch count where he can go out there and not have to [be limited],” Francona said.
Bobby Bradley countered in the bottom of the inning with his ninth homer, a 413-foot shot to right, to get the Indians on the board and ending a 15-inning scoreless stretch for the offense. Bradley’s blast ended a 15-inning scoreless streak for Cleveland.
The Indians were unable to capitalize on back-to-back one-out singles in the sixth from Harold Ramirez and Bradley, stranding both runners.
In the eighth they made the Royals pay for a pair of walks. With two out, catcher Roberto Perez slugged a three-run homer to center to rally the Indians to a 4-3 lead, their first lead since Monday.
“We’re not giving up, man,” Perez said. “We had a tough stretch losing nine games. Last year, I think we lost eight straight then we won 10 of 11 so I’m not worried about our team.
“It’s a long season. It’s a matter of staying composed and coming to the ballpark ready to play the next game.”
It was Perez’s fourth homer of the season and just the shot in the arm the struggling Indians needed, but the euphoria was short-lived when Santana slammed his second home run of the night off James Karinchak to lead off the ninth to tie the game at 4.
In the bottom of the ninth Cesar Hernandez slapped a one-out double into the right field corner and Jose Ramirez was intentionally walked with two outs setting up Reyes’ heroics.
“We’re not going to give up,” Reyes said. “That shows you we’re not going to give up and its not going to be easy. We are here to win.”
