CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Racing to beat the rain Saturday evening, the Indians poured it on anyway.
Cleveland hit five home runs, Jordan Luplow drove in five while Aaron Civale was virtually unhittable for nearly eight innings and the Indians moved above .500 for the first time in this young season with an 11-3 thumping of the Tigers.
“We’ve seen a lot of times, they start to come in bunches,” manager Terry Francona said of the homer-fest that broke out. “There were a lot of good swings.”
Civale was dominant allowing just a run on three hits with six strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings work to earn his second victory of the season.
“I think it just came down to going out there and executing with my best stuff today,” Civale said. “That’s the beauty for me of having six pitches is sometimes some are gonna be on and other times it’s not.”
The right-hander mowed the Tigers down with ease facing the minimum until Robbie Grossman led off the top of the seventh with a solo homer to end the shutout bid.
“[Civale] had everything working,” catcher Roberto Perez said. “We had a great game plan. Going through the lineup, we executed. He threw the ball great. So far this year, the starting pitchers have been throwing the ball well and giving us the chance to win games. Civale was great tonight.”
Tigers starter Tarik Skubal took most of the abuse from the Indians offense in his first loss of the season that saw him charged with six runs – all coming off home runs.
Perez not only kept Civale dealing but he lit the fuse with the first bomb of the night, 430 feet to the bleachers, for a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second, scoring Yu Chang, who walked.
“Today the ball was flying,” Perez, who also drew three walks and scored four times, said. “We had great at-bats tonight. We hit the ball hard. It’s early in the year. I’m not worried about our team. I think we have a great team. I know we didn’t score runs in the first couple of games, but we hit the ball hard right at people. That’s just baseball. Right now we have a great approach at the plate and hopefully we continue to do that.”
Second baseman Cesar Hernandez touched them all for the first time this season with a solo shot in the third off Skubal to make it a 3-0 game.
Hernandez went 3-for-5 and finished a triple short of the cycle.
Luplow unloaded a 432-foot three-run blast to left center in the bottom of the fourth to put the game out of reach at 6-0.
Luplow just missed a second three-run homer in the sixth that went for a two-run double instead, even after a replay review, to extend Cleveland’s lead to 8-0 despite those replays showing the ball hit the top of the yellow line above the 19-foot wall before caroming off the railing and back onto the field.
“I told [home plate umpire] Kerwin [Danley], if the game would have been closer, they might have had a first, where someone in New York would have had to throw me out,” Francona said. “I thought it was a home run.”
Tigers right fielder Robbie Grossman led off the seventh with a solo homer to right center to end Civale’s shutout bid and get Detroit on the board, trailing 8-1. Jeimer Candelario hit a two-run shot in the ninth to provide the final score.
“[Civale] pitched really well,” Francona said. “He threw his breaking ball for lead strikes. He elevated his fastball. He threw a good changeup. Kind of like [Zach] Plesac last night, they had to respect three different pitches and three different speeds.”
Cleveland shortstop Andres Gimenez belted a two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth that made it 11-1 and closed out the scoring for the Tribe.
“One more thing, runs are awesome," Civale said as he got up from his postgame Zoom session. “That was fun.”