Cleveland Sports Forum

10 Ks for Carrasco so far! (through 6 innings)

Complete game shutout! Only one walk, 12 Ks.
We win, 2-0

7 runs allowed in the 8 starts he's made since he returned to the rotation, and 4 of those were in 1 game, 3 runs total in the other 7 starts!

If you thought Carrasco's game was good, it turns out it ranks with Koufax as one of the best in baseball history!

HOUSTON -- No matter the swoons or the losing streaks racked up at various points this season, the Indians have been able to count on starting pitching almost without fail in 2014.

It came through again Wednesday night to keep Cleveland in playoff contention, as Carlos Carrasco tossed a two-hit shutout to lead the Indians past the Astros, 2-0, at Minute Maid Park.

The win was crucial, as the Indians entered Wednesday trailing the Royals by five games for the second American League Wild Card spot and held steady due to Kansas City's win over the White Sox.

Carrasco logged arguably the finest outing of his career, limiting the Astros to two infield hits and striking out a career-high 12 for his first career shutout. He needed 98 pitches to complete the outing.

"He just pitched with so much confidence and attacked the entire night," said manager Terry Francona. "There's no other way to say it: He was just so good."

If your name is sitting next to Sandy Koufax, you know the outing was special. Carrasco joined Koufax as the only other pitcher in MLB history to strike out 12 or more batters on 98 pitches or less in a shutout.

He did it via a nasty mix of locating his fastball -- Carrasco only issued one walk -- and finishing batters off with a devastating split changeup.

"The command was there today, just throwing everything for strikes so it was quick," Carrasco said, and indeed the game was a brisk two-hour, 20-minute contest.

Nothing exemplified that command more than Alex Presley's at-bat in the ninth. With one out, Carrasco slipped on the first pitch and fell behind 3-0 before rebounding to force a full count and induce a lazy fly-ball out.

"Those last three [offspeed pitches] were my best," Carrasco said.

Francona couldn't hide his pride for Carrasco's performance, emphasizing that the team's patience with him during the righty's lengthy bullpen stint this season instilled confidence in the 27-year-old hurler.

"This entire year has been a big learning curve for him," Francona said. "He finally realized that he didn't need to have anything special to ease the anxiety out there. … It's one of the more exciting things that's happened this year.

"We can't be the organization to give up on guys and they go somewhere else and figure it out. We're getting paid back for our patience."

In his last eight starts since rejoining the rotation on Aug. 10, Carrasco has allowed one run or less in seven of those outings while holding opponents scoreless four times.

The righty clearly likes facing the Astros, as they've managed only one run off him in 15 innings this season. They couldn't even leave the infield as Jose Altuve notched both hits for Houston on infield singles in the fourth and ninth innings

Even Altuve, who set the Astros' record for hits in a season on Tuesday, figured Carrasco to be nearly unhittable.

"I knew, personally, that I was in trouble with him since my first at-bat because he threw fastballs in the middle and I couldn't hit it," Altuve said. "I said, 'Man, if you can't hit a fastball against one guy, you're in trouble.'"

Meanwhile, Cleveland strung a few hits together at the right time off Houston starter Brett Oberholtzer.

In the fourth, Carlos Santana continued his hot tear in this series with a two-out double that nearly went out for a home run. Yan Gomes followed up Tuesday's two-RBI night with an RBI single up the middle to bring Santana home.

Gomes has driven in four runs over the past two games. But given the 29 combined strikeouts by the Indians' staff on Tuesday and Wednesday, he's getting recognition beyond the offensive box score.

"We'll take the RBIs, but [Yan's] taken so much ownership of these guys," Francona said. "He meets them at the foul line after an inning and walks them in. It's that kind of managing of the game that is so exciting going forward."

The Astros helped Cleveland out in the sixth. With Michael Brantley on first and two outs in the inning, Gomes laced a liner to right field. Astros outfielder Jake Marisnick made an aggressive dive on the ball, but he whiffed on the catch and the ball trickled to the wall.

Gomes finished on third while Brantley rounded the bases to make it 2-0, which was plenty of support for Carrasco, who remains an integral part of the team's recent pitching surge.

Since Aug. 9, Indians starters own an MLB-low 2.32 ERA, with Cleveland posting a 21-14 record during that stretch.

Since Aug. 9, Indians starters own an MLB-low 2.32 ERA, with Cleveland posting a 21-14 record during that stretch.

Meaning, if there were any offense they would have won more like 75% instead of a mere 60% of those games.

Bourn got robbed of an inside-the-park homer, then gets thrown out trying to score from 3rd on a grounder to first!

My yelling inspired them to score a run, but only one, so we are in extra innings now.

Salazar with the gem tonight. And the bullpen did well. 2-1 we won in 13 innings.

If Jason Kipnis hadn't tweaked his leg again, we'd still be playing. Winning run scored on Aviles' bases loaded sac fly. He's not having a great season or a good month, but he is capable of occasionally bringing in a run: 3 rbi in 16 ab in September.

Kipnis meanwhile is probably setting some kind of record that has not yet been reported: 60 September at bats, 12 hits, and NOT ONE RBI and been hitting 5th much of the time behind our top hitter for Average and the league's leader in walks.

Since he's not much of a defender either, I dont' think we'll suffer too much if Ramirez shifts over to second and Lindor takes on SS next year.

Wonder of Wonders....Shuck gets his first hit as an Indian. Tribe up 3-2 after 5 1/2 Bradley hits a homerun for the lead, Bauer has given up 2 long balls but solo shots only.

Shuck also failed to bring home runners on second and third in the 5th, could have opened up the game. I just wonder if Moncrief could have done better. He was OK in Spring training.

20 home runs for Brantley......

Geez o whiz Cody !