Indians enter All-Star break on six-game winning streak

Today’s thrashing of the Reds ends the first half on a high note

Today’s Recap in Gif Form

Actual Recap

The Cleveland Indians dominated the Cincinnati Reds this afternoon behind an entire lineup of red-hot hitters. Four different Indians went deep and every Indians’ starter notched a hit. That even includes the starting pitcher, Trevor Bauer. We received those glorious finger guns in the gif above as a result.

Today’s victory sends the Indians into the All-Star Break on a six-game winning streak. Since losing a weekend series to the White Sox and falling below .500 the Indians have now gone 21-8. Pending the results of the Twins-Rangers game, they’ll be only 5.5 or 6.5 games back of the division leaders.

There’s plenty of baseball yet to play, but the Indians of the past month bear no resemblance to the team that opened the season, and that’s fantastic news.

On the mound

When not roping singles and finger-gunning, Bauer spent his afternoon mowing down Cincinnati Reds batters. He struck out nine in seven innings this afternoon, allowing one run, four hits, and three walks. In typical Bauer fashion he ran the pitch count higher than most other starters, tossing 114 before exiting the game. While the team doesn’t look the way that it did at the beginning of the season, we’d all be pleased if Bauer returns to that form. It looked early on that he’d be marching toward a Cy Young award with little resistance.

Nick Wittgren pitched a scoreless eighth inning, and Tyler Olson came in to finish up the job.

At the plate

Greg Allen paced the Tribe with a home run, a double, two singles, and two RBI. Jake Bauers, Tyler Naquin, Francisco Lindor, and Jason Kipnis all had multiple hits on the afternoon, too, with Carlos Santana reaching three times on a single and two walks.

Everything really came together for the team in the the eighth, as they scored six runs off of David Hernandez and Jimmy Hegret. Eight of the team’s hits came in that inning alone, two of them in a pinch thanks to Bobby Bradley and Kevin Plawecki.

Tribe Tidbits

• Allen also made a spectacular catch in center field, crashing into a trash can through the wall in the process.

• The Reds pretty much used their entire roster today. Four different players roamed left field today, and three played second base. Josh VanMeter, for example, came in as a pinch hitter, and then played LF, 2B, LF, and 1B in that order.
• Coming into today, Kipnis had slashed .276/.345/.487 since coming back from a few days off on June 14th. Two hits, a walk, and a dinger today continue what looks like it may be a legitimate turnaround.
• Everybody root for Carlos Santana to win the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game this week, in addition to Brad Hand, Francisco Lindor, and Shane Bieber.

The Indians return to regular season action on Friday, July 12th, against none other than the Minnesota Twins.