Indians 5, Tigers 3 : Tribe hits 21 at Tigers expense

The Tigers once again failed to play stopper, and the Indians jumped out to an early lead, cruising to an eventual 5-3 victory. There wasn’t much to love, so we’ll keep it simple.

• Buck Farmer allowed a three run shot to Jay Bruce in the second inning, but did strike out seven to lead our small mercies category for the day. Still, Farmer doesn’t look wholly out of place in a major league rotation as long as he’s way down the depth chart.
• Jeimer Candelario had an RBI double in the first inning, giving the Tigers a momentary lead, to continue his nice start with the Tigers.
• Nick Castellanos extended his hit streak to 10 games, and his RBI double in the sixth got the Tigers within striking distance.
• Daniel Norris allowed a run on two hits, striking out three in three innings of work. He did not walk a batter! Progress! He did allow a solo shot to catcher Roberto Perez, unfortunately.
• At 60-85, the Tigers now hold the fourth worst record in baseball, and are closing on the third overall pick, as the current third worst team, the Chicago White Sox, are winning over the Kansas City Royals at the time of this recap. A victory for Chicago would put them just two games behind the Tigers.
• The Indians’ 21st consecutive win gives them the all-time American League record. They’re now tied with the 1935 Chicago Cubs in second place. They need 26 to tie the 1916 San Francisco Giants for the all-time major league record.

Beyond these minor points of interest, the only real drama in this one took place in the third inning. With two outs, Farmer looked in good shape to escape with a clean inning. However, a Jose Ramirez double put Farmer in trouble with Edwin Encarnacion at the dish. Farmer did a nice job, getting Edwing to loft a shallow fly ball into right field. Nick Castellanos was positioned very deep for Encarnacion, as you’d expect, but he failed to read this one and got a late break in. The ball dropped, Ramirez scored, and Farmer was shook.

Farmer walked Jay Bruce, and catcher James McCann, who’d had enough of Quinn Wolcott’s strike zone, blew up. He and Wolcott got into it, and McCann and then Brad Ausmus, were promptly ejected. Ausmus had been in the process of going out to settle down Farmer when things touched off. John Hicks came in to catch, and Farmer walked Carlos Santana on four pitches. He also drilled Wolcott in the neck with a fastball.

Hicks, having just come into the game, got crossed up with Farmer, and Wolcott suffered for it. Boos rained down as the Indians’ faithful apparently thought Farmer was trying to hit Wolcott in the face, which is ridiculous. We’ll let Buck have the last word there.