Rangers Beat Indians
CLEVELAND — This opponent and this ballpark has not been very friendly to Colby Lewis, but Tuesday night all that changed.
Lewis pitched six scoreless innings and Bryan Holaday and Jurickson Profar homered to lead the Texas Rangers to a 7-3 victory over the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field.
The win was the Rangers’ fourth in a row while Cleveland has lost three in a row. In winning the first two games of the series, the Rangers outscored the Indians 16-5.
Lewis (5-0) pitched six shutout innings on two hits with two strikeouts and two walks. The only hits he allowed were a pair of third-inning singles. He retired 18 of the 22 batters he faced.
“Colby had a tremendous mix with his fastball, slider and changeup. Their hitters couldn’t sit on one pitch,” said Texas manager Jeff Banister.
Sam Dyson pitched got the last two outs of the game to pick up his sixth save.
Corey Kluber (4-6) pitched seven innings and took the loss. The Indians have
scored three runs or fewer in all six of Kluber’s losses.
Lewis has traditionally struggled pitching against the Indians, especially at Progressive Field. He came into the game with an 8.44 ERA in seven career starts vs. Cleveland. In four career appearances (three starts) at Progressive Field, he had an 11.74 ERA.
“It seems like every time I come to Cleveland it doesn’t turn out too well,” Lewis said. “But tonight the guys got me some runs and I was able to keep Cleveland from getting many runs, especially against a guy like Kluber, when you know it’s probably going to be a close game. So it was a good all-around win.”
With Texas leading 3-0, Tony Barnette relieved Lewis to start the seventh inning, and the Indians quickly struck for two runs. Jose Ramirez led off the seventh with a single. Marlon Byrd struck out, but Lonnie Chisenhall belted his first homer of the season over the wall in right-center field, cutting Texas’ lead to 3-2.
The Rangers got both of those runs back in the top of the eighth inning, knocking Kluber out of the game. Holaday led off the inning with a single. He went to second on a single by Profar. Ian Desmond then bounced a double off the right-field wall, scoring both runners and giving Texas a 5-2 lead.
“I didn’t make a good pitch to Desmond and he did what he’s supposed to do,” Kluber said.
“It happened fast. All of a sudden the game got spread out,” Indians manager Terry Francona said.
Kluber was removed from the game after Desmond’s hit. In seven innings, he gave up six runs on eight hits, with six strikeouts and no walks. Bryan Shaw relieved Kluber and Shaw gave up an RBI double to Adrian Beltre to extend the Texas lead to 6-2.
“Anytime you can answer back when the other team scores, that’s huge,” said Banister.
Texas added another run in the ninth inning on an RBI single by Jared Hoying off rookie Shawn Armstrong. The Indians scored a run in the bottom of the ninth on an RBI single by Chisenhall off Matt Bush.
The Rangers took a 2-0 lead in the third inning when Jared Hoying singled and scored on Holaday’s home run over the left-field wall.
“It was a pretty good pitch, down and in, but unfortunately he put a good swing on it,” Kluber said.
Texas extended its lead to 3-0 in the fifth inning on a solo home run by Profar into the seats in right field. That was plenty of support for Lewis, who continued to keep Cleveland hitters off balance.
“He really knows how to pitch,” Francona said. “He keeps the ball in the big part of the park and takes the sting out of your bat.”
