In the span of about five minutes, Jeanmar Gomez’s fine start turned into an ugly outing that puts his spot in the rotation in serious doubt. Gomez was perfect through four innings but it all unraveled in the span of five hitters. The Indians offense failed to mount much of anything against left hander Dallas Keuchel and the Indians will have to win the finale to take the series after Saturday’s 5-1 loss.
Both teams pretty much picked off where they left last night as zeroes and low numbers dominated the box score. Dallas Keuchel, making just his second career start, gave up a single in each of the first two innings and walked a batter in third, but nobody touched home plate. Jeanmar Gomez, in possibly his biggest start of the season, set down the first nine batters that he faced in succession.
The Tribe got on the board in the fourth. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a bomb of a home run high off the limestone wall in left field for his ninth of the season and fourth in the last seven games. That one mistake was the only one that Keuchel made during his outing. In the bottom of the fourth, Gomez set down all three batters in order and took a perfect game into the fifth.
After the Indians went in a hurry in the fifth, Jeanmar Gomez got into trouble with the bottom of the Astros order. Brian Bogusevic doubled to lead off the fifth and Chris Johnson promptly doubled him home. After a deep fly out to center by Jason Castro, J.D. Martinez hit a bomb of a home run to left to break the tie and put the Astros ahead 3-1. The next batter, Jordan Schaefer, wasted no time, blasting a pitch over Johnny Damon’s head and out of the ballpark. Luckily, the pitcher was up next otherwise Gomez might have completely imploded. After getting Keuchel to ground out, Gomez gave up another hit, this one to Jose Altuve, but Carlos Santana ended the inning by throwing Altuve out at second on a stolen base attempt.
Inexplicably, Jeanmar Gomez led off the sixth despite getting his brains beaten in during the bottom of the fifth. For Gomez’s sake, he made decent contact, flying out on a sinking liner to right. Shin-Soo Choo and Cabrera both grounded out and Gomez went right back out to the mound.
It didn’t take long for Gomez to pull the noose a little bit tighter. He walked Jed Lowrie to lead off the inning and he immediately scored on Carlos Lee’s double to left center. Gomez got a couple more outs, but the damage was done and he exited after 5.2 innings. Tony Sipp struck out Jason Castro to end the inning and strand Lee at third. Gomez’s final line read 5.2 innings pitched, five runs on six hits with one walk and three strikeouts. It marks the sixth consecutive start for Gomez where he hasn’t been able to finish the sixth. With the loss, Gomez is 1-5 with a 7.92 ERA in his last six starts.
The game only got worse for the Indians. Still baffled by Dallas Keuchel, the Indians bullpen continued to throw batting practice and put the game way out of reach. Tony Sipp did work 1.1 scoreless innings, but then Jeremy Accardo played the role of Italian grandmother and served up some meatballs.
In the eighth, the Astros removed all doubt. Houston went homer, double, double, groundout, double to lead off the inning, plate three more runs, and open their lead up to seven runs. The Astros had scored one run in their last three games before Saturday’s contest.
Shin-Soo Choo extended his hitting streak to six games with a double in the ninth and was stranded out on the basepaths to end the game.
Jeanmar Gomez took the loss to drop to 4-7. Tip your cap to Dallas Keuchel who picked up his first Major League win in a complete game effort. The Indians fall to 37-33 and wait to see what happens later this evening with the White Sox/Brewers game. The Tigers were down 4-1 to the Pirates in the eighth at time of posting.
Stat of the Night: The loss against Keuchel and the Astros dropped the Indians to 5-14 in games against a left handed starting pitcher. In those five wins against lefties, only John Danks, Jonathan Sanchez, and Drew Smyly have been the losing pitchers of record.
Player of the Game: We’ll give this one to Tony Sipp. Sipp’s scoreless outing was just his third scoreless appearance in his last eight games. Outside of Cabrera’s home run, there was nothing else to applaud from this game.
Tomorrow’s Game: The Indians will look to win the series with Derek Lowe (7-5, 4.30) on the mound against J.A. Happ (5-7, 5.15) at 2:05 p.m. Lowe’s struggles on the road have been well-documented. He has posted a 6.18 ERA in 39.1 road innings this season. Happ is left handed, so you know he’ll give the Indians trouble