Thursday, September 25, 2014
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Indians remain alive in wild-card race with win over Royals

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[September 25, 2014]  CLEVELAND -- They are still a major longshot for the playoffs, but the Cleveland Indians aren't done winning ball games.

Wednesday night at Progressive Field, catcher Yan Gomes belted a three-run homer in the first inning and left fielder Michael Brantley had three hits to boost his season total to 199 as the Indians beat the Kansas City Royals 6-4.

The Indians have three games left and Kansas City and Oakland each have four. One more win by Kansas City and by Oakland, or one loss by Cleveland officially eliminates the Indians from the wild-card race.

Wednesday's win came at the end of a 30-games-in-30-days stretch for the Indians, who are off Thursday. They will host Tampa Bay in a three-game series starting Friday.

"That's a lot of baseball. The day off is really welcome," said manager Terry Francona of the Indians' demanding schedule.

"We're going to keep going because we want to make the playoffs," said first baseman Carlos Santana. "We have tomorrow off, but we'll come back ready to play."
 


Brantley was 3-for-4 and needs one hit in the last three games to become the first Indians player with 200 hits in a season since Kenny Lofton had 210 in 1996.

"It's a pleasure to watch him every day," said Francona of Brantley. "He gives you everything he has every day. He tries to play the game right. He always tries to do the right thing."

With the loss, the Royals fell two games behind first-place Detroit in the American League Central. The Tigers beat the White Sox on Wednesday afternoon. Kansas City remains tied with Oakland for the first wild-card spot with identical records of 86-72, three games ahead of Seattle.

"It just makes it a little more difficult but it's not impossible," said Kansas City manager Ned Yost. "There's a lot of things that can happen in the last four games. You don't know what's going to happen. You just go play 'em out."

The win went to right-hander Zach McAllister (4-7), who pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of right-hander Trevor Bauer. Right-hander Cody Allen worked the ninth for his 23rd save. Left-hander Brandon Finnegan (0-1) took the loss.

The Royals battled back from that early 3-0 deficit provided by Gomes' home run to take a 4-3 lead after the top of the fifth inning. But Cleveland scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth to regain the lead, then added another run in the sixth. Second baseman Mike Aviles led off the Cleveland sixth inning by drawing a walk from right-hander Aaron Crow. Aviles stole second and scored on a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter David Murphy.

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Four Indians relievers combined to pitch 4 2/3 scoreless innings on two hits to preserve the lead. The Indians, who scored one run in their previous 21 innings, scored three runs in the first inning to take an early lead against Vargas. With two outs and nobody on, Brantley singled and Santana walked. Gomes then belted a three-run homer over the center-field wall, his 21st of the season, giving the Indians a 3-0 lead.

"Yan took a really good swing and it came with two outs, which was nice," said Francona.

Kansas City got a run back in the fourth on an RBI single by designated hitter Billy Butler.

The Royals took the lead and knocked Bauer out of the game with a two-run fifth inning that featured an RBI single by first baseman Eric Hosmer and a two-run double by Butler, giving Kansas City a 4-3 lead.

In 4 1/3 innings, Bauer gave up four runs and eight hits with two strikeouts and three walks.

The Indians regained the lead in the bottom of the fifth. Center fielder Michael Bourn was hit by a pitch leading off the inning. Finnegan relieved Vargas, and shortstop Jose Ramirez greeted Finnegan with a double to left-center, scoring Bourn with the tying run. Brantley singled Ramirez to third. Ramirez scored, giving Cleveland a 5-4 lead, when Santana forced out Brantley at second on a grounder to third.

The Royals now move on to Chicago for four games with the White Sox to finish the regular season.


"We've got four left and we have to go to Chicago and take care of business," said Butler.

NOTES: Indians OF Michael Brantley singled in the first inning, extending his hitting streak to 15 games. ... 1B Nick Swisher made his first appearance in the Indians' clubhouse since undergoing season-ending double knee surgery on Aug. 20. Swisher, who hit .208 with eight home runs and 42 RBIs in 360 at-bats this year, is expected to be close to 100 percent by the start of spring training. ... Royals OF Nori Aoki is flourishing since being moved to the No. 2 spot in the order. In 10 games hitting No. 2 in the order before Wednesday, Aoki was batting .486 (18-for-37).

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