Doug Fister Shuts Down Tribe Offense, Three Takeaways from Indians 9-1 Defeat

CLEVELAND, Ohio – On Tuesday night, the Cleveland Indians played their second game of four against the Boston Red Sox.

Yesterday night the Indians defeated the Red Sox in the bottom of the ninth inning with a walk-off sac bunt from Roberto Perez.

Heading into tonight's game the Indians had a 5.5 game lead over the Minnesota Twins for first place in the AL Central with a 69-54 record on the season. The Red Sox lead the New York Yankees by 4.5 games coming into tonight with a 71-53 record.

Following the Indians 9-1 defeat, the team falls to 69-55 on the season. The Red Sox improve to 72-53 on the year.

Here’s our three takeaways from the Indians 9-1 loss.

1.) Carrasco Rough 7th inning

Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco, did not have his best performance of the season tonight against the Red Sox.

Carrasco gave up his first run of the game in the first inning when Hanley Ramirez hit a single to center field that allowed Andrew Benintendi to score. Boston scored additional runs in the 2nd and 5th inning which allowed them to have a 3-1 lead up until the 7th inning.

In the 7th inning, the Red Sox put 3 more runs on the board to extend their lead to 6-1 before Carrasco got pulled after 6.2 innings pitched.

Carrasco pitched 6.2 innings, allowed 8 hits, gave up 6 earned runs, walked 1, and struck out 6 batters.

Can't put all the blame on Carrasco for his performance though tonight. Cookie's night could have been a different story if the Indians did not manage to have one hit and one run through the first 6 innings of the game.

2.) Indians Offense Could Not Figure Out Fister

On Tuesday, the Indians faced Red Sox starting pitcher Doug Fister for the third time in five games.

The first time the Indians faced Fister they were defeated 6-2. Fister pitched 7.2 innings, allowed 5 hits, gave up 2 earned runs, walked 2, and struck out 5. Fister earned his first victory of the season when facing the Indians for the first time this season. Bradley Zimmer scored the only two runs in that game with a homer.

Before tonight the Indians faced Fister in a makeup game in which they emerged victoriously. Fister only pitched 4.2 innings in that game, allowing 5 earned runs, giving up 7 hits, 4 walks, and 5 strikeouts.

Tonight though the Indians could barely touch Fister. Their only hit and run of the game was 3 pitches in when leadoff hitter Francisco Lindor hit a home run to right field which tied the game at one a piece for the time being.

The team only managed to get 1 hit off of Fister in his 9 innings pitched.

Fister is now 2-1 on the season when facing the Indians and 3-6 on the season.

3.) Cleveland Indians Injury Bug Bites Again

You can add Jason Kipnis to the list of Indians players that are hurt. In the 3rd inning, Kipnis was removed from the game due to Right Hamstring Tightness. This has been an issue that Kipnis has had to deal with since coming off of the DL.

No word yet on what the status of Kipnis is or will be but this is not good news in general because before the game the team announced that Andrew Miller and Danny Salazar will be heading to the Disabled List.

Carlos Santana was removed from the game yesterday for Lower Back Tightness and added his name to the list yesterday.

With the injury to Salazar, the plan according to Zack Meisel is to have Ryan Merritt come back and start for the Indians on Friday. Josh Tomlin will go on a rehab assignment and could be placed back into the rotation following Friday.