Video: Return of Harold Castro Provides An Extra Left-Handed Bat
For the second time in as many days, the Indians pitching staff puzzled the Tigers for practically the entire night. There was a brisk, fall feel to Friday night's ball game, which resulted in a 1-0, very Cleveland-esque win.
Zach Plesac provided an excellent follow-up performance to Shane Bieber's 7 ⅔ innings of work on Thursday by piecing together a 7 ⅔ gem of his own on Friday.
The 25-year-old right-hander allowed five hits and struck out 11, marking the seventh time this season that he's finished a game with double-digit strikeouts.
"He's really good, and we battled him," manager Ron Gardnehire said. "We made him throw a lot of pitches, and his pitch count was up, but the guy is resilient and he's got really good stuff just like the guy last night (Shane Bieber). They're making it hard on our hitters, but I like the way our guys are staying after it."
Entering this four-game series, the Indians pitching staff hadn't recorded an immaculate inning since July 7, 2017, when Carlos Carrasco achieved the rare feat. Bieber came one pitch away from an immaculate inning on Thursday. Plesac got the job done on Friday with nine pitches, nine strikes, three strikeouts.
Opportunities come at a premium.
Friday's shutout loss is the second in Detroit's past three games.
The importance of capitalizing with runners in scoring position became prevalent early in the ballgame. Willi Castro's home hitting streak reached eight consecutive games when he recorded a double in the first inning followed by a six-pitch at-bat from Miguel Cabrera that resulted in a walk with one out.
The auspicious ultimately came to no avail when Jeimer Candelario struck out, followed by Harold Castro's groundout to second.
You have to fast forward to the rather theatrical bottom half of the ninth inning to find Detroit's next best chance.
The Tigers were down to their final two outs in a 1-0 game when Daz Cameron's pinch-hit triple to deep left-center field placed the tying run 90 feet away from home plate. Taking Cameron's speed into consideration--the Tigers (21-29) simply needed a fly ball of at least moderate distance to tie the game.
Easier said than done.
Jorge Bonifacio, who is hitting .500 with runners in scoring position, stepped to the plate with the infield in and Indians closer Brad Hand standing a little over 60 feet away.
Hand, who relies heavily on called third strikes, remained poise. The left-hander struck out Bonifacio on a controversial check-swing call from the first base umpire for out number two.
"I agree with you 100 percent," Gardenhire said. "If you are saying it, I agree with you. All you can do is raise your hands. That was not a swing, I don't give a (crap) what they say."
Tigers switch-hitter Niko Goodrum opted to bat from his much stronger right side but fell to 0-for-8 in the series when he struck out on a 2-2 slider to end the game.
The Indians (28-23) will aim for a third consecutive win in Saturday's matchup with the Tigers at 6:10 pm.
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