Clevinger flirts with no-hitter
HOUSTON — Before Friday night's game, manager Terry Francona and pitching coach Mickey Callaway met with their beleaguered starting pitchers. The message wasn't complicated: keep it simple and pitch to your strengths.
A couple hours later, Trevor Bauer struck out nine over 5 ⅔ innings as the Indians beat the Houston Astros 5-3 at Minute Maid Park. The Astros, with the best record in baseball, had won four straight and 10 of their last 12 games before Friday's defeat.
Whatever was said in that meeting was still resonating on Saturday afternoon with Mike Clevinger, who carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning in the Indians' 3-0 victory. The Indians are 4-1 against the Astros this season.
Clevinger, mixing a fastball that averaged just over 91 mph with a change-up that dipped as low as 73 mph, kept the Astros guessing all day.
"He lived down in the zone with a good crisp fastball and terrific offspeed stuff," Francona said. "Everything was down and he stayed in the zone. That was really good to see."
Clevinger entered the seventh with a 2-0 lead and a no-hitter. Jose Altuve ended that with a leadoff single past third, but Clevinger came right back and induced Carlos Correa to hit into a 6-4-3 double play.
Some pitchers are oblivous when they're working on a no-hitter. Not Clevinger.
"Houston is a firstplace team," he said. "This is a really good team. So every inning you go out there and there's a zero on the board in that column, you're going to notice it."
Clevinger (2-1) started the game by retiring 10 straight before Josh Reddick reached on an error by first baseman Edwin Encarnacion with one out in the fourth. Clevinger ended the seventh by retiring Carlos Beltran on a drive to the track in left. He came out for the eighth, but was lifted for Andrew Miller after allowing a leadoff single to Evan Gattis.
Clevinger struck out eight, walked two and allowed two hits in seven innings. Miller and Cody Allen completed the three-hit shutout, with Allen earning his 12th save in as many chances. The Indians are 16-0 when they lead after six innings this year, and 17-0 when they lead after seven.
The Indians took a 1-0 lead in the second on a two-out single by Jason Kipnis, which scored Lonnie Chisenhall.
Chisenhall made it 2-0 with a two-out homer off Mike Fiers (1-2) in the fourth. Michael Brantley singled and Carlos Santana delivered him with a two-out double in the eighth.