Indians’ bats as cold as weather in loss
Royals 1, Indians 0
CLEVELAND —
It was so cold at Progressive Field on Saturday afternoon that it felt like one run would decide the game.
One run was the allotted number because the conditions were such that it was too painful for the Indians or Royals to put forth the extra effort to score more.
In the seventh inning, Lucas Dudas delivered that one run — a leadoff, first-pitch homer off Trevor Bauer that traveled 408 feet into the right-field seats — to give the Royals a 1-0 victory.
The 34-degree temperature made it a day for starting pitchers and quick at-bats. Bauer (0-1, 2.08 ERA) and Ian Kennedy (2-0, 0.75) took advantage of it.
Bauer had a no-hitter through 4 innings and a shutout through six. Kennedy threw six scoreless innings, The Royals’ Alcides Escobar steals second as the Indians’ Francisco Lindor can’t corral the throw in the fifth inning. Escobar advanced to third on the error by catcher Roberto Perez.[
striking out eight and allowing four hits.
In eight innings, Bauer struck out seven, walked two and allowed three hits. The game lasted 2 hours, 29 minutes.
“I thought Trevor was outstanding,” manager Terry Francona said.
“He worked quick, pounded the strike zone. The one run he gave up was a headhigh fastball that Dudas tomahawked. I thought he was tremendous.”
Bauer said he wasn’t completely loose before throwing the pitch to
Dudas. He cited baseball’s new pace-of-play rules as the culprit.
In locally televised games, there is a 2:05 break between innings. A pitcher must throw his final warmup pitch with 25 seconds left on the clock. The batter
will be announced with 20 seconds left.
When asked about the pitch to Dudas, Bauer said, “It was an elevated fastball. I didn’t expect to throw it 90 mph. But it was the first pitch of an inning. I tried to get loose, but with the new Rob Manfred time BS where we have only a certain amount of time between innings, sometimes it’s hard to get loose ... especially in conditions like this.”
The Tribe’s best scoring chance came in the sixth when Francisco Lindor hit a leadoff double. Jason Kipnis tried twice to bunt him to third but failed. Then he struck out. Lindor, with Jose Ramirez batting, stole third, but the Indians still couldn’t get him home.
Ramirez struck out and Michael Brantley flied out to center.
“Everybody had their heads down — the pitcher, the catcher, the third baseman. So I left (second base),” Lindor said.
Right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall left the game with a right calf injury. An injury to the same calf knocked him out of most of the second half last season. It also resurfaced briefly late in spring training. Francona said Chisenhall is probably headed to the disabled list.