Bieber helps Tribe avoid sweep

three-game series.

Edwin Encarnacion and Lonnie Chisenhall opened the second inning with consecutive homers off Jack Flaherty, the Cardinals' hard-throwing rookie right-hander, for a 2-0 lead. Those two runs matched the Tribe's offensive output in the first two games of this series.

The Cardinals outscored the Indians 15-2 in the first two games. The start of both games was delayed for over an hour by rain and St. Louis provided much more adept at handling the delay than the Tribe.

But Wednesday dawned hot and muggy without a trace of rain. The Indians dried out and started swinging the bats like they had during the seven-game winning streak they crafted before arriving here.

They made it a 4-0 lead with two more runs in the third. Francisco Lindor scored from third as Chisenhall ran his way out of potential inningending double play. Jason Kipnis blooped a single into center field to score Michael Brantley, who reached on a double.

Bieber (3-0) protected the lead like it was made of gold. He allowed a run in the third on a single by Jose Ramirez, but after that shut the Cards down through six innings.

In six innings, Bieber allowed one run on six hits. He threw 70 percent of his pitches for strikes, punching out five and walking one. The Tribe's fourth round pick in 2016 started the year by sprinting through the double-A and triple-A levels, going a combined 6-1 with a 1.29 ERA in 12 starts.

In his first four bigleague starts, Bieber has struck out 27 in 24 innings.