The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Morton shuts down Tribe
Charlie Morton pitched seven solid innings, Tony Kemp had a tiebreaking RBI double in the seventh and the Houston Astros beat the Indians, 4-1, Friday night for their third straight win.
Morton (6-0) allowed one run and four hits with eight strikeouts in extending his career-high winning streak to nine straight dating back to last September. Morton retired 19 of the first 21 batters.
After Cleveland starter Mike Clevinger (3-1) walked Marwin Gonzalez and Derek Fisher to lead off the seventh, Brian McCann popped out before Kemp hit his RBI groundrule double down the rightfield line to give Houston a 2-1 lead. George Springer followed with a grounder to Kipnis, but Fisher beat the throw home.
Evan Gattis added a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
Springer gave the Astros a 1-0 lead with a solo home run to left in the third.
Edwin Encarnacion tied it 1-1 in the seventh with a solo home run to right. The Indians have lost three of their last four.
Chris Devenski pitched the eighth, inducing a popup by Yonder Alonso to strand the bases loaded. Ken Giles pitched the ninth for his seventh save.
Clevinger allowed three runs, eight hits and four
walks with six strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings. Clevinger has allowed fewer than three runs in each of his last four starts.
Santa Fe moment
The Astros held a moment of silence prior to the game and flew the Texas flags at Minute Maid Park at half-staff in support of the victims and their families connected to the shooting that killed 10 people at Santa Fe High School earlier in the day. Santa Fe is roughly 30 miles southeast of Houston.
The name’s ‘Tyler’
Indians RHP Trevor
Bauer wrote the name “Tyler” on a piece of tape and put it above Bauer on the back of his jersey. Bauer had a Twitter fight with several Astros players earlier this month after insinuating their pitchers were using sticky substances. Astros SS Alex Bregman replied to Bauer on Twitter, calling him Tyler.