Indians clinch in style, then celebrate

The Indians left nothing to chance. Absolutely nothing.

With their magic number for clinching a third straight American League Central title sitting at one, the Indians didn’t need any magic to punch their ticket to the postseason for a third straight season.

Scoring runs early and in droves against the error-prone Tigers on Sept. 15, the Indians rolled to a 15-0 victory on a sunny, warm afternoon at Progressive Field.

Shortly after the final out was made, all of the Indians players gathered in a circle at second base. What was said in that huddle stayed there, but the body language, including the rhythmic bobbing and jumping, spoke to a shared joy at significant achievement over the long haul.

“You play 162 games, trying to win and reach your goals. When you do that, it’s pretty special,” said relief pitcher Cody Allen as sprays of beer and champagne cascaded around him in the postgame clubhouse celebration.

Francisco Lindor and Michael Brantley, who got their team off and running in the clincher with back-to-back home runs to open the bottom of the first inning, earned praise from veteran manager Terry Francona for opening the floodgates.

The Indians had struggled in their previous four games, three of them losses, scoring 11 runs.

Against the Tigers in the second game of the three-game series, they had 11 runs on the board after the first two innings.

“We had a little juice today,” Francona said. It was nice to see.”

The round-trippers by Lindor and Brantley in the bottom of the first the abrupt undoing of Detroit starter Michael Fulmer. Brantley was still getting handshakes and high fives in the dugout when Detroit manager Ron Gardenhire made the call to the bullpen for rookie reliever Matt Hall.

Fulmer was done for the day after two batters and five pitches for what was called right knee inflammation.

The Tigers were done for the day when Hall’s nightmarish majorleague debut came to a merciful end one inning plus even batters, eight hits and nine runs later. Because the fielders behind him treated the ball as if it was a lethally radioactive isotope, only six of the runs were earned.

Hall, a promising lefthander who was the Tigers’ minor-league pitcher of the year this season, greets the new day with 54.00 ERA.

The Indians, now 83-65, greet the new day with the luxury of using their 14 remaining regular season games to prepare for another postseason run.

There were other encouraging signs on a day when the Indians gave 26,532 paying customers quite the show.

Jose Ramirez, now installed at second base with the Aug. 31 acquisition from Toronto of three-time AL All-Star Josh Donaldson, was 3-for-4 with a double, two RBI and three runs scored. It’s been a relatively quiet four weeks at the plate for Ramirez, who has a career-high and team-high 101 RBI.

Starting pitcher Mike Clevinger again was solid, blanking the Tigers on one hit through six innings. The 27-yearold right-hander with the trademark long hair is 12-8 with a 3.06 ERA.

Clevinger is the real deal in a standout starting rotation that will get even better when Trevor Bauer returns from the broken bone in his right leg that has had him on the disabled list since Aug. 14.

Francona is an old hand at getting teams to the postseason. He did it five times in eight seasons at Boston, guiding the Red Sox to World Series titles in 2004 and 2007. Now, he’s done it four times in six seasons with the Indians.

For good reason, the mood was buoyant in the stands and in the clubhouse as the Indians claimed the prize that was their’s for the taking from the start of this season.

Reach Glasier at DGlasier@News-Herald. com. On Twitter: @nhglasier