The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Tribe bags sweep of Tigers on stellar bullpen
Logan Allen knows if he or any Indians starters get into trouble, help is just a phone call away.
Logan Allen knows that if he or any of the Indians other starters get into any trouble, help is just a phone call away.
Cleveland’s bullpen has been stellar. “Unbelievable,” he said. Allen recovered from a bumpy first inning to get his first win with Cleveland and the Indians leaned on their strong bullpen to complete a three-game sweep April 11 with a 5-2 win over the Detroit Tigers, who could be without slugger Miguel Cabrera for a while.
Allen (1-1) found his rhythm after hitting a batter on his second pitch and walking two in the first. He hung around and allowed one run and two hits in five innings. The left-hander, who came to Cleveland in a deal around the 2019 trading deadline, won a rotation job after a strong camp in Arizona.
After Allen left, four Cleveland relievers — Bryan Shaw, Nick Wittgren, James Karinchak and Emmanuel Clase — worked an inning each to finish off the Tigers.
Karinchak struck out the side in the eighth and Clase, throwing over 100 mph on seven pitches, worked the ninth for his second save.
“Uncle Bryan came in there and the rest of the boys and took care of business, man,” Allen said, referring to the 33-year-old Shaw and the team’s young relievers. “They’re awesome. Our ‘pen has it. We have the dudes. We have the ability and it’s going to be exciting how this turns out over the next five or six months.”
Jake Bauers and César Hernández drove in early runs against José Ureña (0-2), who had more control issues. The right-hander has given up nine walks in 7 2/3 innings this season.
Leading, 3-2, the Indians scored two insurance runs in the eighth helped by two throwing errors charged to Tigers right fielder Nomar Mazara.
Wilson Ramos homered for Detroit, which scored just six runs in the series and lost both Cabrera and starter Julio Teheran to injuries.
For the first time this season, Cabrera wasn’t in the middle of Detroit’s lineup. The 11-time AllStar was placed on the 10day injured list before the game with a left biceps strain that was affecting his sweet swing.
The four-time AL batting champion has been dealing with soreness in the muscle for a while. But after he felt it “grab” while making a swing in Saturday’s game, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told Cabrera to take some time off and get it examined.
Without Cabrera, the Tigers didn’t have a dependable bat in their order, but Hinch refused to use his absence as an excuse.
“For us, the lesson coming away from today was the big, critical at-bats for them ended in contact and runs and we had a lot of at-bats that ended up in swing and miss,” he said. “They won those at-bats by putting the ball in play and giving themselves a chance. That to me was a big separator.”
The 37-year-old Cabrera has 2,869 hits and 488 homers in his career.
Making his second start for the Indians, Allen needed 33 pitches to get through the first. He left it trailing only 1-0 despite hitting Robbie Grossman, walking two and giving up a bloop RBI single to Jeimer Candelario.
“Just unnecessary,” Allen said in evaluating his shaky first. “To be honest I’ve been doing that a few times lately, just trying to do more than the stuff I already have. Just trying to do way too much. I was locked in, but maybe a little too locked in I guess is the best way I can describe it.”
Trainer’s room
TIGERS >> Teheran will be sidelined longer than initially expected with a shoulder strain. Hinch said the team got more information since the right-hander was scratched moments before making his scheduled start in the series opener April 9.
Up next
TIGERS >> RHP Casey Mize starts the opener in Houston against Astros RHP Zack Greinke (1-0). INDIANS >> RHP Triston McKenzie (0-0) makes his first start of 2021 in the opener of a three-game series in Chicago. The White Sox are scheduled to start Carlos Rodón (1-0).