The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Tribe back to winning, defeats Royals
Victory over Royals combined with Twins loss gives Indians second title in a row
The clinch is done. For the second straight season, the Indians have secured the regular-season title in the American League’s Central Division.
They wrapped up the franchise’s ninth overall AL Central crown on Sept. 16 with an 8-4 victory over the Royals coupled the second-place Twins’ 7-2 home loss to Toronto.
With 13 games remaining in the regular season for the Indians, they are 92-57 and have a 14 1/2-game lead on the Twins. Minnesota slipped to 77-71 with the loss and has 14 games remaining.
Because the Toronto-Minnesota game on Sept. 16 was beginning just as the game at Progressive Field was ending, the Indians’ players and staff elected not to wait around in the home clubhouse for a possible clinching.
The clubhouse celebration of winning the AL Central title will be after the Sept. 17 game against the Royals. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m.
Later in the evening, the Indians announced on their Twitter feed that the tentative plan is to raise the Central Division flag before the game, along with an address from Francona.
During the game on Sept. 16, Francisco Lindor kept a personal streak going.
While the Indians’ historic winning streak is no longer the talk of baseball, Lindor’s on a roll that’s become notable.
The All-Star set a club record with another extra-base hit and the Indians bounced back after having their AL record streak stopped at 22 by beating the Kansas City Royals 8-4 on Sept. 16 to move to the brink of a Central title.
Lindor’s double in the sixth off Jason Hammel (8-12) gave him an extra-base hit in 10 straight games — a club record and four shy of the major-league mark of 14, shared by Chipper Jones (2006) and Paul Waner (1927).
“I didn’t even know that,” Lindor said. “I saw it on the scoreboard.”
Carlos Carrasco (16-6) pitched into the seventh as
the Indians improved to 32-5 in their last 37 games.
Edwin Encarnacion hit his 35th homer for Cleveland.
Alex Gordon connected for the Royals, whose wild-card hopes took another blow and dropped 18 1/2 games behind the Indians.
“They’re all hot,” Hammel said. “There’s a good reason they’re going to be wrapping it up.”
Less than 24 hours after losing for the first time in three weeks, the defending AL champion Indians returned to the business of taking their second straight division crown and ninth since 1995.
Following the Sept. 15 4-3 loss, the Indians were warmly saluted by their fans, who and gave them a rousing standing ovation in appreciation for the longest win streak baseball
has seen since the 1916 New York Giants won 26 in a row.
No doubt the streak was fun, but it served as little more than a September diversion for these Indians. They have one goal — a Series title — after losing in seven games last year to the Chicago Cubs.
“I was happy about that,” Indians manager Terry Francona said of his team’s ability to rebound. “I didn’t think we wouldn’t, but it’s nice to see them go right back to trying to be as good of a team as we can be.”
The sensational Lindor is leading their charge.
With the Indians up by a run and with two on in the sixth, Lindor doubled high off the leftfield wall to make 5-2. It was Lindor’s 40th double and broke a tie with Hal Trosky, who hit either a double, triple or homer in nine consecutive games for Cleveland in 1934.
“He’s using the whole field.” Francona said. “And he’s strong enough and he’s got probably 1,500 at-bats under his belt. So, he knows the league and he understands situations more. That comes with experience. So he’s still every bit as dangerous. He just also is finding his hits, spraying the ball around.”
Sweet 16s
The Indians now have three pitchers — Kluber, Carrasco and Trevor Bauer — with 16 wins. They are the first Cleveland pitchers to get at least 16 in the same season since Early Wynn, Bob Lemon and Herb Score in 1956.
David S. Glasier and the Associated Press contributed to this report