Indians knock off Minnesota to reach loft century mark
CLEVELAND » The number is big, round and historic.
The Indians aren’t satisfied with 100 wins. They aren’t stopping there, either.
Carlos Carrasco struck out 14, Jason Kipnis and Roberto Perez hit tworun homers and Cleveland joined an elite group with its 100th victory, 5-2 over the understandably sluggish, Twins who celebrated their wild-card berth earlier Thursday.
By improving to 31-3 since Aug. 24, the 2017 Indians joined the 1954 (111) and 1995 (100) teams to reach the century mark.
“That’s cool,” said Kipnis. “First, it’s a lot better than losing 100. I’ve been on that team before, and I think it was what, ‘11 or ‘12 where we went 5-25 in August. I’ve been on the teams where no matter what you do, you’re going to lose. This is one of those teams where no mat- ter what you do, it feels like you’re going to win.”
The ‘54 and ‘95 teams both lost in the World Series, and after getting to Game 7 last year before losing to the Chicago Cubs, these Indians don’t care about any pre-Octo- ber milestones — no matter how impressive.
“That’s not our goal,” said All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor. “It’s some- thing amazing, special. It will be there for a long time. We’re just enjoying it and focusing on our daily job, which is to win.”
The Indians are the seventh team to reach 100 wins in the past decade. z-Boston z-New York Tampa Bay Toronto Baltimore x-Cleveland y-Minnesota Kansas City Chicago Detroit x-Houston Los Angeles 78 Seattle 77 Texas 76 Oakland 73 z-clinched playoff berth x-clinched division y-clinched wild card
Wednesday’s games
Houston 12, Texas 2
Oakland 6, Seattle 5
N.Y. Yankees 6, Tampa Bay 1 Pittsburgh 5, Baltimore 3 Cleveland 4, Minnesota 2 Boston 10, Toronto 7
Chicago White Sox 6, L.A. Angels 4, 10 innings
Kansas City 7, Detroit 4
Thursday’s games
Cleveland 5, Minnesota 2 Tampa Bay at N.Y. Yankees Houston at Boston Oakland at Texas
L.A. Angels at Chicago White Sox Detroit at Kansas City
Friday’s games
80 82 82 85 .494 20 .484 211⁄2 .481 22 .462 25 Toronto (Biagini 3-12) at N.Y. Yankees (Tanaka 12-12), 1:05 p.m. Baltimore (Miley 8-14) at Tampa Bay (Odorizzi 10-8), 7:10 p.m. Chicago White Sox (TBD) at Cleveland (Bauer 16-9), 7:10 p.m.
Houston (Morton 13-7) at Boston (Fister 5-8), 7:10 p.m.
Oakland (Alcantara 1-1) at Texas (Perez 12-12), 8:05 p.m.
Detroit (Boyd 6-10) at Minnesota (Gibson 12-10), 8:10 p.m.
Arizona (Greinke 17-6) at Kansas City (Kennedy 4-13), 8:15 p.m.
Seattle (Gonzales 1-1) at L.A. Angels (Skaggs 2-6), 10:07 p.m. x-Washington Miami Atlanta New York Philadelphia x-Chicago Milwaukee St. Louis Pittsburgh Cincinnati x-Los Angeles y-Arizona Colorado San Diego San Francisco x-clinched division y-clinched wild card
Wednesday’s games
Colorado 15, Miami 9 Arizona 4, San Francisco 3 Philadelphia 7, Washington 5 Pittsburgh 5, Baltimore 3 Chicago Cubs 5, St. Louis 1 N.Y. Mets 7, Atlanta 1 Cincinnati 6, Milwaukee 0 L.A. Dodgers 10, San Diego 0
Thursday’s games
Cincinnati at Milwaukee Pittsburgh at Washington Atlanta at Miami Chicago Cubs at St. Louis
Friday’s games
62 97 .390 40 Cincinnati (Stephenson 5-6) at Chicago Cubs (Quintana 11-11), 2:20 p.m.
N.Y. Mets (Harvey 5-6) at Philadelphia (Lively 3-7), 7:05 p.m. Pittsburgh (Cole 12-11) at Washington (Strasburg 14-4), 7:05 p.m. Atlanta (Gohara 1-3) at Miami (Straily 10-9), 7:10 p.m.
L.A. Dodgers (Ryu 5-8) at Colorado (Bettis 1-4), 8:10 p.m.
Arizona (Greinke 17-6) at Kansas City (Kennedy 4-13), 8:15 p.m. Milwaukee (Anderson 11-4) at St. Louis (Gant 0-0), 8:15 p.m.
San Diego (Lyles 1-4) at San Francisco (Stratton 3-4), 10:15 p.m.