Indians take 2-0 lead
Tomlin has a solid start and Miller keeps striking out Blue Jays.
CLEVELAND — Josh Tomlin baffled Toronto Blue Jays batters for nearly six innings and Andrew Miller, acquired just ahead of the trade deadline, blew them away as Cleveland prevailed, 2-1, on Saturday in the American League Championship Series.
Carlos Santana hit a home run against 20-game winner J.A. Happ, and Francisco Lindor had a runscoring single for the Indians, who lead the series, 2-0.
Tomlin gave up one run and three hits in 52⁄3 innings for his second victory this postseason — he won the Game 3 division series clincher in Boston — before Manager Terry Francona handed the ball to Miller.
The lanky left-hander struck out the side in the seventh inning, two in the eighth and has 10 strikeouts in 32⁄3 innings in the series. He has not given up a run in 16 career postseason innings.
“He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen,” said closer Cody Allen , who worked the ninth inning to close the three-hitter for his second consecutive save. “He goes out there for two innings, shuts them down and gets a lot of swings and misses. Whenever you get to come in behind a guy like that, you’re in a pretty good spot.”
Before getting a groundout in the eighth inning, Miller struck out seven consecutive batters over two games.
“There’s a reason we gave up what we did for him,” said Francona, referring to the four top prospects the Indians sent to the New York Yankees in July. “We thought that he could be a guy that we could leverage in situations like we have. And it would make our bullpen that much better and give us a chance to keep playing. And that's exactly what he's doing.”
After overpowering Texas in a division series by hitting eight home runs and scoring 22 runs, Toronto has one run and 10 hits — eight singles and two doubles — against the Indians, dropping to 0-2 in the ALCS for the second year in a row.
Toronto slugger Jose Bautista is 0 for 6 in the series with five strikeouts and in a 0-for-14 postseason tailspin.
“We didn’t get destroyed or anything in these two games, but we’ve got our work cut out for us,” catcher Russell Martin said. “History shows we can hit the ball. We’re going to have the opportunity to do that at home.”
The series heads to Toronto’s for Game 3 on Monday, with Cleveland’s Trevor Bauer slated to face Marcus Stroman.
“Everyone in this room is confident that we can get it done,” Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson said. “We're not out of it. I still believe we can do it . ... We’ve pitched well, they’ve pitched well.
“They’ve just scored more runs than we have. We’re going to get the last at-bat now and we feel confident about it.”
Maybe going home will help the Blue Jays, who were 46-35 at Rogers Centre and drew an AL-high 3.4 million spectators in the regular season.
“Having home-field advantage is good — and we're going to need it,” said Happ.
Tomlin originally was scheduled to pitch Game 3, but he was pushed up after Bauer cut his right pinkie while repairing one of the drones he enjoys flying as a hobby. The 31-year-old Tomlin pitched himself out of the rotation by going 0-5 with a 11.48 earned-run average in August, but injuries to Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar gave him another chance and he has made the most of it.
Tomlin relied on his curveball to keep the Blue Jays guessing.
“I needed to establish I could throw it for a strike early on, and then it was a pretty good pitch,” he said.
Miller’s slider buckled the Blue Jays and delighted his teammates.
“I don’t even know how to say it,” second baseman Jason Kipnis said. “It's fun to watch. I’ve faced that before, which is not fun to watch.”