Perez’s go-ahead homer caps four-hit day
Indians 7, Reds 2
CINCINNATI — As soon as Roberto Perez made contact on a full-count change-up in the eighth inning Saturday, Cincinnati Reds reliever Michael Lorenzen turned to watch the ball’s flight and stood motionless while biting the top of his glove.
Lorenzen looked like he tried to will the ball to stay in the park. Instead, it sailed three rows past the right-field wall for a go-ahead, tworun homer for the Cleveland Indians.
It was Perez’s fourth hit of the afternoon, the No. 7 hitter, and he celebrated by punching the air and jumping for joy around the firstbase bag.
The Indians added three runs in the ninth to win going away, 7-2.
“I thought (Reds right fielder Yasiel) Puig was under it, and then I saw him keep going (back),” Lorenzen (0-2) said. “It was way out. It wasn’t even close . ... I’m not taking that from (Perez) at all. It’s just this new era of balls leaving the yard. It’s insane. It’s absolutely insane.”
Reds reliever Matt Bowman walked in a run and surrendered a two-run single to Jake Bauers in the ninth in the first game of a twogame interleague series before the All-star break. The loss snapped the Reds’ three-game winning streak in front of 36,504 fans.
After pitching a clean seventh inning, Lorenzen allowed a one-out double to Jose Ramirez in the eighth. Two batters later, Perez delivered the two-out, twostrike homer. It was an elevated change-up on the outside corner.
For Cleveland, Shane Bieber (8-3), who a day earlier was added to the American League AllStar team, allowed four hits in eight innings — three of them by Puig, who had a tworun homer in the first inning.
“The easy line is he pitched like an AllStar, shoot,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said.
The Indians are finally on a good run as they get ready to host the All-star Game. They’ve won five in a row, matching their best winning streak of the season.
Before Perez’s heroics, Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor showed why he was selected to his fourth All-star team. Lindor lifted a 96 mph fastball from Reds starter Anthony Desclafani on the fourth pitch of the game and watched it carry over the rightfield fence.
In the fifth inning, Lindor added a solo home run off the rightfield foul pole’s mesh wing.
Before Saturday’s start, Desclafani had surrendered one home run in his previous 26 innings.
“He barrels up a lot of balls,” Desclafani said of Lindor. “You have to be really good with him.”
Desclafani allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings.
The Indians have won nine of their past 11 games in Cincinnati and lead the intrastate series 62-50. They’ve taken two of three this season, guaranteeing they will win or split the season series for a fifth straight year.