Indians crush Yankees, 8-4

The Indians took a fast lead and never bounced back after close defeats the last two nights and split a four-game series against the Yankees. While neither of the starting pitchers ventured to the bottom of the game, the tribe got the better of the Yankees. Meanwhile, both fields lost four points each.

Third baseman José Ramírez earned the day, but production did not falter. Mike Freeman started in the corner and got a 3-on-4 record, including a three-run home run in the second run that put the Indians 4-0. His other two shots were double, and he scored twice.

The other Indian interpreter today? Oscar Mercado. He went 3-for-4 with a walk, adding a home run to two races and two stolen bases in as many attempts this afternoon. Francisco Lindor also had a party while Yasiel Puig walked twice. All Indians found a way to have fun, the only starter (Greg Allen) not to score a goal or a winning goal earned a point for the choice of defensive player in the first game.

Things on the mound today for the tribe were not as pretty as they were effective. Mike Clevinger pitched for five innings, needing 104 shots to clear his way through the day. Despite the high number of throws, he allowed only three hits and two walks while deleting ten. I will be the last person to to complain about five green sleeves. However, as a general rule, a day of ten strikeouts that ends after five rounds is classified as "truly wild". I do not feel comfortable saying that after only two walks.

Nick Goody managed to come out of a small traffic jam in the sixth to keep the Yankees scoreless, but they beat Hunter Wood in seventh. Mike Ford is distinguished, and after a flyout, Hunter Wood has inspired a second DJ LeMahieu. Unfortunately, she went straight into the right field and left the stadium. The probability of success was 6%, and Statcast indicated it at 331 feet. I am not convinced that it goes that far.

He canceled Aaron Judge, then passed the ball to Oliver Perez against southpaw Didi Gregorious. A game exit ended the round.

Mercado's home race topped the eighth, offering two insurance races that ended up providing more comfort than expected.

Brad Hand opened the bottom of the ninth by hitting Gleyber Torres on that first pitch. While he forced Ford to fly, he allowed a single to Mike Tauchman, who scored when Simple was chosen. Aaron Judge crushed a double on the left. Hand managed to hit Gregorious, then dropped a rocket from Gio Urshela who happily found the Mercado glove to watch the match.

Timbits tribe

• The Yankees have been barking about bullets and strikes at some point today. There were some dubious calls, but they seemed to be happening in the same area for both teams.
• Aaron Judge almost robbed Lindor's home run, but could not stretch far enough. A kid caught the ball instead. The arbitration team did their due diligence to ensure that there was no interference, and it was an easy call: the child's glove was never far from the wall .
• Jason Kipnis released the cheapest single I've seen in a long time. He had way in front of a curved ball of 68 mph Cortes. The movement of his handgun took him away from the ball so he could not recover and play. By the time Gregorious put a glove on it, Kipnis was already pretty much first. I have to respect this output speed of 46 MPH. The only ball in play that was hit more softly was Kipnis's cap in the second period.

The Indians improved to 74-51 today. They are currently two games of the Twins, although Minnesota still ends his game.