CLEVELAND: Trevor Bauer ran into some of the home run troubles that plagued him last season.
He gave up a 2-run home run to Ji-Man Choi in the second inning and a solo shot to Geovany Soto in the fourth as the Indians fell behind the Los Angeles Angels 4-1.
But the AL Central-leading Indians came back from that three-run deficit and received three shut-down innings from the newly constructed bullpen to beat the Angels 5-4 Sunday afternoon at Progressive Field to complete a four-game sweep.
The Indians loaded the bases against Angels starter Jered Weaver (8-10, 5.32 ERA) in both the fifth and sixth innings and each came away with two runs to retake the lead.
In the fifth, the Indians loaded the bases with nobody out, but Carlos Santana and Jason Kipnis — who in the first inning hit a solo home run, his 20th — each failed to get a run home.
After Weaver gave the Indians a gift with a walk to Francisco Lindor to make it 4-2, Mike Napoli followed with a ground ball up the middle that was fielded by second baseman Johnny Giavotella, who flipped it to shortstop Cliff Pennington. Lindor, running from first, beat Pennington to second to allow Roberto Perez to score from third.
Carlos Santana, on second after reaching on a fielder’s choice, rounded third and tried to tie the game but was thrown out by Pennington to end the inning.
With the Angels (49-68) leading 4-3, Jose Ramirez led off the sixth with a single to extend his hitting streak to 18 games and then stole second base. Tyler Naquin, who had been slumping heading into the weekend, drove a double off the right-field wall to tie it 4-4 and end Weaver’s day.
Then, facing Angels reliever Jose Valdez, Abraham Almonte lined a ball into left-center field to score Naquin and put the Indians (67-48) back on top.
“That’s what we’ve been doing for a while,” Kipnis said of the offense chipping away. “We tell the pitchers, if they’re struggling or getting guys on base early to minimize the damage and give our offense some time to work.”
It was a huge hit for Almonte, who had struggled since being reinstated for a failed drug test, which also disqualified him from postseason play.
“I always say this, ‘If I’m [playing in] this game, it’s for some reason,’ ” Almonte said. “No matter where I hit, when I come to the plate, I just try to do my best to help my team to win. I did a pretty good job today and that’s real important to me.”
Bauer (9-5, 3.97 ERA) finished with four runs allowed on five hits and four strikeouts in six innings. Andrew Miller threw two 1⅔ innings in relief, which ended with a strikeout of Albert Pujols that led to Pujols’ ejection from the game. Cody Allen in the ninth notched his 22nd save of the season, also working a 1⅔ inning.
Indians manager Terry Francona could have taken Miller out after the seventh, but he’s been nearly unhittable since his Indians debut. It was what the Indians envisioned when they made the trade for him.
“The way that Miller was throwing, sometimes the best thing to do is just stay out of the way and let him go do his thing, because that was phenomenal,” Francona said. “But, we did a lot of good things to get there. Down 4-1, and we did some good things. … We bunched together a pretty good rally to take the lead and then made it hold up.”
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanLewisABJ
