Rays Hand Indians Sixth Loss in Seven Games

Dead center. 415 feet. That’s exactly where Rays lead-off batter, Austin Meadows, sent Trevor Bauer’s 3-1 fastball, making it a quick 1-0 lead for the Rays in the top of the first. It was the first  time all season that the Tribe have allowed a lead off home run. The Rays continued to make noise in the top of the third after Indians third baseman, Jose Ramirez, made an error, sending in a run for the bad guys. One more run came in during the inning, making the score at the beginning bottom of the third, 3-0 Rays. It was an ugly game for Indians catcher, Kevin Plawecki. After missing some key tags in earlier innings, a bad throw to third on a steal from Rays center fielder, Kevin Kiermaier, was especially hard to watch as his bad throw sent Kiermaier in for a 4-0 lead at the bottom of the fourth inning. As the game continued, the Indians kept twiddling their thumbs while the Rays drove in more runs. Bauer came out of the game at the beginning of the seventh and the Rays picked up right where they left off. Daniel Robertson lead off the inning with a double that ended up in the right field corner and was brought in by the next batter, Austin Meadows, who sent a hard grounder between the first and second basemen. Finally, in the bottom of the eighth, the Indians put a run on the board courtesy of, Oscar Mercado. It was his first home run in the big leagues and could not of come against a better team as Mercado is a Tampa Bay native. The Indians made things interesting in the ninth by loading the bases with no outs, but were only able to drive in two runs before Indians first baseman, Carlos Santana, grounded out, ending the game. The final score was 6-3 with Tampa capturing their 31st win of the season and giving Cleveland a .500 record at 26-26. Not the best showing for the Tribe last Sunday afternoon, but the season is still young and there’s still hope for fourth Central division title in as many years.  

-Jack Riedinger