Indians starter Ubaldo Jimenez came out of hiding on Monday night. Cleveland can only hope it can finally send the search party home for good.
Jimenez turned in his strongest outing of the season — arguably one of his best efforts as a member of the Tribe — to help the Indians cruise to an 9-0 victory over the Royals in the finale of a four-game series at Kauffman Stadium. The offense caught fire and Jimenez followed suit, bringing a satisfying end to a long road trip.
“You’re always looking to be encouraged,” manager Terry Francona said. “I think we flew past encouraged and got excited.”
Over an 11-day trek through Houston, Chicago and Kansas City, the Indians (10-13) had two games washed away due to rain, played one doubleheader and compiled a 5-4 record. That includes a split of the four-game set against the Royals, who were knocked out of first place in the American League Central with Monday’s loss.
That was courtesy of Jimenez.
The Indians’ starter entered the evening with a bloated 10.06 ERA, but shook off his abysmal start to the season with a gem of an outing against Kansas City (13-10). Jimenez allowed just three hits across seven shutout innings, in which he created 12 outs via ground balls and mixed in four strikeouts.
“Ubaldo today — wow. Incredible, man,” said Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar, who went 0-for-3 against the Tribe’s starter. “He was keeping the ball down and throwing a lot of first-pitch strikes. And he was using a curve, changeup and a fastball over 92 [mph]. Wow. Unbelievable.”
On either side of an unlikely infield single from Billy Butler in the fourth inning were a pair of 11-batter streaks without a hit allowed for Jimenez. The right-hander did issue two walks, but neither came back to haunt him. It marked the first time since May 6 last season (against the Rangers) that Jimenez logged at least seven scoreless innings.
“He had life on his fastball. He had all of his offspeed pitches working,” Francona said. “Hitters, they had to respect everything he threw. You saw some rollover ground balls to first, some awkward swings, late on the fastball. There was just so much to like tonight.”
The win was Jimenez’s first since Aug. 9 of last year.
Due to a pair of rainouts in the past week, Jimenez had his start pushed back and took the mound for the first time since April 21 in Houston. During the seven-day hiatus, the right-hander threw three bullpen sessions and continued to work on the mechanics of his drive leg and arm slot.
Jimenez said he tried to build off the success in his last outing, which included one stretch of 14 consecutive Astros batters without a hit.
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