One day after the home run review heard ’round the baseball world, Cleveland clubbed a trio of homers to cruise to a 9-2 rout over the A’s at Progressive Field. The lopsided win supported a strong outing from left-hander Scott Kazmir, who struck out 10 hitters to help guide the Indians to their 10th win in the past 11 games.
“At the start of this series, we were clicking,” Kazmir said. “We were on point and we didn’t look back. We just kept attacking them every single game.”
The rolling Tribe wrapped up its homestand with an 8-1 record and series wins over the Phillies, Twins and A’s. It marks the first eight-win showing on a homestand for the Indians since the club picked up nine victories in a 10-game stretch in September of 2005. The Indians had not swept Oakland in a four-game set in Cleveland since July of 1995.
The Indians (18-14) claimed the four wins behind a string of solid pitching performances from their rotation, which combined for a 2.05 ERA in the series. Offensively, Cleveland outscored Oakland — baseball’s top-scoring club heading into its clash with the Tribe — by a count of 21-8 during the brooming.
“We were just bad all the way around,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “We didn’t play clean baseball games. At the very least, when you’re not hitting and you’re getting beat, you want to play clean games defensively, and we didn’t do it. We just had a really bad series.”
This strong stretch for the Indians comes at an opportune time, considering the team is off to Detroit for a weekend series against the American League Central-leading Tigers.
The Tribe is looking forward to its date with the reigning AL champions.
Click here to read more of this story.
About Marion Online Sports
