It felt like summer had arrived on Tuesday night in Cleveland. The Indians are hoping a future cornerstone for their rotation arrived along with it.
In a true test of his mettle, Tribe pitching prospect Trevor Bauer was summoned from Triple-A, gifted with a home in the starting staff and asked to match wits with Tigers ace Justin Verlander at Progressive Field. In a series that means as much for the Indians as one can in May, Bauer led the charge in a 6-2 victory over division-leading Detroit.
“That’s not the easiest assignment,” Indians manager Terry Francona said, “when you come up from Triple-A to face them. I thought he really did a great job.”
A mechanical mess last season, Bauer has returned to Cleveland featuring the kind of arsenal that convinced the Tribe to pry him away from Arizona in a blockbuster trade two offseasons ago. Bauer fired an array of darting pitches and lit up the stadium’s radar gun, handling Detroit’s potent lineup with apparent ease in stretches.
Cleveland warned against reading too much into the statistical results of Bauer’s showing last season, when he appeared to regress in the Minors and was forgettable in four spot starts with the Tribe. The team and pitcher both insisted that he was in the midst of a dramatic mechanical overhaul and it would take time to experience on-field dividends.
Seeing Bauer now is believing.
“It’s night and day compared to what we saw last year,” Indians third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall said. “We knew he had the stuff, but from Spring Training on, I feel like he’s been shoving.”
Bauer shoved to the tune of a 2.15 ERA in seven starts with Triple-A Columbus this season and was impressive in his April 9 spot start against the Padres. Against the Tigers, the right-hander returned to the big leagues and turned in six-plus strong innings, striking out five and sidestepping the amount of harm that could have come from the three walks and seven hits he allowed.
Bauer (1-1) sat around 94-96 mph with his fastball and hit as high as 98-100 mph at points throughout the win, which was Cleveland’s second in a row to clinch the series.
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