After a three-game sweep of the Royals, and losses Sunday by the Red Sox and the Tigers, the Indians now know their immediate future: They won’t have to play a makeup game Monday in Detroit, and they will open the postseason on Thursday at Progressive Field against the Red Sox in Game 1 of the American League Division Series.
“That’s exactly what we wanted,” Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis said after a 3-2 win over the Royals on Sunday. “We went into today knowing that all we could do was take care of our game. It looked like we could have a perfect day. We were joking about it, saying it was going to be a perfect day today. It turned out to be that way. It’s awesome.”
The AL Central-champion Tribe completed the regular season with a 94-67 record, marking the fourth straight winning season under manager Terry Francona. In the Indians’ final victory of the regular season, right-hander Josh Tomlin was strong through 7 1/3 innings, giving up six hits and two runs. He walked none.
Indians catcher Yan Gomes, playing despite suffering a non-displaced fracture in his right hand a little over two weeks ago, belted the first pitch he saw from Royals right -hander Ian Kennedy in the third inning for a two-run homer, his ninth.
Francona said he was thrilled with how his players finished off the season.
“You get to the last weekend of the year and sometimes you see teams sort of taper off,” Francona said. “I was really proud of our guys. They keep playing. Nobody asked for a day off. All the pitchers wanted to pitch. And I think that’ll help us moving forward.”
Kennedy went 7 2/3 innings and gave up just four hits and three runs. He finished his first year with the Royals with a 3.68 ERA in 195 2/3 innings. He struck out 184 batters.
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