On Wednesday night, Justin Masterson’s perplexing season continued with an abbreviated outing against the White Sox. Cleveland overcame his struggles to pull off a 6-4 win over the White Sox, but that was a small victory within a more troubling bigger picture.
“It’s been a roller coaster, let’s put it that way,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “It’s been hard. But still, when he goes out there every five days, I feel like he can get out and dominate. It’s just that it hasn’t happened with the consistency that we were hoping for.”
Masterson was named the Tribe’s Opening Day starter this season, tasked with leading a sinker-heavy rotation capable of helping the Indians contend for the postseason. With a week left in the regular season, it is unmistakably clear that Masterson and his fellow starters fell short in that regard.
Masterson will take the ball one more time for a chance to show he deserves the same opportunity next season.
Against the White Sox (82-73), who slipped a game behind the Tigers in the race for the American League Central title, Masterson bowed out after 4 2/3 innings. The right-hander surrendered four runs on seven hits in a 109-pitch effort, which marked his seventh start this season with fewer than five innings logged.
“Masterson was erratic in the first inning,” Acta said. “But he got into a better groove later on up until the fifth inning when he couldn’t finish.”
Thankfully, the Indians (65-91) were in a spoiling mood.
Facing Chicago lefty Hector Santiago, who lasted just 3 1/3 frames, Russ Canzler chipped in a run-scoring single in the first inning and Jason Kipnis added a two-run single in the fourth. The Indians did not need hits to collect their next two runs, which came via a bases-loaded walk by Carlos Santana in the fourth and an RBI groundout from Shin-Soo Choo in the seventh.
Choo’s contribution pushed the Tribe to a 5-4 advantage, which was later padded when Vinny Rottino belted a solo homer off White Sox reliever Brett Myers in the eighth.
Overall, Cleveland drew 12 walks, marking the most for the club in a game since it had 12 against Tampa Bay on May 15, 2004. Kipnis, Santana and Lou Marson each had three free passes, marking the first time since Sept. 26, 1956, that the Indians had three players with at least three walks in the same nine-inning contest.
“We do have a lot of patient guys at the plate,” Acta said. “If guys aren’t around the plate, we’ll take advantage of it.”
Doing so against the White Sox, and taking two out of three games in the process, felt especially good for the Tribe.
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