If you bring a Cy Young Award winner to Progressive Field, you better pack bandages, too.
On Saturday, Mariners ace Felix Hernandez became the latest Cy guy to struggle against the Indians. They took the afternoon contest, 6-0, and extended their winning streak to four games. Michael Brantley had four RBIs and crushed a three-run homer in the second inning, his second of the year.
The victory was Cleveland’s 20th in the past 27 games. Its current 17-4 stretch is the franchise’s best 21-game span since September 2007. It’s also the finest in baseball.
Of course, with the way they’re playing, the Indians are crushing pitchers of all ability levels, but Cy Young Award winners have been particularly brutalized — in eight games, they’re 1-7 with an 8.21 ERA.
“I’m sure the guys would love to be 8-0,” starter Justin Masterson said about his teammates. “What makes this team special is when a guy out there [is] good, they get excited. The boys get excited [and] want to go out there and have solid at-bats. I don’t think it’s just with former Cy Young Award winners — I think that’s what they’ve been doing the last couple weeks, which has been really good.”
The Indians are very mindful of how they’ve pummeled Cy Young Award winners, according to Brantley.
“Are we aware of it? In this locker room? Absolutely, we are,” Brantley said. “We talked about it this morning before we came in. But it’s more about our approach, making sure that we don’t do too much, and like I said before, we want to work the count and get him out of there in the fifth inning if we can. We did a great job today.”
The Tribe wasted no time in getting to Hernandez. In the first inning, Brantley — who was moved up to third in the lineup — singled in Michael Bourn. He scored on the next play when Justin Smoak misplayed a grounder off the bat of Nick Swisher at first base.
After Brantley’s homer made it 5-0, the Indians tacked on another in the fourth. Mike Aviles doubled to left and scored from second on Drew Stubbs’ ball in front of the plate. Hernandez didn’t cover home as catcher Jesus Montero fielded the hit and threw to first.
“[With] Aviles, everybody was shocked. We didn’t see it coming,” Brantley said. “I told him. I said, ‘That’s a heads-up play. That’s awesome.’ That’s just running the bases hard and running the bases correctly.”
Six runs were plenty for Masterson. The righty won his third straight decision by allowing just three hits over seven shutout innings. Masterson (7-2) struck out a season-high 11 while walking two. His ERA fell to 2.83.
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