Tribe ace Corey Kluber bounced back Tuesday night, tossing a shutout in a 6-0 win over the Rays at Progressive Field. First-place Cleveland has now won five in row (10 straight at home) while Tampa Bay dropped its sixth consecutive game.
After allowing a season-worst eight runs in his last outing, Kluber recovered well, allowing just three hits to the Rays. The 30-year-old righty surrendered his first hit in the second inning and didn’t give up another one until the last frame. He struck out nine batters — one shy of his season high — while walking two batters.
“I thought early on he was fighting his command,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “First three innings, it looked like strikes and balls were pretty even, but he didn’t give up any runs. Then you could see when he started to settle in. They were pretty aggressive for the most part. Some first-pitch outs, which really helped.”
Rays lefty Blake Snell also had a bounce-back outing in the loss. Snell exited after 6 2/3 innings in which he gave up three runs (two earned) on seven hits. He has now given up eight runs in his last two outings, but only three of those have been earned. The left-hander struck out three and walked three.
“Corey Kluber’s pretty good to say the least, stating the obvious,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “He had it all going tonight, as you saw, a lot of late action. He punched us out and created a lot of weak contact. That’s the sign of a really good pitcher. … The bright spot is we had a really good pitcher on the mound also. Really happy with the way Blake threw the ball.”
The Tribe blew the game open once the Rays dug into their bullpen, as Jose Ramirez and Juan Uribe went deep back to back in the eighth off Steve Geltz. Uribe has now homered in four consecutive games since returning from a minor injury.
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