Indians’ rookie stumps Yankees, Sabathia

By Paul Hoynes

The Cleveland Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND

Jeanmar Gomez wasn’t a bad warm-up act. Seven innings and two unearned runs in his big-league debut on July 18 against a Detroit Tigers team that hadn’t yet shattered into a thousand pieces.

Then came Josh Tomlin, the headliner, in his big-league debut Tuesday night against the world champion Yankees. Talk about jumping the shark tank on your first try.

All he had to do was face the top-scoring team in the American League, the one with baseball’s best record, with Alex Rodriguez one homer shy of 600 and CC Sabathia facing his former team for just the third time since they traded him in 2008.

Before the game, manager Manny Acta said it would have been nice to break in Tomlin against a team with a lower profile. You almost felt sorry for the kid. Instead, Tomlin made the Yankees feel sorry for themselves with seven fine innings in a 4-1 Tribe victory at Progressive Field.

Tomlin allowed one run on three hits. He struck out two and didn’t walk a batter. Rodriguez, in his quest for No. 600, went 0 for 3 against Tomlin. In his final at-bat, A-Rod had a chance to make history and tie the game with two on and two out in the ninth.

Instead he grounded into a force play as Chris Perez earned his 10th save.

“That’s exactly how he threw every start in Triple-A,” said Chris Gimenez, who caught Tomlin on Tuesday night.

Tomlin threw 65 percent (60 of 93) of his pitches for strikes. Including switch-hitters, the Yankees’ lineup featured six left-handers. They went 2 for 18 against Tomlin.

“I threw the change-up down and away and a cutter in for the most part,” said Tomlin, 8-4 with a 2.68 ERA at Columbus this year.

This is the first time the Indians have had two rookies win their big-league debut in the same year since 1922. On the flip side, the last six times the Yankees have faced a pitcher making his first start in the big leagues, they’ve lost.