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Indians’ late-inning magic beats the Rays
AP
Photo
Cleveland Indians starter Josh Tomlin pitches to the Tampa Bay Rays in the first inning in a baseball game, Tuesday, May 10, 2011, in Cleveland.
Associated Press
CLEVELAND
Michael Brantley drew a bases-loaded walk with two outs in the ninth inning off Tampa closer Kyle Farnsworth to force in the winning run and give Cleveland its 14th straight win at home, 5-4 over the Rays on Tuesday night.
The victory continued the Indians’ recent run of late-inning magic at Progressive Field. They have won their last four at home in their final at-bat. Cleveland loaded the bases against Joel Peralta (1-2) before Farnsworth came on and issued his first walk in 16 outings this season.
Brantley and Grady Sizemore homered for the Indians, who are 14-2 at home for the first time since becoming an AL charter member in 1901.
Chris Perez (3-1) pitched a scoreless ninth for the win.
PITCHING
The Indians’ starting rotation entered Tuesday’s game with the third-best ERA in the league at 3.29. The Tribe’s bullpen had the fourth-best ERA at 3.16.
“I can’t say enough about [pitching coach] Tim Belcher and [bullpen coach] Scott Radinsky,” said manager Manny Acta. “They have done a tremendous job starting last year when we went through our struggles in the first half of the season. They have never backed down. They’ve kept pushing what we’re preaching here: attacking the strike zone, being accountable, being prepared.”
The results started to come to the forefront in the second half of last season. The Tribe’s team ERA after the All-Star break in 2010 was 3.89, the pen was 2.95.
“You saw the progress in the second half of last season,” said Acta. “We saw in spring training that things have continued. Both guys are straight-forward to these kids. They’re patient with them, but when they have to let them know how things are done, they don’t back down. That’s very important at this level.”
Belcher pitched 14 years in the big leagues, going 146-140. He made 373 starts out of 394 appearances. Radinsky pitched 11 seasons in the bigs, making 557 relief appearances.
“Belcher is one of the most prepared guys I’ve ever been around,” said Acta. “Not from ‘I used to this or I used to do that.’ He gets a ton of information from our analytical department and shows these guys, from every angle, how important it is to do it.
“Scott is the same way. You might have thought that when those two guys pitched they just threw hard and went after guys.”
Information from the Cleveland Plain Dealer was used in this report.