Indians walk their way past Reds

Associated Press

CINCINNATI

The Cleveland Indians had plenty of scoring chances. They cashed in on just enough to squeeze out a win.

Yan Gomes drew a bases-loaded walk — Cleveland’s fourth of the game — to drive in the tiebreaking run in the 11th inning and the Indians beat the Cincinnati Reds 5-3 on Sunday.

Jason Kipnis added a sacrifice fly in the 11th for Cleveland.

“We had some great late-game at bats,” said Cleveland manager Terry Francona, who rued Cleveland’s season-high 18 runners left on base. “We scored on four walks and a sacrifice fly. That’s an interesting way to score five runs.”

Pedro Villareal (1-3) gave up singles to Mike Aviles, Michael Bourn and Brandon Moss to open the 11th and load the bases. He then walked Gomes to force in the Indians’ go-ahead run and Kipnis followed with his sacrifice fly.

“It wasn’t frustrating,” Gomes said of not getting more out of bases-loaded opportunities. “We really worked to get into those situations.”

Marc Rzepczynski (2-3) pitched two-thirds of an inning to get the win, and Zach McAllister got the last two outs for his first career save.

The Indians led 3-2 in the ninth, but Eugenio Suarez doubled off closer Cody Allen with two outs and scored on Jason Bourgeois’s single. The blown save was Allen’s second in 21 opportunities.

Allen also gave up Joey Votto’s RBI single in the eighth.

The last team to score four or more runs on bases-loaded walks was the Boston Red Sox in a 7-5 loss to the Chicago White Sox on May 7, 1992.

“It was an anomaly,” said Reds manager Bryan Price, whose pitchers issued 10 walks, the most since walking 11 on Sept. 18, 2013, at Houston. “It was a game where something had to give and they beat us. You just don’t see games like this.”

Reds closer Aroldis Chapman struck out five in two innings to set a major league record for the fastest to reach 500 career strikeouts.

Chapman, who routinely throws over 100 mph, reached the mark when he got pinch-hitter Giovanny Urshela to end the 10th inning. The All-Star lefty needed just 292 innings to reach 500 strikeouts. The previous mark was by San Diego’s Craig Kimbrel, who got to 500 in his 305th inning on May 25.

Cincinnati starter Johnny Cueto, making perhaps his final start in Cincinnati with the trade deadline looming, issued six walks — as many as he had allowed since 2011.