Cleveland Baseball Insider

Indians Earn First Victory With Help From A Yonder Alonso Grand Slam, Three Takeaways From 6-5 Win

On Saturday afternoon, the Cleveland Indians played their second game of the 2018 season against the Seattle Mariners. On Opening Day Thursday, the Cleveland
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Indians Earn First Victory With Help From A Yonder Alonso Grand Slam, Three Takeaways From 6-5 Win
Indians Earn First Victory With Help From A Yonder Alonso Grand Slam, Three Takeaways From 6-5 Win

On Saturday afternoon, the Cleveland Indians played their second game of the 2018 season against the Seattle Mariners.

On Opening Day Thursday, the Cleveland Indians lost their first game against the Mariners by a score of 2-1.

Heading into Saturday's game the Cleveland Indians were 0-1. The Mariners came in with a record of 1-0.

Following the Indians 6-5 victory over the Mariners, the Indians improved to 1-1 on the season. The Mariners fell to 1-1 on the year.

As mentioned in today's preview, Cleveland didn't have too much success in one-run games but have already played in two one-run games and have now split both games.

Here’s our three takeaways from the Indians 6-5 victory.

1.) Offense Jumps Out To Early Lead

In the first inning, the Indians scored first with a Yonder Alonso grand slam homer. Alonso hit the first grand slam in the MLB in the first inning of Saturday's game.

Seattle began to fight back in the second and third innings. In the fourth inning, it was 4-3 until Indians catcher Yan Gomes added another home run that scored two runs. The Indians never trailed in today's game but things did get close when Nelson Cruz hit his second homer of the season in the 6th. Cruz's homer was not enough though and was all the Mariners could score today which wasn't enough. Alonso had this to say about the set up to his first inning grand slam:

"I told them when we got into the dugout what an at-bat, you set that up. Everyone in that inning had good at-bats, we came out very selective and it was nice to get a win. It was a good win, second game obviously of the year, we have a long way to go but it was a good team win."

2.) Carlos Carrasco With A Decent OutingCarlos Carrasco made his first start of the 2018 campaign and earned his first victory of the season. Carrasco didn't see as many strikeouts in Saturday's outing as he did in the 2017 season. During the 2017 season, Carrasco averaged 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings. In his first start, Carrasco pitched 5.2 innings pitched, gave up 7 hits, allowed 5 earned runs, gave up 2 home runs, and struck out 4 batters. Cookie improved his record for his first start of the season in his career to 3-4 in 9 starts.

As mentioned by Jensen Lewis, in Carrasco's last 36 starts if the Indians score four or more runs, he has a record of 34-2...that record now improves to 35-2 in 37 starts after today.

3.) Indians Searching For Replacement in Bryan Shaw's 7th inning Role

Cleveland went to the bullpen for the first time this year in the 6th inning; the team brought in Zach McAllister.

McAllister and Andrew Miller split the 7th inning which is a role that the Indians will be looking to fill with the departure of Bryan Shaw to the Colorado Rockies. I don't think this is something that will be the norm for the Tribe just because this will mean Miller will have to pitch a little extra, which was something the team was looking to limit at the tail end of the 2017 season with the number of innings pitched.

The Indians bullpen began the 2018 season right about where they left off in the 2017 season, dominant. The Indians bullpen pitched 3.1 innings pitched, allowed 3 hits, gave up 0 runs, walked 1 batter, and struck out 4 Seattle hitters.

Cody Allen shut the door in the 9th inning, earning his first save of the 2018 season. Allen pitched in 1 inning, allowed zero hits. zero runs and struck out one batter.

The Indians will be looking to win their first series of the season on Sunday against the Mariners. The Indians will be sending Trevor Bauer to the hill and will be opposed by Seattle's Mike Leake.

First pitch is scheduled around 4:10 PM EST.

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Payton Vince
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