Indians end Pirates win streak at 11 games with 4-0 win; three takeaways

CLEVELAND-- To stop a losing streak of their own on Wednesday, the Cleveland Indians were going to have to stop the second longest winning streak in Major

CLEVELAND-- To stop a losing streak of their own on Wednesday, the Cleveland Indians were going to have to stop the second longest winning streak in Major League Baseball this year.

Cleveland topped the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-0, ending Pittsburgh's 11-game win streak, and stopping a three-game losing skid of their own.

Trevor Bauer earned the win for Cleveland, and now sits at 9-6 on the year with a 2.32 ERA. Through four interleague starts this season, he also has a 0.33 ERA, the lowest mark in baseball.

The Indians are off tomorrow and are heading to Detroit on Friday for a Central Division matchup against the Tigers. Until then, here are three takeaways from the win.

1. Another solid Bauer outing

Trevor Bauer was coming off a no-decision in the Tribe's 9-8 win over Texas on Friday. In that start he gave up nine hits and four earned runs through four innings in an outing that was rather uncharacteristic of him when you consider what he's done throughout 2018.

On Wednesday afternoon, however, the starter bounced back. Through seven shutout innings, Bauer struck out 10 and gave up just two hits and two walks.

“Yeah, there’s no shortfall of gravitas with them," Bauer said of postgame of the outing he put together against the Pirates. "They’re playing really well and you notice that. Their big thing is they’re hitting the ball out of the yard. So you watch the first two games, they’re super comfortable in the box, super confident, and they’re getting their arms extended on a lot of stuff, putting the barrel on balls. Try to adjust.

"The nice thing about throwing everything is hitters can’t hit everything. You get a really good report on them watching them two games in a row, threw the stuff they hadn’t seen yet, at least the first time through. I was able to avoid the Falcon Heavy launches today, which were nice.”

This is the ninth double-digit strikeout game for Bauer this season. He's tied for the second most such games in Major League Baseball with Boston's Chris Sale-- only Washington's Max Scherzer sits ahead of the two of them with 10 such games.

Bauer has also now struck out seven or more batters in each of his last 12 starts. That's tied for second in franchise history with Sam McDowell (Sept. 14, 1965-May 17, 1966), and sits just behind Corey Kluber's 14-start streak from last season (June 1- Aug. 13, 2017).

2. Edwin's single and Yonder's bomb

The Indians got on the board in the third inning thanks to Edwin Encarnacion.

After Francisco Lindor got on base with a single and Jose Ramirez reached on a fielder's choice, Encarnacion took a 2-0 curveball and sent it to center field. Both Ramirez and Lindor were able to take advantage and made it home.

In the eighth inning with two outs, Yonder Alonso made reliever Felipe Vazquez pay for a four-seam fastball low in the zone. He sent the pitch over the center field wall, and gave the Tribe two more insurance runs as they headed into the top of the ninth with a 4-0 lead.

With how well the Pirates have played as of late, there has been very little margin for error in facing them. On Wednesday the Indians capitalized on those opportunities they received at the plate.

3. Pittsburgh's win streak comes to an end

The Pirates have been arguably the hottest team in baseball over the last couple of weeks, and with the loss on Wednesday afternoon their 11-game win streak comes to an end.

The streak itself is the second longest in Major League Baseball this season behind the Astros season-best 12 straight games from June 6-18.

With the loss, the streak also remains the longest for the club since they won 11 straight in 1996. But as stated up at the top, in stopping the Pirates from getting their 12th straight win, the Indians more importantly stopped their own losing streak in the process.

“Yeah, it was big for us today to stop our skid," Bauer said postgame. "We lost three in a row. We haven’t played very well in a couple of those games. Mostly that’s what it was. But, when you face a team that’s hot like that, I enjoy that challenge. I enjoy meeting it head on and look, they’re rolling and I wanted to see who’s going to win. So challenge them, force them to hit my stuff and lay it all out there on the line.”