What a Long Night, Indians Split Doubleheader with Jays After 13-4 Win; Three Takeaways

By Corey Perez CLEVELAND - On a day that featured nearly eight hours of baseball Cleveland Indians fans have to feel rather good walking away with a 1-1 split

By Corey Perez

CLEVELAND - On a day that featured nearly eight hours of baseball Cleveland Indians fans have to feel rather good walking away with a 1-1 split in Thursday’s double header vs the Toronto Blue Jays.

Especially considering how well the Indians played throughout the day, it seems as if this team is starting to turn the corner. While most of the season has been inconsistent up until this point, late Thursday night the Indians were able to hang it up, and see what tomorrow brings. As the Tribe travels to New York for a three game weekend series.

The Indians offense was able to get production from all three levels of the line-up as they collected 16 hits, and were able to score 13 runs in game number two.

Tyler Naquin continues his impressive start to the season as he went 2-5 with a double, this marked Naquin’s fourth multi-hit game of the season, vaulting his average to a very impressive .394 at Progressive Field this season.

Thursday nights win marked the 1,500th win as a manager for Indians manager Terry Francona, thus thrusting him into rather elite company as he is just the 24th manager in MLB history to reach the feat. Also he is the fourth active manager to reach the milestone, joining the Giants Bruce Bochy, the Angels Mike Scioscia and the Orioles Buck Showalter.

Here are three takeaways from the Indians 13-4 victory of the Toronto Blue Jays.

1. Stating His Case

Cleveland Indians utility man Erik Gonzalez has been on quite a tear recently as he has seven hits in his last four games, improving his season average to .391. Thursday night Gonzalez was able to break the Blue Jays backs in the fifth innings as he hit a bases clearing three-run double.

Gonzalez would later add another RBI, taking his tally up to four for the night ,the four RBI effort by Gonzalez tied his career high, previously set last September on the road vs the White Sox.

Fortunately for Gonzalez it could not be coming at a better time as the ld Indians have a decision to make Friday about what to do with Gio Urshela as he eligible to come off the disabled list.

Gonzalez is out of minor league options thus putting Cleveland in a unique position as to how to create room for Urshela.

2. Runs a Plenty

The story all season long has been the lack of consistency with the Indians offense. Then when things were going right, most of the runs were coming via home runs, so many wondered what exactly to think of the Tribe offense through the first month or so into the season.

All those critics are oddly quiet right now as the Indians bats have come alive over the past few games, scoring 49 runs over their past five games. Yes you read that correctly, the Indians have scored 49 runs off of a remarkable 71 hits in the last five games.

As if knocking the ball over the ballpark wasn’t impressive enough the Indians also broke their season record for most runs scored in a single inning, not once but twice on Thursday.

The first time being in the 4th inning of game one in which Cleveland scored seven runs, then the Tribe broke the record again just hours later scoring nine in the 5th inning.

This was the first time that a team has scored seven or more runs in a single inning in both games of a double header since July 22nd, 1975 when the Oakland Athletics did it.

1. Night to Remember

While Thursday was not Adam Plutko’s first big league appearance, it was his first career start, and it was a night he will never forget.

Plutko had been experiencing success down in Columbus this season as he came in featuring a sub three ERA, and besides three pitches Thursday night he was excellent.

Plutko gave up three runs, all coming via the long ball, otherwise he did exactly what Cleveland needed him to do, throw strikes. After a near five hour game started off the double header, a game in which Cleveland was forced to use five pitchers out of the bullpen in the 11 inning affair.

Thus having Plutko give the Indians 7 ⅓ quality innings in his first career start was huge, as the Tribe heads to New York to take on the big bats of the Yankees. Plutko’s final line was three runs on six hits with six strikeouts, and no walks, quite the debut start for the 26 year old.