Three home runs in the first inning and five total. A prodigious blast that nearly hit the scoreboard. An ace performance. Friday night had just about everything for the home sellout crowd in the Indians’ 10-2 rout of the New York Yankees.
It was the third sellout at Progressive Field this season and the second this week. Fans among the 34,045 who wanted to see some power got their money’s worth and then some.
The Indians led off the bottom of the first inning with back-to-back home runs against Yankees starter Chad Green (1-2, 7.04 ERA). Carlos Santana belted his 20th home run of the season to right field, which already bests his 2015 season total, and Jason Kipnis followed with his 13th of the year to centre field.
It marked the first time the Indians began a game with back-to-back home runs since Kosuke Fukudome and Kipnis did so on September 22, 2011.
The Indians weren’t done in the first. With two outs and Francisco Lindor on first base, Lonnie Chisenhall drove a two-run shot to right field to put the Indians on top, 4-0.
In the third, Mike Napoli hit one of the longest home runs in Progressive Field history. With Green still on the mound, Napoli crushed a two-run home run to the top of the bleacher seats in left field. It bounced once and hit the bottom of the scoreboard and nearly hit John Adams, the famous Indians drummer, who sits atop the bleachers in the middle section.
Per Statcast, it measured 460 feet and is the longest home run by an Indians hitter this
season.
Along with Jim Thome’s 511-foot home run to Eagle Avenue in 1999 and Mark McGwire’s awe-inspiring shot off the scoreboard in 1997, Napoli’s homer Friday night is one of the most impressive in park history.
Lindor missed a home run in the fifth by a few feet but settled for an RBI-double, and Napoli added an RBI-single to make it 8-0. In the sixth, Yan Gomes grounded out to score Juan Uribe, who doubled.
In the seventh inning, a final home run, as Kipnis added his second of the night, this one to right field. The five home runs as a team mark the most for the Indians (52-34) in a game this season.
“We’ve got a leadoff hitter with 20 home runs at the break,” said Kipnis. “Not many teams can say that. They know they better locate from the first batter on. That’s the luxury we have with him in the leadoff spot. He’s done a great job to date.”
Recent All-Star selection Corey Kluber (9-8, 3.61 ERA) allowed one run on five hits in eight innings to go with eight strikeouts. Yankees (42-44) catcher Brian McCann hit a solo home run for Kluber’s only blemish. In the ninth, Joe Colon made his major league debut, allowing one run and striking out one.
Meanwhile Adam Wainwright spoiled the major-league debut of highly-touted pitcher Tyler Glasnow in a 5-1 St. Louis Cardinals victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium.
Wainwright allowed five hits and Pittsburgh’s only run, walking one while tying a season high with nine strikeouts. He retired 10 batters in a row after Matt Joyce’s lead-off double in the second inning.
Glasnow, who was called up from Triple-A Indianapolis after posting a 1.78 ERA and a 7-2 record in 17 starts, matched Wainwright pitch-for-pitch before St. Louis managed to gain some traction in its second and third passes through the order.
The Pirates, whose season-high seven-game winning streak came to an end, scored first in the second on an infield out by Jordy Mercer that plated Joyce.
Hector Santiago threw seven innings of three-hit shutout baseball as Los Angeles won its third straight over reeling Tampa Bay, closing the series with a win at Tropicana Field.
The Angels won three straight games for the first time since mid-May, while the Rays have lost 19 of 22, the worst stretch by any team in baseball this season and matching the worst 22-game stretch in franchise history. Tampa Bay’s Blake Snell and Santiago were locked in a scoreless tie for five innings, each giving up two hits entering the sixth.
Los Angeles finally got to Snell in the sixth, as Yunel Escobar led off with a single, advanced on an infield out and scored on an RBI single by Albert Pujols for a 1-0 lead. C.J. Cron hit a grounder up the middle for what looked to be an inning-ending double play, but second baseman Logan Forsythe’s throw sailed high over first base, allowing a second run to score.