Rays End Indians’ Streak in Impressive Fashion

May 11, 2011

A: Cleveland Indians

Attendance: 17,741

W: David Price (5-3) 3.12 ERA

Summary:

The Indians 14-game home winning streak really was impressive. They lost their first two games of the year at home and then hadn’t lost since. It was a streak that lasted over a month and included sweeps of the Red Sox, Orioles, Royals and Tigers (in very dramatic fashion).

The Rays effectively ended that streak very early tonight. They led 4-0 after four innings and added another three in the seventh to make it 7-0. The Indians got on the board with two in the eighth, but a Matt Joyce homer made it 8-2, which was the final score. The hitting heroes were the aforementioned Joyce, Ben Zobrist, who homered and finally (finally) Sam Fuld who got three hits and drove in two.

David Price, who was noticeably angry with Joe Maddon after last week’s decision to pull him with two outs in the ninth, looked like he might finally go the distance. He retired the first 12 batters of the game before allowing a double to Carlos Santana. He bent a bit in the eighth when the Indians used back to back doubles by Orlando Cabrera and Matt LaPorta to ruin the shutout. Michael Brantley singled home another run, but Price was still very impressive. A day after Rays pitchers walked 11, Price didn’t walk anyone and effectively made the hitters hit the ball where he wanted them to.

Another impressive win for the road warriors. James Shields heads to the mound tomorrow looking for another series win.

Player of the Game: Sam Fuld. I was giving Super Sam the player of the game so often at the beginning of the year that it felt like overkill. He may not deserve this particular one (David Price probably deserves it more), but I’ll give him the recognition of starting to break out of a terrible slump.