The Cleveland Indians just keep rolling.
The Indians (75-56) earned their sixth straight victory with a 2-1 win over the New York Yankees (70-61) in the first game of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, New York City on Wednesday afternoon.
With the win, the Indians increased their lead over the Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals in the American League Central Division standings. Heading into the second game of the doubleheader, the Indians held a seven-game lead over the Twins (68-63) and 10-game advantage over the Royals (65-66).
The Indians started fast against Yankees pitcher Jaime Garcia and scored a pair of runs in their first trip to the plate.
Shortstop Francisco Lindor slapped a single into the gap in right-center field, and later, stole second base. Infielder Jose Ramirez followed with a slow roller through the hole at shortstop for a single, which moved Lindor over to third base.
On the first pitch of designated hitter Yandy Diaz’s at-bat, Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez committed a passed ball, which allowed Lindor to hustle down the line and score the game’s first run, but the Indians were not done pushing runners across the plate.
Two pitches after the passed ball, Diaz took an offering from Garcia into center field for an RBI single that drove in Ramirez.
The Yankees got a run back in the bottom of the third inning.
Right fielder Aaron Hicks worked a one-out walk on just five pitches from Indians starter Trevor Bauer and moved over to second base when Sanchez grounded out to shortstop. Then, Hicks advanced to third base on a wild pitch from Bauer and came around to score New York’s first run when shortstop Didi Gregorius smashed an RBI double to left field.
Despite surrendering four walks, Bauer (14-8) allowed just four hits and one earned run over six-plus innings of work. He struck out four Yankees hitters, and on the way to his 14th victory of the year, lowered his earned run average to 4.46.
In the month of August, Bauer posted a 5-0 record and a 2.30 earned run average in seven appearances, including six starts. Over 39.0 innings of work, Bauer allowed 10 earned runs and nine walks against 40 strikeouts.
Bauer earned two wins each over the Yankees and Boston Red Sox, the top two teams in the AL East Division, as well as one against the Royals.
The bullpen combination of Tyler Olson, Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen combined to allow just one hit over three innings of work.
One of two Indians players with multiple hits in the first game of the doubleheader, Ramirez went four for four at the plate with a pair of doubles, two singles and a run scored. Lindor went two for five with two singles.
