CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Indians got seven strong innings from starter Zach Plesac, a pair of perfect innings from relievers Nick Wittgren and Brad Hand and timely hitting against the New York Yankees at Progressive Field Friday night.
And all of that combined to give the Indians (32-31) a 5-2 come-from-behind victory over the Yankees (39-23) in front of the home fans in the first of a three-game weekend series.
Plesac worked around early trouble and limited the damage to one run each in the top of the second and third innings. From there on out, he settled in and finished with five strikeouts over his seven innings of work, which lowered his earned run average to 1.86 on the season.
Wittgren needed just 12 pitches to get through the eighth inning for his sixth hold of the season, and then, Hand made it 19 for 19 in save opportunities when he struck out the heart of New York’s order to seal the win.
Down by a 2-0 count heading into the bottom of the fourth inning, the Indians drew even with one run each over their next two plate appearances, the second of which came on a solo homer from right fielder Tyler Naquin, and then, took a two-run lead in the bottom of the sixth that the pitching staff held up over the final three frames.
First baseman Carlos Santana delivered the go-ahead hit when he belted a two-run home run to right-center field in the bottom of the sixth inning. Santana’s 422-foot home run drove in left fielder Oscar Mercado, who singled to start the frame.
The Indians added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning when second baseman Jason Kipnis drove in shortstop Francisco Lindor with a sacrifice fly to center field. Lindor was on third base with a lead-off triple.
