Cleveland 12, LA Dodgers 5
When: 12:10 PM ET, Thursday, June 15, 2017
Where: Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio
Temperature:
77°
Umpires:
Home -
Chris Guccione, 1B -
Carlos Torres, 2B -
Paul Nauert, 3B -
James Hoye
Attendance:
23339
By The Sports Xchange
CLEVELAND -- Lonnie Chisenhall has been down this pinch-hitting road before.
"The only way to learn how to do it is to do it a lot," said Chisenhall, whose second pinch-hit home run of the season, a three-run blast in the fifth inning, broke open a close game and helped send the Cleveland Indians to a 12-5 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday afternoon at Progressive Field.
Chisenhall had a home run and five RBIs, and Jose Ramirez had three hits and drove in a pair as the Indians salvaged the last game of their three-game series with the Dodgers.
Edwin Encarnacion and Erik Gonzalez also went deep for Cleveland, with Gonzalez's blast serving as his first career homer.
Encarnacion, who reached base five times, on three hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch, scored a career high-tying four runs.
Cody Bellinger and Chris Taylor homered for the Dodgers, who saw their six-game winning streak halted.
"We won two out of three here against a good club. We still have our momentum," said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
Chisenhall, whose other pinch-hit homer this year was a grand slam on April 14, is hitting .273 as a pinch hitter. He leads the American League in pinch-hit home runs (2) and RBIs (7).
"For me, the key to pinch hitting is to embrace it," Chisenhall said. "It's an adrenaline rush going up there, because it's usually at crunch time, so you try to take some hacks to help the team out."
Cleveland starter Josh Tomlin (4-8) pitched five innings, giving up four runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts, matching his season high.
Dodgers starter Rich Hill (3-3) was roughed up for seven runs on eight hits in just four innings, during which he threw 105 pitches.
This was Hill's eighth start of the season and he has not pitched more than five innings in any of them.
"I just didn't pitch well," he said. "It's no fun not helping the team. I've got to get better results the next time."
The Indians batted around and scored three runs on four hits in a 40-pitch first inning by Hill. The Indians' runs came on RBI singles by Ramirez and Bradley Zimmer, and a bases-loaded walk drawn by Roberto Perez.
"He had a lot of deep counts, and he wasn't able to put guys away when he was ahead in the count," Roberts said of Hill.
The Indians made it 5-0 in the second inning when Encarnacion belted a two-run shot into the left field bleachers for his 13th homer of the season.
Tomlin held the Dodgers scoreless on three hits through the first three innings. But Bellinger led off the fourth with a line drive home run down the right field line, his 18th, cutting the Indians' lead to 5-1.
The Dodgers shaved three more runs off that lead in the fifth inning, when Tomlin gave up consecutive doubles to Joc Pederson and Yasiel Puig, and a two-run home run by Chris Taylor, reducing Cleveland's lead to 5-4.
"At that point, I was just trying to stop the bleeding, get us back in the dugout and let our offense do what they were doing," Tomlin said.
The Indians responded with a three-run bottom of the fifth. Hill began the inning by giving up a walk and single to the first two batters he faced, before being removed from the game.
"Even when his stuff is good it seems like he has to work harder than he should," Roberts said. "He can't get through five (innings) and we're counting on him for depth."
Ross Stripling relieved Hill and saw Chisenhall deposit his second pitch into the seats in right field for a three-run homer, pushing the Cleveland lead back out to 8-4.
"Lonnie took a beautiful swing," Indians manager Terry Francona said.
With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, the Indians struck for three more. A two-run single by Chisenhall and a broken-bat RBI single by Perez gave the Indians an 11-4 lead.
Chase Utley's RBI groundout in the seventh inning made it 11-5, and Gonzalez's home run leading off the seventh inning against Chris Hatcher, completed the scoring.
NOTES: Dodgers 1B Adrian Gonzalez, who was placed on the disabled list on June 13, received a second opinion on his back condition, which confirmed the original diagnosis, a herniated disc. There is no timetable for his return. . . Dodgers LHP Alex Wood will start Friday in Cincinnati. In four career appearances against the Reds, Wood is 2-0 with a 2.95 ERA. . . Indians OF Michael Brantley was not with the team Thursday. He was with his wife Melissa, who was having a baby. . . Indians 2B Jason Kipnis missed his second consecutive game with a stiff neck. Replacing him in the leadoff spot was SS Francisco Lindor, who hit leadoff for the first time this season.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
LA Dodgers |
|
Cleveland |
Rich Hill
|
Player |
Josh Tomlin
|
Loss |
W/L |
Win |
4.0 |
IP |
5.0 |
4 |
Strikeouts |
7 |
8 |
Hits |
7 |
15.75 |
ERA |
7.20 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
LA Dodgers
|
9 |
2 |
18 |
.257 |
15 |
11 |
5 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
Cleveland
|
15 |
3 |
25 |
.395 |
15 |
9 |
12 |
3 |
0 |
0 |