Carlos Carrasco shines as Cleveland Indians defeat Pittsburgh Pirates 5-1 – MLB Update
Carlos Carrasco subdued the Pittsburgh Pirates’ offence to help the Cleveland Indians win by 5-1 on Saturday, June 18 at Progressive Field, Cleveland.
A night after winning by the same margin, the Reds’ Carrasco proved instrumental in another victory for the Indians.
"[I had better control of] everything: curveball, slider, changeup, especially my fastball," Carrasco said. "If I throw a no-hitter, that's good. [But] the most important thing is that I need to keep throwing like I've thrown the last three games.”
Carrasco started his winning campaign with the virtually untouchable fastballs whose variation turned out to be too tricky and impossible to be played by the Pirates’ offence.
After he pitched the first inning, hitless and scoreless, Carlos Santana hit a sacrifice fly to give an early 1-0 lead to the Indians. Carrasco, having been backed up by the team offence, pounded the Pirates’ hitters with renewed force of his fastballs.
"He looks very good right now," Indians manager Manny Acta said. "He looks like he can throw any pitch in any count and he's mixing them appropriately. He mixed his pitches very well and went deep into the game.”
Grady Sizemore doubled to right to double the Indians lead in the second inning, as Paul Maholm found it increasingly difficult to contain the Indians’ offence. Maholm gave up two hits in the inning and allowed a run.
Carrasco, in the meanwhile, kept rolling the journey of hitless innings right into the sixth when he gave up two hits to the beleaguered Pirates’ offence. Having established a 2-0 lead, the Indians’ Orlando Cabrera homered to triple the lead in the sixth
inning.
Lyle Overbay scored the first run for the Pirates in the seventh inning, putting an end to the drought of runs faced by the team. But before the Pirates could settle, Maholm was once again subject to big hits.
Maholm gave up three hits in the eighth inning and allowed two runs to Asdrubal Cabrera and Shin-Soo Choo simultaneously, thereby smashing any hopes the Pirates had to somehow stage a comeback in the game with the Indians 5-1 lead
Joe Smith relieved Carrasco in the eight to pitch a shut-out inning, maintaining the supremacy of his team. Tony Sipp pitched the shut-out ninth inning to win second consecutive game for his team by 5-1, raising hopes that Indians would sweep the series.
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