Cleveland Indians defeat Arizona Diamondbacks 5-4 – MLB Update
The Cleveland Indians defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-4 in a tight match played on Monday, June 27 at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona.
The two hour and 42 minutes of baseball was hard fought and the Indians managed to win it in the ultimate innings riding on some hard work and handling immense pressure.
The Indians imprinted their feet on the game in the very first innings when Asdrubal Cabrera unleashed a 402-feet hit to record his 13th home-run of the season. Cord Phelps was complimented by Cabrera’s hit and he completed his run to take the
score 2-0 at the top of the first innings.
The Diamondbacks are no minnow side and they proved it right away. In their first innings reply to the Indians, they added three runs off the bats of Kelly Johnson, Stephen Drew and Justin Upton. They were quick to convert a two-run deficit into a one-run
lead and set the tone for the match.
The next four innings failed to yield a run for either teams and the pressure could be sensed. The silence broke in the sixth innings when the Indians added two runs again to take a one-run lead in the match which swayed either way on many occasions. The
runs were helped by Cabrera scoring his second for the night before Carlos Santana added another for the Cleveland side.
The Diamondbacks, only trailing by one-run held on to their nerves. Wily Mo Pena has been hitting brilliantly for the Diamondbacks since his call-up and he rightly did so again. He scored at the bottom of the eighth inning to level things with a solitary
inning left to decide matters.
Pena could have become a hero among the fans instantly before Orlando Cabrera of the Indians stole the limelight from him. He homered a 368-feet hit to the left and added the fifth and the decisive run for the night. It was a tough ask for the Diamondbacks
to recover from this situation with only the bottom of the ninth inning to play and two-runs required for a triumph.
The pitchers from both teams had a tough night. Ian Kennedy of the Diamondbacks was more competitive than his counterpart from the Indians, Mitch Talbot. Kennedy gave away four runs off eight innings whereas Talbot was relatively expensive, giving away three
runs in five innings.
It was the relief pitchers who held their nerves and contained the scoring thereon for the Cleveland side. Rafael Perez was the pick of them, recording his third win of the season. J.J. Putz failed to achieve similar results for the Arizona side. Handed
with the responsibility of containing the last innings only, he was hammered for a home-run. It was a game which could have gone either way nonetheless.
The second game of the three-game series between both teams is scheduled for Tuesday, June 28.
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