Santana, Lindor power Indians past Astros
CLEVELAND -- Carlos Santana homered and Francisco Lindor had two hits and three RBI as the Cleveland Indians beat the Houston Astros 10-7 on Thursday afternoon at Progressive Field.
Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer (11-6) pitched a shaky five innings to get the win. Cody Allen pitched the ninth to pick up his 26th save as the Indians earned a split of the four-game series.
Astros starter David Paulino (0-1), in his major league debut, took the loss.
Houston took the lead just two batters into the game. George Springer led off the game with a single and scored on a double by Alex Bregman.
Paulino pitched two scoreless innings to start the game, but ran into trouble in a controversial third inning.
Tyler Naquin led off the third with a walk. Naquin stole second, but Paulino retired the next two batters. A double into the left-center field gap by Jason Kipnis drove in Naquin with Cleveland's first run. Kipnis scored on a single by Francisco Lindor for a 2-1 lead.
Mike Napoli was hit by a pitch and Jose Ramirez drew a walk to load the bases with two outs. With Lonnie Chisenhall at the plate Paulino threw a pitch that bounced in front of home plate. Chisenhall checked his swing, but the ball appeared to hit his bat and ricochet toward the on-deck circle near the Indians' dugout.
Catcher Jason Castro made no attempt to retrieve the ball, assuming it was a foul ball off Chisenhall's bat. Meanwhile, Lindor raced home from third, Napoli kept running from second and crossed home plate and Ramirez did the same.
It was only then that time was called and the umpires met for a long discussion. It was eventually ruled by the umpires that the ball did not hit Chisenhall's bat, making it a wild pitch. The umpires then went to a video review to determine how many runs should have been counted.
The decision was that Lindor and Napoli scored and that Ramirez would be sent back to second base to give the Indians a 4-1 lead. Houston manager A.J. Hinch argued the ruling and was ejected from the game.
Yuli Gurriel led off the Houston fourth inning with a home run to cut the Cleveland lead to 4-2. The Indians countered that with two runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Paulino was removed after the third inning, having given up four runs on four hits with two walks and no strikeouts. Brady Rodgers relieved Paulino and gave up a leadoff double to Abraham Almonte in the fourth. Rodgers retired the next two hitters, but walked the next two hitters, Santana and Kipnis. Lindor followed with an infield single that scored Almonte and Santana to make it 6-2.
It became 6-3 on an RBI double by Springer in the fifth inning, but the Indians' offense erupted again in the bottom of the inning. Ramirez led off with a double and Chisenhall walked. Almonte tripled into the right field corner, scoring Ramirez and Chisenhall to stretch the lead to 8-3.
Santana then put an exclamation mark on the inning with a booming two-run home run into the right field seats off Michael Feliz to make it 10-3.
The Astros weren't done scoring. Bauer gave up a single to Gurriel leading off the sixth inning, followed by a two-run homer by Colby Rasmus to cut it to 10-5 and end Bauer's day.
In five innings, Bauer allowed five runs on seven hits with two strikeouts and two walks.
The Astros made it 10-7 in the seventh inning when Springer walked and scored on a triple by Bregman off reliever Perci Garner. Bregman then scored on a passed ball.
NOTES: Astros 3B Yuli Gurriel's home run Wednesday was the first of his major league career. He's the fifth Astros player to hit his first major league homer this year. The others are 3B Alex Bregman, OF Teoscar Hernandez, 1B A.J. Reed, and 1B Tyler White. ... Astros 2B Jose Altuve needs four more stolen bases to become the first player in major league history to reach 200 stolen bases and 200 doubles through his first six major league seasons. ... The Indians have been in first place in the Central Division for 96 consecutive days, dating to June 4. ... Indians 1B Mike Napoli has 31 home runs and 1B Carlos Santana has 29. One more homer by Santana would give the Indians two players with 30 home runs for the first time in 14 years. It was last done in 2002 when Jim Thome hit 52 and Ellis Burks 32.