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Tribe overcomes Astros — and midges
- Updated: September 8, 2016
CLEVELAND — On the strength of a four-run fifth inning and a solid showing by Carlos Carrasco, the Indians denied the Astros, 6-5, on Wednesday night at Progressive Field for win No. 80, extending their lead over the second-place Tigers in the American League Central to 5 1/2 games a few hours after Detroit lost to the White Sox.
“Sometimes winning’s hard,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t do it, but sometimes it’s hard. Tonight was one of those nights. But we go home with a win. And we have a quick turnaround, but that was a good win for us.”
Carrasco worked around some early trouble, logging 7 1/3 innings of four-run ball. The right-hander was charged with three runs over the third and fourth innings, when he dealt with some insect issues on the mound. Immediately after a bug appeared to fly in his eye in the fourth, Carrasco surrendered a leadoff single to Yulieski Gurriel and a first-pitch, two-run homer to Colby Rasmus. Carrasco settled in, however, striking out five batters and walking one en route to his 11th win of the season.
Up-to-the-minute standings
“They were everywhere out there,” Francona said of the bugs. “In the dugout, it’s hard to sense it, but when you get out on the field, man, they’re everywhere. Other than that one that went in his eye, it didn’t seem like it got in the way too much, but they were all over the place.”
Houston righty Doug Fister was slapped with the loss after being chased in the fifth inning. Fister allowed six runs on nine hits across 4 1/3 innings, walking three batters and whiffing two as the Astros saw their three-game winning streak come to an end. With the loss, Houston remained two games behind Baltimore for the second AL Wild Card spot.
• Midges return to Cleveland, possibly leading to home run
The two clubs will wrap up the four-game set with a Thursday matinee at 12:10 p.m. ET, free on MLB.TV.
• Indians know if they win, ‘you can’t catch us’
Tribe slugger Mike Napoli belted his 31st homer in the fifth inning, and Gurriel delivered a two-run drive, his first Major League homer, off standout reliever Andrew Miller in the eighth to make it a one-run game.
“They put a lot of at-bats together,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “We’re in the middle part of the game, and we’ve got three or four guys who aren’t going to pitch tonight, so we needed some guys to get some outs. Their guys executed a little better.”
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Party at Napoli’s: Napoli …
