Gimenez-Butler beef ‘lit a fire’ under Tribe

CLEVELAND — Chris Gimenez stood tall and followed A’s designated hitter Billy Butler up the first-base line for a few steps, as the Progressive Field crowd booed loudly in the fourth inning Saturday night. The backup catcher did not like Butler’s bat flip and he really did not appreciate the primal shout that followed his home run.

“I just let him know that I’d be waiting for him when he got back,” Gimenez said after the Tribe’s 6-3 win over Oakland. “And then, the umpire kind of got involved. I had to kind of think about, ‘Would my wife want me or want my kids to see me doing something right now?'”

Cooler heads prevailed, but Cleveland’s bats heated up.

After a tense moment between Gimenez and Butler, when the designated hitter’s estimated 442-foot home run (per Statcast™) to the left-field bleachers pulled the game into a 2-2 deadlock, the Indians retaliated in the best way possible. Starter Josh Tomlin kept Oakland’s bats quiet for the rest of his seven-inning effort, and the offense responded with four runs in the home half of the fourth to put the Indians ahead for good.

Abraham Almonte began the bottom of the fourth with a 442-foot home run of his own — a towering shot off A’s lefty Dillon Overton that crashed in the left-field stands. Jason Kipnis later added a run-scoring double to push the Indians ahead, …

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