Michael Brantley’s two home runs lift Indians over Tigers, 7-5

CLEVELAND Michael Brantley hit two late home runs in a back-and-forth game to twice break up a tied score and lead the Indians to a 7-5 win against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday night at Progressive Field.

After the Indians (69-70) and Tigers (64-76) traded the lead all night, Brantley came up to the plate in the bottom of the eighth of a 5-5 game against Tigers reliever Blaine Hardy and took him deep to right field to put the Indians on top 7-5. It secured his fourth career multi-home run game. In the seventh, Brantley gave the Indians a 4-3 lead with a solo home run.

Cody Allen (2-4), who blew a five-out save, ended up securing the win in the ninth.

The Indians had struggled all season against Tigers starting pitcher Alfedo Simon but found an answer Thursday night.

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Abraham Almonte got ahold of a Simon pitch and drilled it for a solo home run to right field, tying the game. In the sixth, after Almonte singled and Ramirez walked, Urshela came through by hitting a double into the gap in left-center field, scoring both runners and giving the Indians a 3-1 lead.

Danny Salazar, making his first start since losing to Simon and throwing his shortest outing of the season in a 6-0 loss last Saturday, allowed three runs on seven hits in 6 1/3 innings to go with three strikeouts.

He left in the top of the seventh inning leading 3-1 with the bases loaded and one out, putting Bryan Shaw in a tough spot. Shaw made it worse by throwing his first pitch of the night into the dirt, allowing a run to score and the Tigers to cut the lead to 3-2.

Ian Kinsler, batting with two runners in scoring position and two outs, singled to right field to tie the game. Tigers center fielder Anthony Gose, the go-ahead run, made the turn at third base but was thrown out at the plate by Chisenhall in a bang-bang play, keeping the score tied at 3. Gose was originally called safe but an Indians challenge, the second of the night, overturned the call.

Two pitches into the bottom of the seventh, Brantley gave the Indians the lead again with a solo home run to right field. Chisenhall then singled, stole second and scored on a Yan Gomes single to left field to make it 5-3.

The Tigers came right back in the eighth. J.D. Martinez and Victor Martinez each singled and Nick Castellanos doubled to make it 5-4, ending Shaw’s night. The Indians turned to Allen in an attempt to pull off the five-out save.

After getting James McCann to strike out, Andrew Romine singled past a diving Francisco Lindor to tie it at 5. Allen then struck out Gose to end the eighth and keep the score tied.

Then came Brantley’s blast to seal the win.

Chisenhall had one of the best games by an Indians defender this season in right field that included two running catches and two runners thrown out at home.

In the second inning and with two runners on base, Gose singled to right field to score one easily. Chisenhall fielded it and fired to the Carlos Santana, acting as the cut-off man. Santana got Gose in a run-down which eventually ended with Chisenhall tagging him out for the second out. As that was going on, Romine, on third, broke for home but was thrown out by Chisenhall who made the tag, turned and fired to end the inning and hold it to a 1-0 Tigers lead. Roman was originally called safe but the play was overturned after an Indians challenge.

Later, Chisenhall took away a double from Victor Martinez and ended a scoring threat in the fifth with another running catch along the right-field line. That was all before his throw in the seventh that kept the score tied at 3.

Chisenhall became the first player with three outfield assists in a single game since Kansas City’s Mark Teahen had three on May 5, 2007. And he became the first Indians outfielder with three assists since current broadcaster Rick Manning had three on May 21, 1981 against Seattle.

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