CLEVELAND _ The Indians beat up one of baseball's best bullpens, their own held the lead, and Carlos Carrasco turned in a dominant start in a 3-1 win over the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday afternoon at Progressive Field.
The Indians (32-28) entered the fifth trailing 1-0 with Brewers starting pitcher Chase Anderson still on the mound. Rajai Davis singled and Francisco Lindor walked to put two runners on base and Michael Brantley followed with an RBI single to left field to tie it at 1.
Trying to keep it a tied game, the Brewers (37-25) turned to reliever Jeremy Jeffress, who has been among the game's best and entered Wednesday with a sub-1.00 ERA. It set up an elite matchup between him and Jose Ramirez, who has turned in an MVP-candidate season thus far.
Ramirez won the battle, roping a double to right field to score Lindor and give the Indians a 2-1 lead. Edwin Encarnacion walked to load the bases and Yonder Alonso drew another walk to score a run and extend the lead to 3-1.
Davis went 2-for-3 with three stolen bases and played a key role in the Indians' lone scoring inning.
"That's the hope when Raj plays, that he can influence the game, and he did," Indians manager Terry Francona said.
That one inning was enough for Carrasco, who turned in one of his best outings of his season, allowing just one run on eight hits in seven innings to go with 10 strikeouts. It marked the 17th double-digit strikeout game of his career and the second this season.
Coming off of a rough outing, Carrasco escaped a bases-loaded jam in the second inning and allowed the lone run of the day in the third on a single by former Kent State standout Travis Shaw. After that, Carrasco cruised through the seventh inning.
"Earlier in the game there were a lot of hits," Francona said. "It was the (second) inning, bases loaded, and he had fallen behind (Lorenzo) Cain, fought back into the count and got him to fly out to right. That at the time seemed big and later in the game when you look back, it was big.
"Cain is a guy that has really given Carlos trouble. He got him out with the bases loaded. That was a huge turn in the game."
For the second consecutive game, the Indians turned to Neil Ramirez with a tight lead. Ramirez allowed a single but then struck out former Indians first baseman Jesus Aguilar.
Recently acquired Oliver Perez then struck out Shaw before Cody Allen recorded a four-out save to close the door.
