CLEVELAND _ If the Indians could have painted a picture of what they had been trying to accomplish this entire week, with the first two games of the series only leading to frustration, Thursday night's 11-2 win against the San Diego Padres probably wouldn't be too far off from what would have ended up on the canvas.
Eleven runs, including three in the first that ended up being all they would need. Three home runs. A terrific outing from Josh Tomlin, who had also been struggling for a couple weeks. A well-rounded game to avoid the sweep.
The Indians (45-39) lost the first two games to the Padres (36-49) in this series, totaling just two runs and leaving a small army on the base paths. It led to bench coach Brad Mills admitting the offense might be pressing and trying to do too much. It also warranted Francisco Lindor saying he wasn't pleased with his own performance, and that he and the lineup weren't getting it done.
They loudly reversed that course on Thursday night. Facing Padres starter Dinelson Lamet (3-3) in the first inning, Lindor with one out singled up the middle. He then came around to score on Michael Brantley's RBI double to right field. With two outs, Jose Ramirez slammed a two-run home run to right-center field, giving Tomlin and the Indians an early 3-0 lead.
The Indians loaded the bases two innings later and pushed their lead to 5-0 via sacrifice flies off the bats of Lonnie Chisenhall and Bradley Zimmer.
The Indians then had a mini home run derby. Edwin Encarnacion in the fifth drilled a solo home run to center field _ his 18th home run of the season traveled an estimated 423 feet, per Statcast. An inning later, Yan Gomes launched a home run to center field of his own, one that bested Encarnacion's by 10 feet and reached the second row of trees.
Later in the inning, Encarnacion added an RBI-double and Ramirez capped a three-hit, three-RBI night with an RBI-single. Encarnacion finished 4 for 5 with two RBIs. The four hits matched a career high.
In the eighth, the pile-on continued with a two-out, two-RBI double by Chisenhall, giving him 49 RBIs this season.
Tomlin (5-9) allowed only two runs on four hits in seven innings to go with six strikeouts. It was his best outing since he allowed one run in eight innings on May 12 in a 1-0 loss to the Minnesota Twins. Tomlin had struggled through June, posting a 6.75 ERA in 251/3 innings.
Mills acted as manager on Thursday night as Francona remained at the Cleveland Clinic to undergo further tests. It was the third straight game Francona has missed. The exact timetable for his return remains unclear.
