CLEVELAND _ The Indians' peppered the opposite field to power their way to a 7-6 win against the Houston Astros Wednesday night.
Facing Astros right-handed starter Lance McCullers, the Indians found early success going the other way with four hits to left field by left-handed hitters that resulted in a quick 3-0 lead.
Carlos Santana singled to left-center and Francisco Lindor drew a walk to open the first inning. Michael Brantley followed with a drive to the wall in left-center that ricocheted off the glove of Josh Reddick, scoring a run. Edwin Encarnacion then drove a ball to the opposite field to bring home a second run in the inning via a sacrifice fly. Jose Ramirez added an RBI double, again off the glove of a diving Reddick in left-center field, to push the Indians' advantage to 3-0. It was Ramirez's team-leading 18th RBI of the season.
Jason Kipnis singled to left before McCullers finally escaped by inducing an inning-ending double play off the bat of Lonnie Chisenhall. One night after Reddick robbed Kipnis of a home run in Tuesday's Indians loss, he twice came up just short on Wednesday in the first inning.
With the lead cut to 3-2 in the fifth, the Indians continued to go the other way with positive results. Santana walked and Lindor doubled down the left-field line to put two in scoring position. Both came home via a two-run single off the bat of Brantley, his 14th and 15th RBIs of the season.
The Astros twice cut the Indians' lead with two-run home runs against starting pitcher Trevor Bauer. In the fourth, Evan Gattis belted a home run to center field with an estimated distance of 433 feet. Two innings later, Brian McCann hit a two-run shot to center field that cut the led to 5-4.
Santana added on again in the sixth, ripping a two-run double to right field that made it 7-4. And, again, the Astros responded with a two-run double by Martin Gonzalez in the eighth off of Bryan Shaw.
Cody Allen finally quieted the Astros' comeback attempts for good, securing a four-out save, the Indians' three-run first almost entirely by going to the opposite field proving to be the just enough.
