CLEVELAND _ Melky Cabrera belted a grand slam, Mike Clevinger delivered six scoreless innings and the Indians easily downed the Baltimore Orioles, 8-0, at Progressive Field on Sunday afternoon.
Cabrera came to the plate in the fourth inning with the Indians already leading 4-0 and the bases loaded against Orioles left-handed reliever Sean Gilmartin. The Indians could have brought in Brandon Guyer to face the lefty but instead left in Cabrera, a switch-hitter.
The faith was rewarded. Cabrera delivered a grand slam that cleared the 19-foot wall in left field, putting the Indians on top 8-0. It was the Indians' ninth grand slam this season.
The Orioles (37-87) have been one of baseball's worst teams this season as their rebuilding process begins. They played the Indians (71-52) tough on Friday and Saturday before the trouncing on Sunday.
Facing Orioles starter Yefry Ramirez (1-5), Yandy Diaz doubled to right-center field to score Greg Allen, who was hit by the pitch to lead off the first inning. An inning later, Allen singled to left field to score Jason Kipnis make it 2-0. That single also extended Allen's hitting streak to 12 games, which ties the longest such streak in baseball this season for a rookie along with Jesse Winker of the Cincinnati Reds.
In the fourth, Michael Brantley doubled home a run and Diaz later walked with the bases loaded to make it 4-0. That led to Cabrera's grand slam, and the Indians cruised from there.
Clevinger (9-7) was solid all day, allowing seven hits and walking one to go with seven strikeouts. In the process, he crossed the 150-strikeout threshold for the season, joining Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer as Indians pitchers to accomplish that feat. It is the third time in franchise history the Indians had four 150-strikeout pitchers, along with 2015 and 2016.
Andrew Miller pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning and struck out two. Dan Otero and Adam Cimber finished off the shutout.
