DETROIT _ Jose Ramirez has shown a knack for coming up with the right hit at the right time. That was the case again Wednesday night as the Indians took down the Detroit Tigers 3-2 at Comerica Park.
Ramirez was a candidate for American League player of the month in April and had a case as the Indians' most productive hitter. He now has a head start on May as well.
With one out and two on and the game scoreless in the fourth inning, Ramirez drilled a pitch by Tigers starter Matthew Boyd (2-2) to deep right-center field. Both runs scored easily and Ramirez ended up with a triple, though he rounded third and took a few steps toward home before holding up.
Jason Kipnis followed with a sacrifice fly to center field to score Ramirez and put the Indians (15-12) on top 3-0. Aside from that exchange, the Indians were held in check in another low-scoring game against a left-handed starting pitcher, which has now become one of the main themes of their still-young 2017 season.
Another theme thus far has revolved around Carlos Carrasco's strong starts, which continued Wednesday night. Carrasco (3-2) threw six innings, allowed two runs on five hits, walked one and struck out five. He has yet to allow more than three earned runs in any start and more than two earned runs in any start shorter than eight innings. Carrasco's season ERA now stands at 2.18.
Carrasco did receive some defensive help, though some of it was to atone for an earlier mistake. In the first inning, Nick Castellanos ripped a line drive that was snagged by a leaping Francisco Lindor.
In the fourth, Ramirez missed a Miguel Cabrera ground ball and then threw the ball away to put him at second base. Victor Martinez followed with a ground ball to Lindor at shortstop and, as Lindor released his throw to first, Cabrera took off for third. Carlos Santana's throw beat him to the bag, and Ramirez applied the tag to help erase his earlier mistake.
The Tigers (14-13) did begin to chip away at the Indians' lead in the fifth. Tyler Collins led off with a walk, advanced to second with an aggressive tag-up on a fly ball to left and scored on Jim Adduci's RBI single to center field.
An inning later, Castellanos doubled to right field and came around on a sacrifice fly by Victor Martinez.
Andrew Miller entered for the Indians in the seventh to pitch two scoreless innings, which included striking out Cabrera looking with a slider on the outside corner to end the eighth. It increased Miller's scoreless innings streak to start the season to 132/3 innings. It also included a nice catch in right field by Brandon Guyer, who hauled in a deep fly ball by Castellanos as he crashed into the wall.
In the ninth, Cody Allen, who prior to Wednesday's game was named the American League's reliever of the month, struggled to start May like he pitched through April. After walking one hitter in all of April, Allen walked two hitters Wednesday night to put the winning run on base.
But with the tying run on third with two outs, Allen struck out Adduci looking to end it and convert his seventh save in as many chances.
