Right-hander Carlos Carrasco struck out 14 in 7 1/3 innings and Rajai Davis and Jason Kipnis homered as the Cleveland Indians toppled the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-1, Thursday night in Toronto. The Indians extended their winning streak to 13.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Right-hander Carlos Carrasco allowed one run and struck out 14 in 7 1/3 innings as the Cleveland Indians defeated the Toronto Blue Jays, 4-1, Thursday night at Rogers Centre in Toronto. The Indians extended their winning streak to 13, which ties the franchise record and is the longest in MLB this season.
Here is a capsule look at the key aspect(s) of the game, which was televised by Fox Sports Time Ohio:
Nick Camino Scoreboard Watch: The Indians (48-30) remain 6.0 games in front of second-place Kansas City (42-36) in the AL Central. The defending world champion Royals defeated the Cardinals, 4-2, Thursday night in St. Louis, Mo.
Historic: Indians teams in 1942 and 1951 also won 13 straight.
Not bad: The Indians own the second-longest winning streak in the majors in the past 10 years. The 2013 Braves won 14 in a row.
The previous AL team to win 13 straight was the 2002 Athletics (20).
Action-packed month: The Indians finished an MLB-best 22-6 in June. The .786 winning percentage is third-highest for a month in franchise history (minimum 20 games), trailing only August 1954 (26-6; .813) and September 1952 (19-5, .792).
The Tribe hit 44 homers in June, the most for the franchise in any month since a record 51 in September 2005.
Comforts of road: The Tribe is 7-0 on a 10-game trip to Detroit (3-0), Atlanta (3-0) and Toronto (1-0). The series against the Blue Jays continues Friday afternoon.
'Cookie' magnificent: Carrasco gave up three hits and walked two. He threw 77 of 113 pitches for strikes.
Carrasco (4-2, 2.56 ERA) dominated using a fastball/split-changeup/slider combination. The changeup was absolutely devastating.
Toronto's run came on Josh Donaldson's homer with two outs in the fourth. Donaldson pounced on a flat slider (89) and sent it an estimated 449 feet to center.
There is no shame in giving up a bomb to reigning AL MVP Donaldson, especially in recent weeks. He has hit safely in 20 of 21 games, with six of his 19 homers and 23 of his 53 RBI.
Wow: During The Streak, Tribe starting pitchers are 10-0 with a sub-2.00 ERA. They have logged 7+ innings 10 times. Carrasco is 3-0 with three starts of 7+ innings; he has allowed three earned runs in 23 2/3 innings.
Wicked: Here is the list of Carrasco's strikeouts:
2nd inning
(L) Michael Saunders swinging (3-2 changeup/91).
3rd inning
(L) Justin Smoak swinging (0-2 changeup/92).
Darwin Barney swinging (1-2 fastball/94).
(L) Josh Thole swinging (2-2 changeup/90).
4th inning
(L) Ezequiel Carrera swinging (2-2 changeup/89).
(L) Michael Saunders looking (0-2 fastball/95).
5th inning
Kevin Pillar swinging (2-2 fastball/95).
(L) Justin Smoak looking (2-2 fastball/96).
6th inning
Devon Travis swinging (0-2 changeup/91).
Josh Donaldson looking (1-2 slider/88).
7th inning
Edwin Encarnacion swinging (3-2 slider/86).
(L) Michael Saunders swinging (3-2 changeup/91).
Kevin Pillar swinging (0-2 changeup/91).
8th inning
(L) Justin Smoak swinging (2-2 changeup/91).
The strikeout of Donaldson occurred with a runner on second and the Tribe leading, 3-1. Carrasco fixed the slider problem.
Locking them down: Bryan Shaw relieved Carrasco with a runner on second. Blue Jays against Shaw went swinging strikeout, walk, swinging strikeout.
Cody Allen worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 17th save. The save had teeth. Allen struck out Donaldson swinging and got Encarnacion to pop to short and Saunders to ground to short.
Encarnacion finished 0-for-3 with one walk. He was denied a 30-RBI, 30-run month by one run. He has hit 21 homers and leads the American League with 70 RBI.
Ragin' Rajai: Tribe center fielder Rajai Davis went 2-for-4 with one double, one homer, one RBI and two runs.
Davis led off the second inning against knuckleballer R.A. Dickey by drilling the first pitch -- a knuckleball over the outer half at the thighs that screamed, "Smash Me!'' -- off the facing of the second deck in left. It gave the Tribe a 1-0 lead.
Davis' eighth homer of the season pushed him to 6-for-12 career against Dickey.
With one out in the ninth, Davis blooped a double near the right-field line against righty reliever Bo Schultz. Davis scored on Tyler Naquin's triple past diving Carrera in right.
Davis has played in nine games during The Streak, going 13-for-32 (.406) with three RBI, eight runs, four doubles, one homer and four steals.
Kip, Kip, hooray: Tribe second baseman Jason Kipnis went 2-for-3 with one homer and one walk.
With one out in the third, Kipnis' blast off Dickey's first-pitch "fastball'' of 81 mph gave the Tribe a 2-0 lead.
Kipnis has hit safely in all 12 games he has played during The Streak, going 14-for-48 (.292) with 12 RBI, six runs, two doubles, two triples, three homers, three walks and two steals.
Impressive: The Indians are 36-7 when scoring first.