In front of a sellout crowd at Jacobs Field, the New York Yankees were pounded by the Cleaveland Indians in game two of the four-game set. Taking the ball for New York tonight was rookie Chad Green, who was looking to build off of a phenomenal outing in San Diego, his best start and his very young three game MLB career. On the mound for Cleveland tonight was the 2014 Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber. Kluber has been up-and-down this season, going 8-8 with a 3.49 ERA. But the Cleveland ace wouldn't need to return to his Cy Young form in this game as his offense exploded for 10 runs in their game two route of the Yankees.
More trouble for the rookie came in the bottom of the third as Green again walked Francisco Lindor. The next batter Mike Napoli smoked a mammoth two-run shot to left that made it a 6-0 Indians lead. In the bottom of the fifth, Jason Kipnis hit a one out single that chased Green from the ballgame. Rookie left-hander Richard Bleier came on in relief and immediately served up a Francisco Lindor towering shot to centerfield that missed leaving the ballpark by inches, scoring Kipnis and extending the Indians lead to seven. Green's final line was really ugly, departing after only 4.1 innings of work, allowing seven runs on five hits, four of them homers, with two walks and six strikeouts.
Bleier continued to struggle, getting out of the fifth but not before giving up an RBI single to Mike Napoli that scored Lindor and made it a two-slam lead for Cleveland. In the bottom of the sixth, Bleier led off the frame by serving up a double to Juan Uribe. With one out, Yan Gomes drove in Uribe on a ground out to first, enlarging the deficit to nine. Brian McCann responded when he put the first Yankee run on the board in the top of the seventh inning with a solo shot to right, 9-1.
The Indians homerun charade continued in the bottom of the seventh as Jason Kipnis hit his second homerun of the game, another long solo shot off of Anthony Swarzak that put the lead back to nine for Cleveland.
Corey Kluber was utterly dominant tonight, although you don't have to have your great stuff when your team puts up a 10 spot on the opposition. The former Cy Young Award winner pitched eight innings of one run ball, allowing five hits with no walks and eight strikeouts. Joseph Colon came on in the ninth, serving up back to back doubles to Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann with the latter scoring Beltran, which led to a final score of 10-2.
Tomorrow's contest won't be much easier as the Yankees face Cleveland's best starting pitcher of the season, Danny Salazar. The game can be seen on FS1 with first pitch scheduled for 4:10 PM/ET