Kipnis homers twice, Indians rally late in victory

CLEVELAND -- There’s been a lot of focus on an aging Jason Kipnis as the Indians second baseman enters the final year of his contract with the Tribe. But the 32-year-old has recently been proving just how much his bat is needed in this Cleveland lineup.

After going 99 consecutive at-bats without a home run, Kipnis launched his first long ball since Sept. 28 in the first inning of the Tribe’s 14-7 victory over the Orioles on Thursday night at Progressive Field. The Indians also scored their highest number of runs since the date of Kipnis’ last homer in 2018, when they scored 16 against the Royals.

• Box score

“Well getting the first one, regardless if it’s the first game or in mid-May, I think it’s nice to always get that first one and stop looking at a zero,” Kipnis said. “I mean I’m not trying to hit them. I don’t care about that number anymore. I think that definitely calms you down though and knows that you’re in a good feeling, so keep going.”

Kipnis was just heating up.

Three innings later, the second baseman recorded his first multi-homer game since May 14, 2017 on a three-run blast to right field, giving him four RBIs on the night and putting the Tribe ahead, 6-5. Over his last five games Kipnis is hitting .304 with a 1.012 OPS.

“I think we all know I’m never too far off,” Kipnis said. “Sometimes if you’re not getting the results or seeing the results out of me, you know that this is a slight adjustment of the barrel that’s keeping me from taking off sometimes. But I think I’ve been going in the right direction leading up to games like this usually. So there’s usually signs that lets me know that we’re going in the right direction, I guess. That I’ve been working on the right things.”

Two-RBI fielder’s choice?
In the seventh, Kipnis knocked in two more runs to record a career-high six-RBI night, but it came in strange fashion. With bases loaded, he served a ground ball to Orioles second baseman Hanser Alberto, but Francisco Lindor -- who was on first -- was able to backpedal and avoid a tag long enough for Kipnis to reach first safely and for Jordan Luplow and Leonys Martin to score from third and second.

“[Lindor] helped me, absolutely,” Kipnis said. “His athleticism kept me in the play and the awareness of the guys, [third-base coach Mike] Sarbaugh and Leo, whoever was running at third, to keep going and get two runs out of a play like that, a ball that never left the infield, I think is a heads-up play all around.”

The scoring ended up being a fielder’s choice with two RBIs.

“I actually was very curious how they were going to score that,” Kipnis said. “I even argued for a second it should be a hit. Like a fielder’s choice, I was like, ‘He threw to first. He chose to go after me and I was safe,” so I could rationalize it in any way, but I think they got it right.”

Kipnis’ two homers and six RBIs played a large role in the Indians setting a new season high with 14 runs. According to StatsCentre, he also passed Joe Gordon and Roberto Alomar for the most career four-plus RBI games as an Indians’ second baseman (10).

Bullpen remains dominant
A five-run seventh inning helped give the Tribe’s bullpen a little breathing room after an early departure by starter Trevor Bauer, who allowed seven runs on five hits through five frames. But an extra inning or two of work is nothing the ‘pen can’t handle. After its four scoreless innings Thursday, Indians relievers have lowered their combined ERA to 2.96 on the year.

“Yeah, they did [pitch well],” Indians manager Terry Francona said of his bullpen. “[Tyler Olson] got one of the two [batters he faced], but again, it was a single for [Chris] Davis. It’s not a home run. Then he got the switch-hitter, so the guys did well. And then Oliver [Perez] threw the ball really well.”

Despite recording his 1,000th career strikeout, Bauer had a rough night, matching his career-high in earned runs and season-low in innings pitched. In each of his last two home starts, he’s allowed seven runs through five frames.

“I've got to be ahead of the count, putting guys on the defensive instead of behind and working my way back in, letting guys feel comfortable in the box,” Bauer said. “That starts with throwing quality pitches on 0-0 counts and working ahead. I've just got to be better at that.”

Team meeting
Although Francona isn’t one to hold a lot of team meetings, Kipnis said after the game that the group came together prior to the opener against the Orioles with the skipper delivering a message that seemed to have sunk in with his players quickly.

“He just said, ‘Hey, you might not be able to control always the results, but let’s control our hustle. Let’s control the little things,’ and I thought it paid dividends real fast for us today,” Kipnis said.

The Indians overcame their biggest deficit -- down by four runs -- of the season to take home the seven-run win.

“As a group, I thought we played with some personality tonight,” Francona said. “We got down early and instead of feeling sorry for ourselves, they kept fighting and good things happened. We ran the bases really well, we were aggressive, swing at strikes. That’s a hard game to win when you’re down 5-1 so early.”