Danny Salazar had a couple of tough acts to follow on Thursday, and he also had a formidable foe in Houston’s Scott Feldman.
Salazar pitched well, but the Indians couldn’t get to Feldman. However, they did get to the Houston bullpen in the 13th inning and escaped with a 2-1 win at Minute Maid Park, keeping their faint hopes alive for an American League Wild Card berth with only 10 games remaining.
“We say every day, we need to be one run better. We’re sort of taking that to an extreme, unfortunately,” said manager Terry Francona. “But we won, and when you win a game like that, it doesn’t matter how hard it was when it’s over.
“Everybody in [the clubhouse] feels good. And instead of being tired and dragging, we’re going to be tired and happy and ready to play tomorrow [at Minnesota]. It makes tomorrow’s game a lot more fun.”
After Mike Aviles’ bases-loaded sacrifice fly off Samuel Deduno scored Jose Ramirez from third base for the go-ahead run, Cody Allen pitched a scoreless 13th inning for his 22nd save. Allen struck out Dexter Fowler swinging to end the game with a runner at first base, preserving the win for Kyle Crockett (4-0).
The Indians got only four hits off Feldman through eight-plus innings.
“He had the cutter working on all the pitches,” said Michael Bourn. “He’s a good pitcher; he makes the ball move both ways.”
Feldman was pulled in the ninth after giving up a leadoff double to Bourn on a controversial play. Bourn hit a fly ball that one-hopped the wall in left-center and caromed behind a column and disappeared briefly before re-appearing at the feet of center fielder Fowler, who had his hands in the air to signal that the ball wasn’t playable. Bourn raced home with hopes of having a game-tying inside-the-park homer, but a crew review quickly overturned the call and kept Bourn at second base.
Following Bourn’s double, Ramirez was ruled safe at first base following a challenge from Francona, moving Bourn over to third base with no outs. Bourn was thrown out attempting to score on a 3-5-2 fielder’s choice on a ball hit by Michael Brantley, but Ramirez later scored from second base on Carlos Santana’s game-tying single off Chad Qualls.
After dropping the first four games of their road trip, the Indians won the final three games of the four-game series with the Astros.
“We’re not in the position to be giving games away,” said Bourn. “We’re manufacturing runs right now.”
Salazar did his part, though, striking out nine over 7 1/3 innings of one-run, five-hit ball. Jose Altuve, the AL’s leading hitter, went 0-for-3 against Salazar and 0-for-6 for the first time in his career.
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