Jose Ramirez, Edwin Encarnacion and Yan Gomes belted homers to back starter Josh Tomlin’s strong outing as the Indians avoided the sweep with an 11-2 win over the Padres on Thursday night at Progressive Field.
After scoring just two runs total in the first two games of the set, combining to go 4-for-25 with runners in scoring position, the Tribe’s offense finally broke through in the finale. Ramirez and Lonnie Chisenhall each finished with three RBIs, while Encarnacion drove in two runs and tied a career high with four hits as he finished a triple shy of the cycle. Michael Brantley added an RBI triple and Bradley Zimmer picked up an RBI on a sacrifice fly.
“We had so many hits from the middle of our lineup,” Indians bench coach Brad Mills said. “You look at Brantley, Edwin, Josey and Chiz as well. The middle of that order, man, really swung the bats well. The guys at the bottom were getting on. … It was nice to kind of get everybody kind of contributing and putting it together.”
Tomlin retired the first 12 batters he faced before Hunter Renfroe led off the fifth with a double. In all, Tomlin went seven-plus innings, and allowed two runs on four hits with six strikeouts and no walks to pick up his fifth win of the season.
“It’s huge for me being a guy who isn’t very powerful, so I have to control the count as much as I can,” Tomlin said. “Obviously, there’s certain situations where you don’t want to control the count, you want to pitch around guys. But for me, controlling the count and following [Gomes’] glove is huge. We were able to do that tonight, I was able to command the ball, and fortunately enough, I was able to go deep into the game and help us win the game.”
Padres rookie starter Dinelson Lamet was handed his third loss after allowing six runs (five earned) on six hits in four-plus innings. He walked four and struck out five on 86 pitches.
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