Indians Confidential

When Ben Francisco sees Andy Sonnanstine on the mound, drool has to start coming out of his mouth. How else can you explain Francisco’s unreal success against Sonnanstine, which continued on Wednesday night at Progressive Field in the Indians third straight win over the Rays – 12-7. Francisco belted his 5th homer of the season off of the Rays starter in the 2nd inning, and now is 8-for-9 lifetime with 5 HR and 12 RBI against him.

Francisco’s homer was a three-run shot, and it jump started the Indians offense after called up starter Zach Jackson waited out a 1 hour 55 minute rain dealy with the rest of the team only to allow a five-spot to the Rays in the first inning to give Tampa Bay some early confidence.

It was not to be for Tampa Bay, who have now fallen 16 straight times to the Indians at Progressive Field. The Tribe offense has been finally showing the type of potential everyone thought they would, as against four Rays pitchers they put up 12 runs on 14 hits, five of which were extra base hits.

Shin-Soo Choo hit a two-run homer as well for the Indians to take their 8-7 lead and extend it to the eventual final of 12-7. For Choo, it was his 6th homer of the season. Jackson couldn’t stick around long enough to get the win, as he left after four innings, allowing 6 earned runs, 7 overall, on 8 hits with four walks and four strikeouts.

Righty Greg Aquino pitched two scoreless innings to notch his first win since June of 2006 at Pittsburgh when he was a reliever for the D-Backs. Another new name from the pen, Luis Vizcaino, pitched a scoreless 7th, 8th and 9th innings to pick up his first save in almost 5 years (September 24th with the Brewers in Arizona).

It’s a three-game winning streak now for the Indians, their longest win streak of the season. The win streak at home vs Tampa Bay dates back to 2005, and is the longest win streak at home over one team since they won 27 straight vs the St.Louis Browns from 1952 to 1954.

It’s a super quick turnaround for the Tribe, as they will wrap up the series vs the Rays looking for 4 straight and 7 of their last 9 at 12:05. The team now sits at 20-28, 7.5 back of the Tigers in the AL Central.