Mike Aviles lifted a solo home run in the top of the 10^th and the Cleveland Indians wrapped up a four game sweep on the road against the Tampa Bay Rays with a 5-4 win. Terry Francona called a team meeting, something he's on the record saying he's not a big fan of because too many of them can dilute their power, before the series started and his team responded by playing much better baseball. The Indians handed the Rays their fifth straight loss with the win on getaway day.

Cory Kluber went 8 innings but didn't factor in the decision. His 3-9 record is in no way indicative of his performance this year. Kluber struck out 14 while allowing 4 runs, 3 earned, on 7 hits and one walk. Reliever Bryan Shaw got the victory by working a perfect 9^th, and Cody Allen earned save number 15 by striking out the side in order in the 10^th.

The Indians overcame an early 2-0 deficit as Michael Brantley's sac fly in the 4^th halved the Rays lead, then Jason Kipnis, Francisco Lindor, and Brantley each came up with run-scoring singles in the 5^th to boost the Tribe to a 4-2 advantage. The lead wouldn't last long, evaporating in the 6^th as the Rays plated two and knotted the game at 4-4.

Mike Aviles wasted no time putting the Tribe on top in the extra frame, taking Xavier Cedeno deep on the first pitch of the inning for his 4^th round-tripper of the season.

The Indians will open a Fourth of July Weekend series with the Pirates at PNC Park this evening. Catch the action from the Indians Radio Network on WJAW FM 100.9 at 6:30pm tonight.

 

Perhaps while the Indians are in Pittsburgh this weekend the Pirates will give them their recipe for beating the Tigers. While the Tribe is unsurprisingly struggling against their divisional foes yet again, the Pirates wrapped up a sweep of the Tigers yesterday with an 8-4 win.

Francisco Liriano improved to 5-6 by tossing 7 shutout innings, allowing 5 hits and 3 walks to go with 5 strikeouts. The Pirates would use four relievers after Liriano exited, and Mark Melancon picked up save number 25 by recording the final out of the game to end a Tigers' threat.

Francisco Cervelli homered in the 4^th to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead and runs in the 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th would grow that lead to 4-0 before J.D. Martinez hit a 3-run blast off Antonio Bastardo to close the gap to 4-3 in the 8^th. Andrew McCutchen doubled in a run in the top of the 9^th followed by Neil Walker doubling in two more and the Pirates jumped out to an 8-3 lead heading into the bottom of the inning.

The Pirates climbed to within 6 games of the first-place Cardinals in the NL Central and now sit 2.5 games in front of the Cubs for the first wildcard spot in the NL.

Hear the Pirates Radio Network bring you the opener of the Indians-Pirates series at PNC Park at 6:40pm this evening on WJAW AM 630.

 

 

The Reds will welcome the Brewers to Great American Ballpark for a weekend series after a day off on Thursday. Michael Lorenzen (3-2) will get the start for the Reds and will be opposed by Mike Fiers (3-7) for the Milwaukee.

Hear the game tonight on AM 1490 WMOA at 6:40pm.

 

A day after it was reported by multiple sources that Cavaliers F/C Tristan Thompson had agreed to a 5-year/$80 million dollar contract with the Cavaliers, reports emerged that the team and Thompson haven't quite closed the deal yet.

ESPN's Brian Windhorst reported yesterday there is still a small gap between the two sides. Expectations remain that a deal will get done, and with Tristan Thompson being a restricted free-agent, not to mention a favorite of LeBron James who shares the same agent as the Canadian big-man, it's a near lock Tristan's wearing wine-and-gold for the foreseeable future.

It's a possibility, and it makes total sense, that the announcement of Warriors F Draymond Green's 5-year/$85 million dollar deal revived negotiations in Thompson's deal. Thompson soundly outplayed Green through most of the finals and it wouldn't be surprising if Thompson's deal ends up being essentially a carbon copy of Green's.

Also in Cavaliers news, the team announced yesterday the center Timofey Mozgov underwent successful arthroscopic knee surgery Wednesday at the Cleveland Clinic. Mozgov, who will turn 29 in just a couple of weekends (note: Hey Timo, our birthdays are three days apart! Let's celebraaaaaaate!) had his team option picked up by the Cavaliers last week. He'll be down for six-weeks of recovery.

I can only assume he'll be spending at least part of that time at the Brew Garden, recovering with his favorite daytime bartender at his side, and hopefully shooting more local commercials with his jersey on backwards.