The Cleveland Indians put together one of the greatest examples possible of a team win Monday night.
Starting pitcher Trevor Bauer’s bloody finger caused him to come out in the first inning, and the Indians used seven pitchers to again stifle the Toronto Blue Jays in a 4-2 win in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series.
Cleveland leads the series 3-0 and can clinch its first World Series appearance since 1997 with a win Tuesday.
Mike Napoli was the offensive star for the Indians, either driving in or scoring three of their four runs. He doubled home Carlos Santana in the first inning, hit a solo home run in the fourth and scored on Jose Ramirez’s single in a two-run sixth that broke a 2-2 tie. Cleveland took the lead for good that inning on a solo home by Jason Kipnis.
Bauer, who sliced open his right pinky last week while working on a drone, began to bleed profusely against the fourth batter in the bottom of the first and had to leave after two-thirds of an inning. He was followed by six relievers—the last being Andrew Miller, who struck out three over the final 1 1/3 innings to earn the save. Bryan Shaw picked up the win.
Toronto got a solo homer from Michael Saunders in the second and an RBI groundout from Ryan Goins in the sixth after Ezequiel Carrera tripled. The Blue Jays have scored only three runs in the series.
Scroll down for all of our updates, analysis, statistics, photos, tweets and anything else worth noting from the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
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