CLEVELAND – The Indians’ fourth hitter cleaned things up Tuesday night at Progressive Field and it wasn’t DH Travis Hafner.
Hafner, who is making $11.5 million this season, was replaced in the batting order by a guy signed to a minor league contract in Shelley Duncan. Duncan responded by hitting two home runs and driving in all of Cleveland’s runs in a 4-3 victory over the Angels.
“What we saw today was the reason we brought Shelley Duncan aboard,” said Indians manager Manny Acta, “not just the two home runs but his ability to hit left-handed pitching. He’s an aggressive guy. At least you know he’s going to take his hacks.
“He pretty much won the game for us offensively.”
From his spot in left field, Duncan also had a hand in the defensive play of the night that prevented the tying run from scoring in the sixth inning.
With the Indians up 2-1, Hideki Matsui doubled to left-center with Torii Hunter trying to score from first base.
Duncan relayed to shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, who made a strong throw to the plate. Catcher Lou Marson gathered the ball on the short hop and held on when Hunter plowed him over to record the final out of the inning.
“It was pretty fun watching that play all the way from left-center,” said Duncan, who has one fewer homer (10) than Hafner in 160 fewer at-bats. “As fast as it happened, it was pretty clean. I was more fired up about that than anything else that happened tonight.”
The Indians, who have struggled in the field for much of the season, had a positive night in the department.
“The defense was huge, especially the play at the plate by Lou Marson,” Acta said. “That was key.”
The defensive gem helped preserve the win for rookie right-hander Josh Tomlin, who continued on his surprisingly consistent trek, allowing three runs on seven hits over 6 2/3 innings.
Tomlin (4-3, 4.17 ERA) allowed a run in the first on Hunter’s double, but starting with the final two outs of the opening inning, he retired 16 of the next 17 hitters he faced.
Tomlin has pitched at least five innings in each of his first nine career big league starts since being promoted from Triple-A Columbus. He is just one of three pitchers in Indians history to last at least five innings in his first nine starts, joining Steve Dunning (12 games in 1950) and Herb Score (10 games in 1955).
“I haven’t really surprised myself,” Tomlin said. “I just try to go out and be the same pitcher every time and control both sides of the plate. That’s consistency for me.
“I’m not trying to do too much, just throw four pitches for strikes and let them put the ball in play.”
Closer Chris Perez worked a tense ninth inning, retiring the first batter he faced before allowing the next two to reach on a walk and a single. The right-hander got a big strikeout on Peter Bourjos before getting Albert Callaspo to fly out to left to earn his 20th save of the season.
“Chris Perez got into a little jam,” Acta said. “But when you have the stuff that he has, you can get out of it sometimes with a strikeout. He continues to be fantastic for us at the back end.”
Perez converted his seventh straight save opportunity and has saved 16 of his last 17 chances.
Center fielder Michael Brantley extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a leadoff single in the first inning. It is the longest streak of the season by a Cleveland player and it matched the longest by an Indians rookie since Cory Snyder in 1986.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com.
