CLEVELAND — Ubaldo Jimenez introduced himself to the hometown fans Wednesday night at Progressive Field, but rookie second baseman Jason Kipnis was the life of the party.
Jimenez offered up a quality outing in his first start at home since being acquired in a trade with the Rockies and the Kipnis-led Cleveland offense backed it up with gusto, leading the Indians to a 10-3 victory over Detroit.
The win trimmed Cleveland’s deficit to two games behind the first-place Tigers, with the Indians going for the sweep tonight against Detroit ace Justin Verlander.
Every player in the Indians lineup got at least one hit, but Kipnis was the main character in a personal fairy tale, going 5-for-5, while adding a home run, a double, three RBIs and four runs in his 16th big league game.
The hit, RBI and run counts were all career highs for Kipnis, who is the sixth Cleveland player to collect five hits and four runs in a game, and the first rookie to accomplish the feat since Jim Fridley, who had six hits and four runs in a game in 1946.
“It was a little big infectious tonight. Everybody was putting together good swings,” said Kipnis, who was joined by Kosuke Fukudome, Travis Hafner, Carlos Santana and Lonnie Chisenhall with multihit games. “It was a fun night and it was a good night to have.”
Kipnis struggled at the start of his major league debut season, but since assuming the fulltime role at second base after the trade of Orlando Cabrera, he has gotten more comfortable.
“When I got up here, I was kind of struggling with my swing and kind of trying to force the issue,” said Kipnis, who raised his average to .295 with six homers and 11 RBIs. “Now, I’m just staying within myself.”
“It’s a small sample but we’ve liked this kid since spring training,” Indians manager Manny Acta said. “He’s a dirt bag. A dirt bag is one of those guys that runs through a wall to win the game and is always dirty, just doing whatever it takes to win the game.
“We feel like we’ve found our own (Boston’s Dustin) Pedroia and (Philadelphia’s Chase) Utley.”
The Indians scored four times within the first two innings off Tigers starter Rick Porcello — two on Kipnis’ homer over the right-field wall. That was enough for Jimenez.
Shaking off a rough outing in his Cleveland debut at Texas, the right-hander cruised for much of the night, allowing all three of his runs in the fourth inning. It could have been a shutout for Jimenez, who surrendered six hits and struck out six, had Santana not dropped a throw that would have recorded the final out in the fourth.
“It was an outstanding pitching performance from Ublado,” Acta said. “He gave us exactly what we needed. This guy’s got five pitches and he knows how to use them.
“The fact that he could do that against a lineup like that shows us that he’s going to be able to help us every fifth day.”
With fastball command that wasn’t present against the Rangers, Jimenez allowed just one hit after the fourth inning, racking up half of his strikeouts to the delight of a raucous contingent of Indians fans.
“It was special, my first start here,” Jimenez said. “The fans were great. Right now, I feel great. I was able to go out there and do my job.”
The Indians answered Detroit’s three-run fourth with four of their own in the bottom of the inning, Kipnis again chipping in with an RBI single.
The only negative aspect of the win was that All-Star shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera departed prematurely after being his on the foot by a pitch in the second inning. Cabrera remained in game until being removed to start the seventh.
“We took him out as a precaution,” Acta said. “He was pretty sore after he got hit.”
Acta said Cabrera was examined by doctors and that x-rays were deemed unnecessary.
Nothing could crash the party at Progressive Field, where they were all Kipnisses.
Contact Chris Assenheimer at 329-7136 or cassenheimer@chroniclet.com. Fan him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.
