Verlander dominates Tribe

The Tribe bats were silent (again) on Tuesday, but this time through no fault of their own. Justin Verlander was simply dominant, holding the Tribe hitless through 7 1/3.

Orlando Cabrera finally broke up the no-hitter in the 8th and Carlos Santana added another hit in the 9th, but Verlander still finished with a 12 K, 2-hit shutout.

Verlander joings three former Cy Young winners and a first-ballot Hall of Famer as the only five pitchers in the last 90 seasons to allow two or fewer hits while striking out at least 12 in a shutout against the Indians. And only Verlander and Gaylord Perry did so while walking just one batter.

It was also Verlander’s 5th career 10-strikeout game against the Tribe, tied for the 7th most in the baseball-reference era (since 1919). Roger Clemens leads the way with 11, followed by Pedro Martinez and Camilo Pascual, who later finished his career in Cleveland in 1971, with eight 10-strikeout games.

Tomlin’s 6-inning start streak ends

Things have been going downhill for Josh Tomlin for the past two weeks, but it wasn’t until Sunday that his streak of six-inning starts came to a halt.

Prior to his start against the Yankees Tomlin had gone at least six innings in each of his 12 starts – the longest streak to open a season since Greg Swindell in 1988. Over the past 50 seasons, only four different pitchers had opened the season with a streak longer than Tomlin’s.

But now Tomlin has another streak to worry about.

In each of his last three starts he’s allowed six earned runs – the Tribe’s longest streak since Cliff Lee in August, 2007.

No Indians pitcher has allowed six earned runs in four consecutive games since Wes Ferrell in 1933.

Tomlin comfortable in Cleveland

While glancing at Josh Tomlin‘s career game log I noticed that he has yet to allow more than three runs (earned or unearned) in any of his 10 starts in Jacobs Field. That seemed like an impressive streak, so I checked it out on baseball-reference.

As it turns out, that’s not only the longest streak to being a career, but also the longest streak ever at The Jake. In his last home start he broke the record previously shared by CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee.

Tomlin’s streak is also the longest by any Indian (at League Park, The Stadium or The Jake) to begin their career in the baseball-reference era (since 1919). The previous record was seven, set by Mike Garcia in 1949.

The last Tribe pitcher with a longer streak at home – to being career or otherwise – was Gaylord Perry, who had an 11-game streak that spanned the 1973 and ’74 seasons.

Tomlin’s next home start will likely come on Saturday against the Reds.

Tomlin joins Masterson at 3-0

Josh Tomlin picked up the win on Saturday, joining Justin Masterson at 3-0.

Masterson and Tomlin are the first pair of Indians starters with three wins the teams first 14 games since Rick Sutcliffe and Bert Blyleven in 1984. Pryor to ’84, you have to go back to Milt Wilcox and Gaylord Perry in 1972.

Making their hot start more impressive is the fact that they’re doing it at such a young age. Tomlin and Masterson, both 26, join CC Sabathia (2007) and Bartolo Colon (1999) as the only Tribe pitchers to win three games in the team’s first 14 games while under the age of 27. And since 1920, the only other pair to accomplish the feat was Sam McDowell and Luis Tiant in 1966.