Corey Kluber took out his frustrations on the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Cleveland Indians came into Kluber’s eighth start 0-7 on the year with him on the mound. The reigning AL Cy Young Award-winner picked up his first win, and 18 strikeouts, to improve to 1-5 on Wednesday night.
Kluber finished the eighth inning with a chance to surpass Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood as the all-time MLB strikeout king for a single, nine-inning game. But with Kluber’s pitch count at 113 and Terry Francona–tossed in the fourth inning–unable to argue for him to go for history rather than the showers, Cleveland pulled him.
Kluber owned a no-hitter for 6 2/3 innings. Jhonny Peralta broke it up with a seventh-inning single to center. Other than Matt Holliday, forced to leave the game an inning after taking a fastball to the elbow in the first, Peralta was the sole Cardinal to reach base.
RBI singles by Brandon Moss and David Murphy in the first would be the only runs Kluber would get and the only ones Kluber would need in the 2-0 victory.
Cody Allen pitched a perfect ninth to pick up the save.
The performance puts Kluber alongside Luis Tiant and Bob Feller for the most strikeouts in a game by an Indians pitcher. Just nine pitchers have struck out more than 18 batters in a nine-inning game.
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