CLEVELAND: Indians catcher Yan Gomes appeared in the first game of his first rehab assignment with the RubberDucks on Friday night, earning a positive report from the training staff as he works his way back from a separated shoulder.
Gomes went 2-for-3 while acting as the designated hitter. Between innings, he went down to the cage and simulated some catching activities.
Gomes was transferred to the 60-day disabled list to make room on the 40-man roster for relief pitcher Perci Garner. That pushed his earliest possible activation date to Sept. 16. It takes away any notion of Gomes rushing back, as he still has roughly a two-week window before he can return. He needed that time anyway.
“He wasn’t going to be ready before that,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “Believe me, if I think if anybody thought he was going to be, we probably would have done something different. … I think probably some of the reason was [we] don’t need him to do something too fast and hurt himself. He’s going as fast as he can. He’s done a great job with this.”
Gomes worked out in Cleveland on Saturday and is slated to again be the DH for the RubberDucks on Sunday. The Indians will make a determination on his plan moving forward after that.
AL honor
Ace Corey Kluber was named the American League’s Pitcher of the Month for August, the second time in his career he’s earned that honor.
Kluber went 5-0 with a 2.43 ERA and 44 strikeouts in 40⅔ innings in August. He was top five in the AL in all three categories.
The last time Kluber won AL Pitcher of the Month was in September of 2014, when he went on to win the AL Cy Young Award as well.
Film study
Coco Crisp is in an Indians uniform for the first time since 2005. It also means when looking at film from his Cleveland days, Crisp is seeing his 2005 swing. He liked viewing it again.
That year, Crisp hit .300 with a .345 on-base percentage — both career highs — with 16 home runs, 42 doubles, 69 RBI and 15 stolen bases. He’s now comparing his current swing to his swing from 2005, seeing if there’s an adjustment to be made at 36 years old.
“The good thing about here is that they have some of my at-bats from back in 2005, when I was rolling,” Crisp said. “So I was able to come in here and look at those and compare it to my batting stance and the way that things were then versus how things have transpired in my batting stance since my neck injury. … That was exciting, to see my younger self rolling on some video tape and to try to implement some of that to now.”
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at www.ohio.com/indians. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/RyanLewisABJ and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RyanLewisABJ.