The Cleveland Indians were in action Thursday afternoon and anyone who forgot missed a nearly historic outing from Shane Bieber.
The history here was the fact he had a no-hitter through six innings.
Fans were trying to avoid the jinx as Bieber continued to mow down the Detroit Tigers lineup.
There have been so many no-hitters already this season it seemed like the Indians were finally due for one.
Alas, Jonathan Schoop hit a home run in the seventh and Bieber departed following the inning with a 4-1 lead.
This may have been for the best as he left at 103 pitches.
This was just your average, everyday 12-strikeout game with only one hit allowed.
The performance was also good enough for Terry Francona to make some history as well.
Congratulations to Tito on his 700th win as our Manager! 🤗#OurCLE pic.twitter.com/KIj5Kb9xF4
— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) May 27, 2021
The Manager’s Record-Setting Day
Francona has now won a whopping 700 games as the Indians manager.
That puts him third all-time in team history.
Mike Hargrove is second at 721 and Lou Boudreau is first at 728.
Francona was an absolute home run of a hire after several years spent with Manny Acta as manager.
Indians fans do not even want to think about that awful era of Cleveland baseball.
Francona has won two American League Manager of the Year Awards in Cleveland and as we all know, he nearly led the franchise to the mountaintop.
The main thing with Francona is consistency.
The front office trades Francisco Lindor away and at no time did the actual clubhouse waver.
Well, at least not to the public eye.
It would have been easy to give up on the Indians if anyone else was on the bench as manager.
Now the attention turns to just how high his win total can climb before he ultimately decides to call it a career.
A Milestone From The Ace
We already noted how Bieber nearly made history with a no-hitter.
It turns out he did reach both a career and a season milestone in the win as well.
A series-clinching, milestone-filled victory. 🏅
Terry Francona won his 700th game as @Indians manager, while @ShaneBieber19 surpassed 600 strikeouts for his career and became the first pitcher across MLB to reach 100 strikeouts this season.#OurCLE https://t.co/hQpy7aP6Or pic.twitter.com/eXcnndYqVM
— Bally Sports Cleveland (@BallySportsCLE) May 27, 2021
12 strikeouts for Bieber has become more of an expectation and that being true means his career total is going to climb at a rapid rate.
We are not even two months into the season and he is already at 110 on the year.
For reference, Bob Feller is first in franchise history with 2,581 strikeouts and mowed down 346 opposing batters in 1946.
That did come in 48 total appearances, though.
Bieber is on a record pace and remains a top favorite for the American League Cy Young Award.
All these milestones are great and fun to see.
The best part of all Thursday was the fact the Indians won the game to take the series in Detroit.
Keeping up that trend will make all these milestones that much sweeter.
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