Kluber's dominant performance a perfect end to Cy Young-worthy season

CLEVELAND -- It is appropriate that Corey Kluber's final regular-season start and case to show that he should be the American League Cy Young Award winner was a microcosm of most of his games -- dominating stuff without a lot of run support.

Kluber went eight innings on Friday night at Progressive Field and made a first-inning home run by Jose Ramirez stand as the Indians beat Tampa Bay 1-0. The right-hander, who allowed five hits with two walks and 11 strikeouts, finishes the year at 18-9 with a 2.44 ERA and 269 strikeouts. Kluber joins Bob Feller as the only pitchers in franchise history to record a season of at least 18 wins and 265 strikeouts while having an ERA of 2.50 or lower.

Despite the win, the Indians saw their chances of making a late postseason run extinguished after Oakland's 6-2 win over Texas.

"He looked like he was on a mission. Saying that, he's looked like that since his second game of the year," manager Terry Francona said of Kluber. "That was Kluber at his best but he's done it so many times and done it so consistently."

Kluber's resume for the Cy Young includes the following:

Tied for the league lead in wins. The 18 are the most by an Indians' right-hander since Roberto Hernandez was 19-8 in 2007.

Won his last five starts and allowed just five earned runs over his last 40 1/3 innings. He is the first Indians pitcher to register at least 10 strikeouts in each of his final three starts to conclude a season.

The 269 strikeouts lead the Majors and are the sixth most in a season in franchise history. Detroit's David Price trails by six but is scheduled to start on Sunday against Minnesota.

Kluber has 11 outings of at least 10 strikeouts, which is the most by a Tribe starter since Herb Score had 11 in 1956.

Friday marked his seventh mega quality start, which is eight or more innings pitched and allowing an earned run or fewer. Seattle's Felix Hernandez also has seven.

"That would be awesome. All of us in here thinks he deserves it but it isn't up to us," said Cody Allen about Kluber's Cy Young chances. "He's put in a pretty good body of work that is deserving. He's an elite talent and can go up and match against anyone."

When asked though about his chances of becoming the fourth Indians pitcher to win a Cy Young Award, Kluber as usual didn't express much.

"It's not my call. It'd be a great accomplishment, but the most important thing right now is that the team won," he said.

Besides the dearth of offense, Kluber displayed what he has the entire season. He struck out the side in the first and six of the first nine. Tampa Bay then made adjustments and had 10 batters swing at the first or second pitch the last five innings, but only two resulted in hits. In the fourth, Kluber faced four batters on six pitches.

There were only two times when Kluber faced traffic. In the fifth, Kevin Kiermaier hit a two-out triple but was stranded when Ryan Hanigan fouled out to first. Even that almost went awry as Carlos Santana and Mike Aviles collided in foul territory but Santana held on.

"Early on, it was the fastball. I think that set up more of the offspeed stuff late. Overall, I think the big thing was mixing up speeds on them," Kluber said. "They were really aggressive at certain points in the game, so we were kind of taking advantage of that. We got some easy outs, first pitches, things like that, by just mixing up speeds."

In the seventh, the Rays had runners on first and second but Hanigan struck out looking. That was Kluber's 10th of the game and also the Indians' 1,429th of the season, which gave them the Major League single-season record, surpassing the mark set by Detroit last year.

Said Kluber of the record: "I think it says we've got good pitchers on our staff with good stuff. I guess that record probably speaks volumes for what kind of stuff we have as a staff. There are times throughout the year when we probably didn't pitch up to our capabilities, but I think that's a reflection of what we're capable of when we do."

Many thought that Kluber might come out for the ninth, but Francona said he checked with Kluber and thought he had gone as far as he could. Allen retired the Rays in order for his 24th save.

Francona said he wouldn't talk about what the Indians would do without nothing to play for until it was official. It will be interesting to see what the lineups will be for the weekend.

Michael Brantley saw his 15-game hitting streak end but remains one hit away from 200 for the season.