CLEVELAND â Jason Kipnis season is done as manager Terry Francona said the Indians second baseman will not play in the final two games.
Kipnis suffered a right hamstring injury on Sept. 18, He had appeared in four of the past seven games but only started in two. He was 0 for 3 in Friday's 1-0 win over Tampa Bay. Francona said that Kipnis would spend time with the trainers the next two days to get him ready for the offseason.
It has been a frustrating year for Kipnis. A year after making the AL All-Star team, Kipnis batted .240, which is 44 points lower than last season. His home run and RBI numbers were also down significantly.
Kipnis, who signed a six year, $52.5 million extension during the offseason, missed a month due to a strained oblique, which also affected his production for most of the year.
"This is probably the first year where he has really struggled. I don't think he liked it very much and I bet he comes back next year with a vengeance," Francona said.
PITCHING CHANGE: T.J. House (4-3, 3.43) will get the call for the season finale on Sunday instead of Danny Salazar. In his past four starts, the left-hander is 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA.
In making the switch, Francona said that he felt like Salazar (6-8, 4.25) had logged enough innings this season and that House deserved one more start.
NEW FOCUS: There is some disappointment with the Indians being officially knocked out of postseason contention Friday night, but Francona said the disappointment was temporary with the focus now turned to next season.
"I think you kind of switch gears quickly. You show up today and we're talking about players next year without trying to skip a beat," Francona said. "Enough stuff went wrong this year where winning was a challenge and because of our guys commitment to grinding we held in there."
MORE ON KLUBER: According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Corey Kluber is the fourth pitcher in the modern era to earn a win in each of his last five appearances of a season, while racking up at least 50 strikeouts over that span.
The most recent to do so was Randy Johnson with the 1998 Astros (5-0, 1.41 ERA, 55 K's). The others were Nolan Ryan for the 1973 Angels (5-0, 2.49 ERA, 57 K's) and Herb Score for the 1956 Indians (5-0, 1.60 ERA, 52 K's).
When Kluber struck out the side in the first it marked the 15th time this season in which he had three strikeouts in an inning, which is tied with the White Sox Chris Sale. The last Indians pitcher to do that was Sam McDowell in 1969.
