Civale goes distance in Tribe's 5th straight W

Aaron Civale was one out away from securing his first career shutout, so the 25-year-old had to settle with tossing a one-run complete game in his 15th career start. Civale was lights-out through nine frames, holding the Pirates to five hits with six strikeouts in the Indians’ 6-1 victory at

Aaron Civale was one out away from securing his first career shutout, so the 25-year-old had to settle with tossing a one-run complete game in his 15th career start.

Civale was lights-out through nine frames, holding the Pirates to five hits with six strikeouts in the Indians’ 6-1 victory at PNC Park on Wednesday night. The Tribe remains undefeated (12-0) in games in which it has scored at least three runs, but thanks to Civale’s sterling night, the offense hardly had to break a sweat.

In his young career, Civale had never gone beyond 7 2/3 innings in an outing entering Wednesday night. The righty has struggled in the early innings of his starts so far this season, having posted a 6.00 ERA in the first three frames of each of his first four outings. But against the Pirates, he was as efficient as ever, throwing no more than 16 pitches in any inning.

• Box score

The 25-year-old has never lost a game in which his offense has provided him at least three runs (5-0 across seven starts). He’s gone 1-6 in eight starts where he received two or fewer runs of support.

Once again, Carlos Santana provided the deciding three-run blast — one that was most assuredly fair this time — in the sixth to extend the Tribe’s winning streak to a season-best five games. Outfielder Domingo Santana gave Civale even more breathing room in the eighth with a three-run double.