WWW.RECORDPUB.COM Record-Courier Thursday, September 1, 2016 B3

al standings

nl standings

East Division W L Pct GBToronto 75 57 .568 —Boston 74 59 .556 11⁄2Baltimore 72 60 .545 3New York 68 63 .519 61⁄2Tampa Bay 56 76 .424 19

CEntraL Division W L Pct GBCLEvELanD 76 56 .576 —Detroit 72 61 .541 41⁄2Kansas City 69 63 .523 7Chicago 63 69 .477 13Minnesota 49 84 .368 271⁄2

WEst Division W L PCt GBTexas 80 54 .597 —Houston 71 62 .534 81⁄2Seattle 68 65 .511 111⁄2Los Angeles 59 74 .444 201⁄2Oakland 57 76 .429 221⁄2

East Division W L Pct GBWashington 77 55 .583 —New York 69 64 .519 81⁄2Miami 67 66 .504 101⁄2Philadelphia 60 72 .455 17Atlanta 49 83 .371 28

CEntraL Division W L Pct GBChicago 84 47 .641 —St. Louis 70 61 .534 14Pittsburgh 67 63 .515 161⁄2Milwaukee 56 76 .424 281⁄2Cincinnati 55 77 .417 291⁄2

WEst Division W L Pct GBLos Angeles 73 59 .553 —San Francisco 72 60 .545 1Colorado 64 68 .485 9Arizona 56 77 .421 171⁄2San Diego 55 76 .420 171⁄2

Wednesday’s scoresDetroit 3, Chicago White Sox 2

Boston 8, Tampa Bay 6Texas 14, Seattle 1

Houston 4, Oakland 3L.A. Angels 3, Cincinnati 0Cleveland 8, Minnesota 4Toronto at Baltimore, LATE

N.Y. Yankees at Kansas City, LATEthursday’s Games

Chicago White Sox at Minnesota, 8:10 p.m.

Wednesday’s scoresColorado 7, L.A. Dodgers 0, 1st game

San Francisco 4, Arizona 2L.A. Angels 3, Cincinnati 0

N.Y. Mets 5, Miami 2Washington at Philadelphia, LATE

San Diego at Atlanta, LATEPittsburgh at Chicago Cubs, LATE

St. Louis at Milwaukee, LATEthursday’s Games

San Diego at Atlanta, 12:10 p.m.Miami at N.Y. Mets, 7:10 p.m.

San Francisco at Chicago Cubs, 8:05 p.m.

indians 8, twins 4Min ab r h bi CLE ab r h biDozier 2b 4 1 1 2 Ra.Dvis cf 5 1 2 0Mauer 1b 4 0 1 0 Kipnis 2b 3 1 0 1Plouffe 3b 4 0 0 0 M.Mrtnz 2b 0 0 0 0Sano dh 4 0 0 0 Lindor ss 5 1 2 0E.Rsrio lf 4 1 1 0 Napoli 1b 3 2 2 0J.Plnco ss 4 0 3 0 C.Sntna dh 4 2 2 2Kepler rf 3 1 1 1 Jose.Rm 3b 3 0 2 2Centeno c 3 0 0 0 Guyer lf 2 0 0 0Edu.Esc ph 1 0 0 0 Chsnhll ph-rf 1 0 0 1Schafer cf 3 1 1 0 A.Almnt rf-lf 3 0 1 1 R.Perez c 3 1 1 1totals 34 4 8 3 totals 32 8 12 8MinnEsota 001 000 021 — 4CLEvELanD 010 150 01x — 8DP-Minnesota 2, Cleveland 1. LOB-Minneso-ta 6, Cleveland 7. 2B-Mauer (20), J.Polanco (9), Ra.Davis (20), Jose.Ramirez (34), A.Almonte (15). HR-Dozier (32), Kepler (16), C.Santana (28), R.Perez (2). SB-Ra.Davis (34). SF-Kipnis (6), Chisenhall (3).MinnEsota iP H r Er BB soDean L,1-5 41⁄3 7 6 6 3 0Chargois 2⁄3 2 1 1 2 0O’Rourke 3 3 1 1 0 3CLEvELanD iP H r Er BB soKluber W,15-8 8 6 3 3 2 11Garner 2⁄3 2 1 1 1 1Shaw S,1-13 1⁄3 0 0 0 0 1WP-Shaw.Umpires-Home, Paul Nauert; First, Ron Kulpa; Second, Jerry Meals; Third, Chris Conroy.T-2:45. A-11,811 (38,000).

“I was actually pretty happy with him and how he’s matured so much,” Geis said. “He was able to put (the fumble) be-hind him.”

Of course, a touch-down return is rarely a one-man effort. Seth Noel played a key part, Geis said, with a block as Conner sprinted up the sideline.

Geis also credited de-fensive coordinator Ran-dy McCoy, who runs the Rovers’ punt return, for a successful night that also included a big return by Giovanni Sibbio, Root-stown’s other key return cog in Kaut’s absence.

Still, as good as Con-ner and Sibbio were, they’re no Caleb Kaut, at least not yet.

“I don’t think you can replace Kaut,” Geis said.

As a result, the duo operates under differ-ent rules than Kaut did. Geis, as a special teams coordinator and now as a head coach, has always insisted that his return-ers make one move, at the most, and then head up the field. Kaut was the exception to the rule.

“He has the best vision I’ve ever seen,” Geis said. “He’s the only kid I’ve ever told that he has no rules on kickoff returns and punt returns.”

nEW Man unDEr CEntEr for CrEstWooD

When a starting quar-terback is injured, some teams turn to their back-up quarterback. Some switch a wide receiver to quarterback.

Crestwood turned to Jake Tekavec, who didn’t play in 2015 (mono/spleen) and was plan-ning on running cross-country instead in 2016.

First, however, Teka-vec, who quarterbacked the junior varsity team his sophomore season, had to be convinced to join the team. A crew of Crestwood seniors took care of that. Tekavec was watering his dad’s garden when his class-mates approached. He said they ran up to him, “smothered” him and convinced him he had to play. “We need you,” they explained.

“I grew up with them my whole life, and when they asked me something they need, I couldn’t let them down,” Tekavec said.

Red Devils coach Pete Thompson was at the hospital with Jordan Fabry, now playing wide receiver due to his elbow injury, when he heard the news. The next day, Te-kavec played quarter-back during a 7-on-7 drill. A little more than a month later, Tekavec stood under center in

Crestwood’s victory over West Branch.

“We just threw him right in there and he’s been going ever since,” Thompson said. “He’s got a strong arm. He can make all the throws. He’s been like a sponge.”

“It’s a huge honor,” Tekavec said. “Since freshman year, I always wanted to be a starting quarterback and I actu-ally got the chance. I got

to live it up and do the best I possibly can.”

For Pete Smith, Crest-wood’s brand-new quar-terbacks coach, his job became much more dif-ficult in an instant. One second, Smith, who pre-viously coached wide re-ceivers at Revere, was coaching a veteran in Fabry who started un-der center last year and knew the offense like the back of his hand. The

next second, he was working all the time with Tekavec to prepare him for the start of the 2016 season. The good news is Tekavec had nothing else to worry about — no special teams, no de-fense. If the team was doing a defensive prac-tice, Smith and Teka-vec would work together on the side. That’s why Smith was brought in — because Thompson

couldn’t give his “full, undivided attention” to the quarterbacks as the team’s head coach.

“He’s really getting a personal tutor as a coach,” Thompson said.

“He’s a cool dude, I can always go to him for any-thing,” Tekavec said.

Fabry, or Coach Fab-ry as he was known dur-ing his injury when he became “the second quarterback coach,” ac-cording to Thompson, is expected to return under center at some point in 2016. In the meanwhile, however, he is a more-than-capable receiv-er, including 110 receiv-ing yards against West Branch. Those passes, according to Thompson, helped draw the safety out of the box, allowing for Logan Thut’s huge performance.

“Our running game sort of went wild in the second half,” Thompson said.Email: jrosenblum@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-541-9459

twitter: @JLRSports

countyFROM B1

SPECiAL TO THE RECORD-COURiERJake tekavec got the start at quarterback for Crestwood friday night at West Branch due to an injury to starter Jordan fabry and helped engineer a 39-26 win over the Warriors.

ptc cOUntY divisiOn fOOtball standingsteam Div. overallMogadore 0-0 1-0Crestwood 0-0 1-0 Rootstown 0-0 1-0Garfield 0-0 1-0Southeast 0-0 0-1Waterloo 0-0 0-1

Kluber, Indians topple spiraling twinsBy toM WitHErs | ASSOCiATED

PRESS

CLEVELAND — Corey Kluber struck out a sea-son-high 11 and notched his seventh straight win, leading the Cleveland In-dians to an 8-4 victory on Wednesday night over the Minnesota Twins, whose losing streak has reached 13 games — one shy of tying the club re-cord.

Unbeaten since July 3, Kluber (15-8) allowed three runs and six hits in eight solid innings. The right-hander is 7-0 with a 1.94 ERA in his last 10 starts.

Carlos Santana and Roberto Perez hom-ered off Pat Dean (1-5), and Jose Ramirez hit a two-run double during a five-run fifth as the AL Central-leading Indians swept the three-game series and extended the Twins’ sorry slide.

Minnesota is winless since Aug. 17, and the

Twins’ skid — the length-iest in the majors this season — is also the sec-ond-longest in team his-tory. They also lost 13 in a row in 1961 and 1982, when they dropped 14 in a row.

Brian Dozier hit his 32nd homer and Max Ke-pler connected for his 16th for the Twins, who loaded the bases with two outs in the ninth off rookie Perci Garner, making his major league debut. Bryan Shaw came on and threw a wild pitch before striking out Dozi-er for his first save.

For seven-plus innings, Kluber had little trouble against the AL’s worst team. The 2014 Cy Young winner, who followed up an 18-win season by los-ing 16 last year, struck out four of the first six

batters and carried a 7-1 lead into the eighth, when Dozier tagged him for a two-run homer.

Cleveland’s offense, al-most non-existent for nearly two weeks, broke out with 12 hits. It was only the third time in 10 games the Indians scored more than one run.

Santana gave Kluber and the Indians a 2-1 lead in the fourth with his 28th homer, a laser shot into the left-field stands. Santana’s 28 homers — only four have been right-handed — are the most in franchise his-tory by a switch-hitter.

The Indians chased Dean in the fifth, when Perez homered, San-tana hit an RBI single, Ramirez doubled home a pair and pinch-hitter Lonnie Chisenhall deliv-ered a sacrifice fly off re-liever J.T. Chargois.

Kepler’s 418-foot shot to straightaway center tied it 1-1 in the third.

It was Kepler’s 11th hit — and sixth homer — against Cleveland this season. He homered three times at Progres-sive Field on Aug. 1.

The Indians took a 1-0 lead in the second when Abraham Almon-te pulled a two-out RBI double inside the bag at third.

trainEr’s rooMTwins: OF Danny San-

tana will likely miss the remainder of the sea-son with a sprained left shoulder. Santana got hurt last weekend when he collided with team-mate Robbie Grossman in Toronto. Manager Paul Molitor said San-tana needs more than a month to recover and the team intends to shut him down rather than rush him back.

Indians: C Yan Gomes, out since July 17 with a separated right shoul-der, is expected to begin a rehab assignment in

the next week. The club made a procedural move with him, putting him on the 60-day disabled list. He’s eligible to be acti-vated on Sept. 16.

uP nExtTwins: Ervin Santana,

the subject of trade ru-mors in recent days, will open a four-game series at home against the Chi-cago White Sox.

Indians: Following an off day, the Indians will open a three-game series against the Miami Mar-lins with Carlos Carrasco facing Andrew Cashner.

TWiNS 4inDians 8friday: vs. Miami, 7:10 p.m.

UpcOMing indians scHEdUlEthursday: No game.

friday: Miami (Cash-ner 4-10) at Cleveland (Carrasco 9-7), 7:10 p.m.

saturday: Miami (Fernan-dez 13-7) at Cleveland (Bauer 9-6), 7:10 p.m. sunday: Miami (Koehler 9-10) at Cleveland (Sala-zar 11-6), 4:10 p.m.

ASSOCiATED PRESSthe indians’ rajai Davis (right) steals third base as Minnesota’s trevor Plouffe is late with the tag during the eighth inning Wednesday night in Cleveland.