CLEVELAND -- It would be an exaggeration to refer to Progressive Field as
\n\n“I like it, I like the park,” Donaldson said. “I think it sets up pretty well for me. \\[Saturday\\] I didn’t see the ball great, but today I was able to see the ball well.”\n\nThe 17th multihomer game of Donaldson’s career -- and his first since Sept. 26, 2017, when he homered twice as a member of the Blue Jays off Red Sox ace Chris Sale -- began with one out in the first, when he smacked Bieber’s 1-0 slider 409 feet to center field for a solo shot.
\n\n \n\nThe slider is Bieber’s best pitch, and it’s also a pitch that the Indians’ staff, at large, tried to use to neutralize Donaldson in this series.\n\n“They probably threw me about 45 sliders in the \\[Saturday\\] doubleheader,” Donaldson joked. “After he started me off slider and slider again, I thought, ‘All right, it’s probably going to be a slider buffet again.’ I was able to put a good swing on a slider in the first at-bat.”\n\nIn the second inning, with two on and one out, he did his damage on a 1-2 four-seamer elevated above the zone. Donaldson turned on the pitch and belted it 398 feet into the left-field bleachers to put the Braves up, 5-0. He playfully stuck his tongue out at his Braves mates in the dugout as he began his trek around the basepaths.\n\nThe homers doubled Donaldson’s season total and continued a stretch in which he has hits in 10 of his last 13 games, with nine extra-base hits along the way.\n\n“He’s one of the scariest hitters when he gets going in a game,” Indians manager Terry Francona said of Donaldson. “I’m sure if you’re sitting on their side, you get excited for them.\"
Bieber was gone before the end of the Braves’ three-run third, and the runs kept coming against the Indians’ bullpen to make it a total rout, with more than enough support for brilliant starter