Though winless through his first seven outings this season, expectations for Cleveland Indians right-hander Corey Kluber to return to an elite level of production coming off his Cy Young Award winning performance in 2014 remained very high. On Wednesday at least, Kluber lived up to those lofty expectations by not only nearly no-hitting baseball's best team, the St. Louis Cardinals, but by striking out a career-high 18 batters in eight innings of work. Kluber was essentially untouchable as the Cardinals tenth ranked offense managed only two baserunners against him. Matt Holliday was hit by a pitch on the elbow during the first inning and was actually forced to leave the game as a result. From there, Kluber retired the next 18 straight batters — at one point striking out 10 of 11 batters — and carried a no-hitter into the seventh. With two outs, Jhonny Peralta ended the bid with a clean single to center. With the no-hit bid gone and 113 pitches under Kluber's belt, Indians manager Terry Francona elected to remove his ace following the eighth inning rather than allow him to pursue a potential MLB record of 21 strikeouts in nine innings. Roger Clemens (twice) and Kerry...