While We’re Waiting… Shin-Soo Choo, The Cleveland Spiders, and Backfield Fumbles
May 13, 2012Official Scoring: An Inside Look
May 13, 2012The Cleveland Indians have not been shut out yet this season, but last night was about as lifeless as we’ve seen the offense, as they collected just three hits and one run against a rookie lefthander and a shaky bullpen. The Red Sox took game three of the series 4-1, and the Tribe now needs to win this afternoon to salvage a split of the series.
Felix Doubront, a rookie left-hander, shut down the Tribe for six innings, allowing just five baserunners while striking out five. Doubront had a fastball in the 95 mph range that he painted on the outside corner on a couple of occasions early, and the Tribe hitters were upset at the width of the strike zone from home plate umpire Alan Porter. The one hit that Doubront gave up in the first five innings was a single by Hafner where he was thrown out at second trying to stretch it into a double.
But, overall, the Tribe stayed in the game thanks to Zach McAllister, who made a surprise start replacing the injured Josh Tomlin. Zach got hit by back-to-back RBI doubles from the heart of the Red Sox order in Pedroia and Ortiz in the third inning, allowed a sac fly in the fourth, and surrendered a sixth inning homer to Cody Ross. Other than that, however, he pitched effectively and kept the Indians in the game.
McAllister threw strikes (80 of 112), struck out eight, and did not allow a walk. Perhaps just as important was the length of his outing being seven innings, which saved a taxed bullpen that likely had just four pitchers available. McAllister, a lot like Tomlin, is never going to blow people away with his stuff, but he is a strike thrower and a competitor. In an ideal world, McAllister is not even in the rotation, but it’s good news that there are people like Zach ready to step up from Columbus in the rotation.
I didn’t fret about the Indians being unable to get after Doubront, because he exited after 109 pitches and six innings. The Indians were within three runs and three shots at the Boston bullpen, which has imploded on several occasions this season and nearly did so on Friday night. Instead, Andrew Miller, Vicente Padilla, and Alfredo Aceves combined to get the last nine outs without allowing as much as a single baserunner. The Indians only saw 31 pitches in those three innings, and that impatience at the plate is uncharacteristic of what has made them successful.
Of the three hits that the Indians had, there was an infield hit by Jason Kipnis, which scored the lone run in the sixth, and a bloop double that went over the right fielder’s head when he dove by Marson, and Pronk’s grounder down the line. What I’m getting at is there was not much solid contact to be had from the Indians in this game. It’s hard to win a game like that.
The Tribe looks for that split this afternoon with Justin Masterson taking on the hard-throwing righty Daniel Bard at 1:35 PM.
(Photo: Michael Dwyer/AP)
2 Comments
The Indians do have pretty good starting pitcher depth when Gomez and McAllister go into the 7th inning despite not having a dominating outing. McAllister did strike out 8 Boston hitters though and kept us around.
The Indians offense never showed up. McAllister deserved better.