While We’re Waiting… Don’t invite Nate Jackson to dinner with Eric Mangini
August 8, 2013Browns vs Rams: What I’m watching
August 8, 2013It was Lou Brown who said it best: Â “One day we are gonna figure out how to beat those guys.”
The last three games against the first place Detroit Tigers have been absolutely demoralizing to say the least. I don’t know what it is, but every time they have seen the Indians this season, the Motor City Kitties just seem to come through when they need to, breaking the hearts of the Indians at seemingly the worst possible time.
If this were “Major League” the movie, the Tigers are the pre-final-scene New York Yankees and Miguel Cabrera is a real life Clew Haywood.
Rookie Danny Salazar was making just his second Major League start in a move the Indians brass would usually opt against. They said inning-limit be dammed, we are going to let the kid go the rest of the way. 89 pitches were the most he has thrown in any start and he has mostly been a five-inning pitcher. With the injury to Corey Kluber, Salazar had been told the spot is his the rest of the way. Reportedly the original plan was to bring Salazar up for not just this start, but to be a part of a six-man rotation through the end of the season. That has obviously gone by the wayside now that Kluber will miss the next 4-6 weeks.
The kid once again was absolutely electric. His fastball was regularly hitting 97-98 MPH, topping out at 100, and the Tigers had little answer for him. “That kid was really something special,” said Tigers manager Jim Leyland.
Heading into the eighth inning, the Tribe led 3-2 thanks to the second of two RBI doubles from Nick Swisher. Salazar was still going strong and under 100 pitches. He struck out Austin Jackson for the second out – his 10th of the night, but then the veteran Torii Hunter singled, bringing Cabrera to the plate.
Francona had a decision to make – stick with the kid or let Joe Smith face baseball’s best hitter. Salazar had already K’d Miggy three times on the night – the first starting pitcher to do so this season. To me, it was a no-brainer. You stick with the kid, especially when you consider how shaky the pen has been this season.
“That would’ve been his last hitter,” Francona said, “but to that point I would’ve had a hard time justifying having him not pitch. That’s how good I thought he was.”
Interestingly enough, Cabrera himself said after the game he was hoping to see Smith.
“I don’t want to face him the fourth time,” he said. “I was saying to myself, ‘It’s time to bring in the bullpen.’ And when they decide to leave him in there, I say, ‘Let’s grind out this at-bat, try to make something happen.'”
So the stage was set. Salazar came right at him and on the first pitch he saw, Cabrera blasted a two-run homer to deep center field that felt like the Clew Haywood grand slam off of “Wild Thing” Ricky Vaughn. Talk about a kick to the man region. Cabrera is just that good.
The homer ended Salazar’s night and once again he left a lasting impression.
“Besides a couple of mistakes, I thought he was tremendous,” said Francona. “The poise, the competitiveness. . .I wish I could be sitting here talking about a win, but it doesn’t change the fact of how he pitches or how we feel about him. That was pretty awesome.”
The Indians offense still had two more chances to tie the game, which they would do in the eighth. Now trailing 4-3 and facing left-handed reliever Drew Smyly, the slumbering offense went right to work. Michael Brantley led off with a double, which was followed by another double from Carlos Santana. Because Brantley thought that left-fielder Andy Dirks could make the catch, he stopped in his tracks half-way and was unable to score. Still the Wahoos had runners on second and third with nobody out.
Out went Smyly and in came hard-throwing righty Bruce Rondon to face pinch hitter Ryan Raburn. The former Tiger could have played the hero, but instead struck out. Luckily, Leyland decided not to bring the infield in and conceded the tying run. Yan Gomes, who homered earlier in the game, hit a ground-ball to the right side which tied the game at four. Mike Aviles would pop out and strand the lead run at third.
That’s when the battle of the bullpens really began. Rich Hill tried his best to hand the Tigers the game in the ninth, walkking Don Kelly and giving up a single to backup catcher Brayan Pena to start the inning, but Cody Allen came on to work out of a bases loaded, one out jam. The Tribe went in order against Rondon and on to extra innings we would go.
Chris Perez came out for the 10th and a smattering of boos could be heard inside of Progressive Field – which is ridiculous by the way. The guy plays for YOUR team. He worked around a couple of crazy strikeouts and a Victor Martinez two-out single to keep the Tigers off the board. The Wahoo offense went right back to sleep as the game went longer.
Jose Veras and Jeremy Bonderman – yes THAT Jeremy Bonderman – retired 12 of the 13 men they would face. The only Tribe base-runner – Drew Stubbs in the 12th – was quickly erased on a Jason Kipnis double play ball.
Joe Smith and Bryan Shaw did their part, holding down the Tigers into the 14th. Francona sent out Shaw for a third inning of work in that 14th inning, something he had never done in his entire Major League career. Jackson greeted him with a leadoff double. After a sac fly moved Jackson to third, Shaw looked clearly gassed as he walked rookie Hernan Perez, who had entered the game in the eighth as a defensive replacement for Cabrera. With Prince Fielder coming up, Francona called for Marc Rzepcynski, who was working his third straight game. The lefty got ahead of Fielder 0-2, but hung a slider in Fielder’s wheelhouse and the All-Star put it into the gap in left-center, putting the Tigers ahead 6-4.
“My job is to come in there and get Prince out,” Rzepczynski said. “He knew a slider was coming and I left it up. He did his job.”
The Indians tried to mount a rally in their last at-bat, but came up just short. Back to back two-out hits from Aviles and Michael Bourn got the Tribe to within a run. Bourn would advance to third on a wild pitch, but that was as far as he would get as Detroit closer Joaquin Benoit struck him out to end the game.
In a long line of demoralizing defeats, this one may have been the worst of them all for a Tribe team fighting for their playoff lives.
“They all hurt,” Indians manager Francona said. “But when you go this far, you go that deep into a game, use up your bullpen, it’s a little more fresh five minutes after the game. But, they all hurt.”
I can’t write about last night’s game without mentioning the continued struggles of Asdrubal Cabrera. How Francona can continue to trot him out in the cleanup spot is a mystery. The guy is ice cold, going 0-6 last night. He is locked in a 5-41 slump (.122) with just one walk and in his last 10 games. He’s been giving the Indians absolutely nothing.
It is tough to think about this series. It has been beyond frustrating and the casual fan is probably running towards the lake front now with the Browns first preseason game set for tonight. But I cannot stress enough the favorable schedule that lies in front of them in September. They are still just 2.5 games back of the second Wild Card spot with 48 games to play. Tonight, they try to avoid the sweep with Zach McAllister facing Detroit’s second ace, Max Scherzer.
 (photo via Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer)
134 Comments
This just in: Miguel Cabrera is pretty good!
So our farm system is bare,yet we’re somehow going to spin that straw into trade gold?
I’m from Cleveland. Only care about his name and age as it relates to his visa status. Don’t care if he’s 31 and a shoemaker named Jesus from San Pedro de Macoris. Cuz if he’s great he only has a few years on the north coast anyway. Enjoy. [Woops, here comes negative Harv again]
No poor just same old same old.
I don’t have the numbers, but I think Miggy schools everyone in one out of four at-bats.
He’s a nice reminder that while Brantely, Santana, Kipnis, et al are good players, they’re not elite hitters.
You really wouldn’t care if he was a 31-year old shoemaker named Jesus from San Pedro de Macoris? I would. That would be 8 kinds of AWESOME.
Can we just call him “Jesus,” anyway? You’ve put this out there, and now I think it needs to become a thing.
I’m actually surprised they don’t already have the Central wrapped up. Their starting rotation is ridiculous and Miggy would make the worst lineup in baseball good (and their lineup is far from the worst in baseball).
Speaking of Tigers fans it’s getting old seeing visiting team fans on camera every time a left handed batter is up. Night before was a couple Tigers fans with a big ‘ol sign and last night it was four of them with their Detroit garb. I miss the old time with the flourescent hats who sat there once upon a time. I’m guessing he was one of the season ticket holders who said, “no mas” or maybe worse watching last years Indians killed him.
As for the Francona effect I think he’s made some questionable moves but compared to Acta who had a questionable move a game there’s no comparison. If anything I think this team has somewhat overachieved and much of that is because of Terry Francona. Certainly the pitching is better that alone is credited to Francona since he hired Calloway.
Asdrubal definitely needs to be dropped in the lineup or at least be given a few days off. I’m guessing you might see it soon after all Reynolds has been relegated to the pine for most of August thus far.
Not even in the same zip code. The Indians haven’t had a Cabrera caliber player since Manny Ramirez. Doesn’t look like they’ll have one for the foreseeable future either.
I know his average is way above .250!
C’mon Steve you know the Indians could have done something to help this team and once again they did nothing. We’ll never know either way what could have or couldn’t happen. This doesn’t mean a BLOCKBUSTER but it doesn’t mean do nothing.
Seems like a lot of the Tribe look at fastballs down the plate and then swing at junk. Esp seeing it with Cabrera/Swish and sometimes Santana
Typical Detroit they play down until the AS break then start ramping it up come August. The starting rotation is just plain sick and their best SP this year hadn’t even pitched until today.
As far as the lineup goes…sure looks like they miss Peralta huh?
Nobody ****s with The Jesus
Yep.
BA / OBP / SLG / OPS
2013: .359 / .453 / .668 / 1.121
Career: .321 / .399 / .568 / .967
They do set up the waste pitches on 0-2, problem is that they are WAAAAAY out of strikezone and hitters never even consider them
They have the best “futures” odds
That’s why he was hands down the MVP last year. I still laugh at the sabremetric people who attempted to steal the MVP from a triple crown winner even if it was for my boy Mike Trout. Trout is a phenomenon but he’s no Cabrera.
If we make playoffs, we will likely play Bos in first round, and Det in ALCS…ugh
Check the rear view mirror because the Royals are coming!
Bourne
Cabrera
Santana
Kipnis
Swisher
I like Swisher in the two spot Cabrera needs to be the one dropped.
Bourne, Swisher, Kipnis, Santana (try for a bit because why not), Brantley, Cabrera…
I’m saying, as a whole, the farm system isn’t rife with talent. That doesn’t mean they don’t have desirable pieces. The point here is that there is no huge next wave of talent to take us through ’15 and beyond so sell out now and try to win.
I remember that guy haha
I hate seeing Det or other opposing fans in full force, but our attendence has been crap. Opposing fans coming to CLE for the game is probably the only reason our attendence numbers are up. This is probably important long term because even if CLE fans don’t pay for the game, at least we are still selling tickets.
Steve is a Dolan or Shapiro he just won’t admit it. The Indians can do no wrong in his eyes even last year.
Yea it was him and his wife or gf always in those seats. Now it’s visiting team fans mostly.
A few people from STL for Cabrera
Don’t get in the way, Shammy! This is the matchup I’ve been waiting for: Steve vs. Hamsterdam!
Rumor is that he shoots clay with a football for fun
I heard from a reliable source his real name is Danny Almonte…
Salazar and Kluber are two reasons I don’t put too much stock in farm system projections.
LoL nj0 and Steven had some good grapples too. But ok I’ll get my popcorn!!!
Starting pitching the last three games – 22 IPs, 22 Ks, 4 BBs, 9 ER, 3.68 ERA
Funny I don’t remember Salazar’s name being bantered about that much at the deadline. Nobody wanted Bauer? Regardless we can all go back and forth on possible trades the truth is we’ll never know anything as to actual discussions so in the end it doesn’t really matter.
Exactly, this team which is 11-8 since the all-star break has definitely fallen apart, and the last two years are an excellent sample to use for the term “always”. Might as well not show up the rest of the way.
And unless you can tell us exactly why giving up Salazar for Lopez is a good move, your last line has no leg to stand on. It’s nothing more than wanting to be heard with no real meaningful analysis to it.
https://twitter.com/hoynsie/status/362425856473300992
If you ignore the reality of the situation, it’s a lot easier to have a gasbagging rant.
While the popular opinion in Cleveland is that this is a logical deal that the front office of the Cardinals would make, most people in St. Louis disagree.
Well that’s one but that answers my question on who the “Lopez” was that Steve keeps referring to here. I don’t think Stevie Wonder would have made that trade.
Javier Lopez of the SFG.
edit: Or did I miss a joke?
Depends how big of a gap you have between good and elite. Kipnis is 18th in the majors in wRC+, Santana 32nd. These are high quality batters. Not even Trout compares to Cabrera when we just look at batting.
I still maintain much of the problems come from “Tribe speak” which is what this organization attempted to use the last couple of years. That joke of a team they put out there last year which some on here were firmly behind headed into the AS break alone should cost the Indians fan capital for at least two years.
Which is why I chose my very carefully.
Yea I saw. I remember him being mentioned as a lefty specialist but don’t remember SF asking for Salazar. Of course I thought this team needed much more then a LOOGY which is probably why I didn’t pay all that much attention.
Could we have offered Bauer? đ
“should cost the Indians fan capital for at least two years”
This is ridiculous. Yes, the team they put out last year was not good enough. That does not mean that the current, quite different, iteration is not deserving of support.
Right, I think we have to chose words very carefully here. But if being comparable to Cabrera is the only way to be an elite hitter, then no one is.
Hitter vs player. There’s a big difference.
Still hung up about this?
The best part is that Trout, the poster boy for old-school thinking – does all the little things, runs well, fields well – gets labeled as the sabermetric guy, while Cabrera – the fat guy who can’t do anything but crush the ball – is not the sabermetric guy.
It’s ridiculous to you because you are a blind follower. The Indians can do no wrong, ever. Every decision they make is correct. Obviously less people agree with you otherwise attendance might be better. Couple in the antics of your boy Chris Perez and another year of “They just need to play better” by Chris Antonetti and people are just tired of it.
AND I haven’t even mentioned the play on the field. I guarantee and you make sure you mark this down in your record you like to keep: at the end of the season either Shapiro or Antonetti will talk about how this was a building block season. They hoped the team might contend for the playoffs but really it was 2014 that they were aiming at. Then next year if things don’t go as planned they’ll reset the goal line much like they did when they resigned guys like Hafner and Westbrook. You remember that?