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June 25, 2014Trade Down For What?! Embiid, Exum, and Extra Assets Are Too Risky
June 25, 2014In case you missed it—judging by the time of night the game had finish you probably had—the Cleveland Indians, once again, played a game in which they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory not once, not twice, but three times. The game 9-8, 14-inning loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks was marred by bad defense by both teams and some horrific managerial decisions by a guy who has been off his game all year. Oh and if you watched this game start to finish, one thing was abundantly clear: These were not exactly two World Series caliber teams at play here.
“Both teams stranded runners, both teams got to the starters early,” Tribe manager Terry Francona said. “The game mirrored each other a lot.”
I really could write an epic about this game.
This should have been so easy. The Diamondbacks are injury-laden and their lineup essentially has one guy who will scare you—first baseman Paul Goldschmidt. The Indians sent Justin Masterson to the mound. If you recall, there was so much “Justin has found himself” talk after his June 2 start in which he shut the Boston Red Sox out through seven innings. I was first in line to tell everyone to slow their roll and lets see him do this more than once before we get excited. Well, here we are again, three weeks later, and the Tribe’s former ace has continued to make his employer look smart for not caving to any sort of contract extension offer.
For the sixth time in 17 starts—and third in his last six—Masterson failed to go five innings. The command issues are an on-going problem that seems to appear every time out. Worst of all, the Indians offense, a slumbering group all year, gave him five three in the first two innings. I mean, when does that ever happen?
He certainly wasn’t helped by his defense or by his manager’s ill-timed and weak first inning challenge. As we have come to see from Masterson, you can judge how his night is going right from the start.
The Diamondbacks leadoff man was a former Rule 5 draftee castoff named Ender Inciarte who came into the game hitting a robust .202. Masterson walked him to open the game. The left-handed hitter problems continued to the Tribe’s wounded starter. Gerardo Parra followed with a single, but then Masterson looked as though he would get he ground ball he needed. Goldschmidt sent a double play ball to Asdrubal Cabrera at short that should have started the 6-4-3 DP. However, for some strange reason, Carlos Santana’s foot was off the bag at first. It was obvious. Yet for some reason, Terry Francona thought it was a good idea to challenge the play. It was the first inning, it was clear Santana’s foot wasn’t on the bag, yet Tito challenged it anyways. It was a move that would come back to haunt him later when Goldschmidt was ruled safe. To say the challenge was ill-timed would be putting it mildly.
The next batter was the left-handed hitting Miguel Montero, who laced a double. scoring Inciarte. Masterson did recover to strike out both Aaron Hill and Martin Prado, but it was obvious he wasn’t his best.
The Indians bats struck back for a four spot in the second against lefty Wade Miley. The first two reached base in front of Yan Gomes’ RBI single. Lonnie Chisenhall’s first triple of the season scored two more and Ryan Raburn’s sac fly gave the Tribe a 4-1 lead. That is supposed to be enough for your supposed best starter headed into the season. But he gave one back in the second, a rally once again started when he walked the leadoff man David Peralta (who was in AA less than a month ago). It was OK, because the Wahoo attack got the run back on a Gomes sac fly in the next frame.
At 5-2, it was time for Masterson to buckle down. Instead in the fourth, he decided walking the pitcher was a good idea. Inciarte then dropped a perfectly placed bunt single two put two on. Parra, who wore Masterson out, singled to load the bases for the All-Star Goldschmidt. Justin did get the ground ball he needed, a shot to Chisenhall at third, but Lonnie didn’t field it cleanly and could only get the force out at second. Montero’s two-out RBI single made this a one run game at 5-4.
It is one thing to get hurt by your defense, but as a pitcher you need to put that behind you and get the next guy. Twice in these instances, Masterson failed to do what he needed to.
He still could have—and probably should have—been in line for a win, but the bats suddenly went limp at the worst time. In the top of the fifth, they loaded the bases with nobody out on a walk and back-to-back singles from Jason Kipnis and Santana. Miley was yanked for fellow lefty Joe Thatcher. They had three chances to do something with the bases loaded. First Gomes struck out. Chisenhall popped out for the big second out, leaving it up to Raburn, who popped out to end it.
You just knew this would end up being costly.
Masterson came out for the fifth for one last chance to right himself. He didn’t. Martin Prado walked on four pitches and Francona had no choice but to pull him. Kyle Crockett came on and gave up a single to Peralta which moved Prado to third. He would score on a Didi Gregorious sac bunt. The lead would be surrendered in the sixth.
Crockett gave up back to back singles to Parra and Goldschmidt. He had Parra picked off of second, except Cabrera’s swipe tag looked like it missed Parra and he found his way back to second safely. “I tagged him,” Asdrubal said after the game. Of course, Francona had wasted his challenge in the first inning and he couldn’t ask for a replay.
Both runners were moved to scoring position on a Montero ground ball to the right side. Vinnie Pestano entered to face the right-handed hitting Hill, who greeted him by sending his first pitch right up the middle and a game the Indians had in hand a few innings earlier was suddenly going the other way.
The bats went silent against lefty Oliver Perez and a pair of righties in Evan Marshall and Brad Ziegler but in the ninth they got to see an old friend, former White Sox closer Addison Reed. You remember Reed, the guy who gave up two walk-off homers at Progressive Field last season, including the famous Giambi-bomb in September. Asdrubal Cabrera and Carlos Santana both walked. They had two chances to punch the tying run across. Kipnis struck out and things looked bleak, but agony turned to ecstasy when The Yanimal singled home Cabrera.
On to extras we would go which once again ran the gamut of emotions. It was also about 1 a.m. in the east.
Cody Allen and Bryan Shaw each pitched a scoreless frame, setting the stage for some offensive heroics. In the 11th against Randall Delgado, Santana crushed a two-run blast to right that put the Tribe back on top. If anything good came of last night, it was that Carlos looks to be all the way back from his season-long slump. He was 4-5 with two walks and is swinging the bat extremely well. He is now hitting .371 in June.
“He’s back to what we need,” said Francona. “We said all along that when he gets going it won’t be just singles. It’s good to see him swing the bat like that. It makes a big difference in our lineup because we can split up the lefties with him sitting in the middle.”
With a two-run lead, Francona sent a rested Shaw back out for a second inning, but he was up over 30 pitches after Peralta took him for a solo homer and a walk to the light-hitting Gregorius. Equally light-hitting pinch hitter Tuffy Goeswisch singled and the D’Backs were in business. Shaw was clearly spent and Francona replaced him. The obvious guy to go to was Carlos Carrasco. Instead, he made the decision to go to John Axford.
Wait, what?
That’s right, the same Axford who can not and should not be trusted in a situation where you need to win the game. He naturally fell behind Inciarte and then gave up a single that tied the game. The one good thing I can say about Axford is that he came back to strike out the next two Diamondbacks to extend the game. But going to Axford to begin with was another huge headscratcher by Francona.
Another chance to win the game went by the wayside in the 12th when Lonnie doubled and pinch hitter George Kotarras walked to start the inning. David Murphy bunted both runners over into scoring position, but Michael Bourn was K’d by Matt Stiles for the key second out. Asdrubal had his shot, but he grounded back to the box.
Oh, but what about the 13th with two outs when Kipnis tripled and was nailed at home going for an inside the park home run? I mean, you can’t even make this stuff up.
“Two outs, you got to go,” Francona said. “I was yelling the whole way, even when he was out.”
Carrasco pitched two scoreless innings and got the Tribe into the 14th. Mark Lowe came on and gave up a leadoff single and a stolen base to Parra. Goldschmidt’s fly ball moved him to third and Hill’s deep fly ball single to center ended this painful loss while most everyone in Cleveland was asleep.
“It’s one of those games where stuff went up and down, up and down, up and down,” pitcher Lowe said. “That, in and of itself, takes a toll on everybody.”
The Tribe has now lost four in a row and must recover tonight with Corey Kluber taking on Arizona rookie Chase Anderson.
7 Comments
TD, you seem more in pain than usual this morning. Chin up, bloke. Carlos is raking, Lonnie’s soul remains pawned, and some starter is bound to reheat.
(And try not to look at Cabby, that’s what I do. Don’t even celebrate his spasmodic offense, just don’t look at him at all. Plays at short, just pretend we’re playing 8 v. 9 and that’s the best we can do until that burning tire of a contract smolders to putrid molten rubber in October).
I am as disappointed with the loss as I am that Tito didn’t figure out a way for Bauer to get a chance to face Arizona in this set. He’s pitching game1 v. Seattle, but that means we are all missing the opportunity to see him pitch against Montero. Sad day.
That relay throw to get Kipnis was perfect. I think it was worth the gamble to go for the plate.
I agree. Dude probably would have lit it up. At least our ace is taking the hill tonight
or let Gomes hit which was 3-6 with 3 RBI, or if they wanted they could have walked Gomes, Chis and took their chances with a pitcher batting, but after throwing 8 straight balls, it may have been challenging to get it back into the strike zone.
Game was lost once Axford entered
J Nasty put down another steaming load last night. maybe having him pitch out of the pen at the end of last year screwed him up somehow.