Kyrie Irving wins FIBA MVP honors, leads USA to gold medal
September 15, 2014Week 2 Winners and Losers
September 15, 2014When I was in seventh grade, one of the greatest movies of my youth was released. Major League, the fictional story of the downtrodden Cleveland Indians who were gutted by new owner Rachel Phelps so that she could relocate the team to Miami. I remember vividly seeing it on opening night at the now since out of business Cedar Center Theatre behind the Al-Paul car wash. About halfway through the movie, Wild Thing Ricky Vaughn gave up a late game homer to the Yankee villain cleanup hitter Clew Haywood. After the game in the clubhouse, GM Charlie Donovan entered manager Lou Brown’s office and to talk.
Charlie: “You lost a tough one today, Lou.”
Lou: “Yeah—someday we will figure out how to beat those guys.”
This exact conversation is one that has probably gone on between Chris Antonetti and Terry Francona about the Detroit Tigers—and if it hasn’t, it should.
An 8-11 record against their AL Central nemesis in 2014 is an improvement over 4-15 in 2013, but this past weekend in Detroit and the four-game set in Cleveland may have been the death blow to the Indians run to a second straight postseason. If the team ultimately falls one or two games short, they can look at these two series as gigantic reasons why.1 The Tigers swept the Indians out of Detroit and waltzed back into first place in the AL Central as the Kansas City Royals got “Yosted” over the last week, losing five of seven including a series to the AL East doormat Boston Red Sox. The Tribe went from controlling their own destiny to essentially needing another incredible final two-week run like last year when they won 10 straight to clinch a playoff spot on the season’s final day.
“We’ve got to deal with what’s in front of us, which is to not lose games,” said DH Jason Giambi. “It’s that pure and simple. We’ve just got to play to win every single night and see what the universe has in store for us.”
The Tribe went from controlling their own destiny to essentially needing another incredible final two-week run like last year when they won 10 straight to clinch a playoff spot on the season’s final day.
Let’s start with Friday night. Carlos Carrasco and David Price. The Indians within striking distance of the Tigers and Royals. The evening to set the tone for the entire series. It was just a huge game. With the score tied 1-1 in the fourth and Miguel Cabrera on third with one out, up stepped J.D. Martinez to the plate. First base was open and the light-hitting/strikeout matching Alex Avila sat on deck. Knowing that Martinez has literally owned Indians pitching this season, the obvious move was to give J.D. four wide ones, and set up the double play with the slow footed Avila. Instead, Francona elected to let Carrasco pitch to Martinez. It was a move that immediately had to be question. Naturally, Martinez cranked a 427-foot homer to left-center field, putting the Tigers on top. It was the lone pitch Carrasco would have liked back.
Said Francona: “Against their lineup, when you make a mistake, they can make you pay for it. J.D. Martinez, he threw him a real good breaking ball to start the at-bat, and then tried to come in off the plate … and it caught way too much of the plate. That was obviously a big blow.”
I, along with many others throughout Tribe Nation, would argue that it was the manager who put Carlos in that unnecessary position. A two-run lead for David Price is plenty of cushion. Of course, Martinez delivered the K.O. in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run triple off of C.C. Lee.
One loss to Price was probably to be expected, but it put the Indians into must-win mode both Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. Danny Salazar responded by out-pitching lefty Kyle Lobstein. They took a 4-3 lead with two outs in the fifth when Mike Aviles came through with a monster double that scored both Lonnie Chisenhall and Jesus Aguilar. Salazar, Marc Rzepcynzski, and Scott Atchison made the lead stand up and set the wheels in motion to get to the Bryan Shaw/Cody Allen duo.
In the top of the eighth, the Tribe had second and third with two outs for one of their best hitters in Yan Gomes. Facing Joba Chamberlain, the Yanimal sent a sinking liner to right field, it looked as though it would get down for a two-run, game-changing hit, but Torii Hunter made a fantastic sliding catch, robbing Gomes. That catch was the turning point of the series.
Shaw came out for the eighth and immediately walked Cabrera. He managed to get both Victor and J.D. Martinez and needed to just get past Avila to get out of the inning. Avila worked the count full. Shaw then made a mistake, leaving a hanging slider in Avila’s wheelhouse. He crushed it to right, putting the Tigers ahead 5-4.
“It was just a bad pitch,” Shaw said. “It was the right pitch — bad location. It’s simple. If we get it outside a little more, he pops up. You get it in, he rolls it over. It’s just bad location.”
Closer Joe Nathan made it stand up in an absolute soul-crushing defeat for the Wahoos.
“He’s been so good. He’s set the bar so high,” Francona said of Shaw. “It’s not just that pitch, though. Torii Hunter catches that ball that saves two runs. There’s a lot that goes into it — more than just one pitch.”
Tito was so right. Hunter made a huge play, Shaw made one bad pitch. But you dance with who brought you to the party. So when the situation came back up Sunday, there was Shaw right back out there to protect a one-run Tribe lead.
The offense made a strong attempt to tie things up in the ninth against shaky Detroit closer Joe Nathan, but Francona interjected himself when he didn’t need to. The old adage in baseball is you play for the tie at home and the win on the road. Jason Kipnis opened the ninth with a walk. Instead of attempting a steal against Avila, who is not exactly known for his arm, was probably the expected move. Instead, Francona’s love for the bunt popped back up. He decided that giving away an out to a reliever who has struggled all year long was a wise idea. So Jose Ramirez bunted Kipnis to second, which is where he would stay after a Lonnie Chisenhall K and David Murphy’s fly out.
I’ve been critical of Francona’s in-game tactics, but this one frustrated me the most. Nathan has been awful all year. He has control issues. Why….Why….Why would you possibly give him a free out? Kipnis is a good base stealer. I would much rather have seen that or nothing at all than sending Ramirez up to bunt. It is not like Jose is an ice cold bat. Let him swing and see what he can do there. I understand wanting to move Kipnis into scoring position, but giving away an out in the ninth was just unfathomable to me.
Now we move to Sunday. Trevor Bauer pitched five innings of two-run ball (one run was unearned thanks to a Carlos Santana error). Of course it was J.D. Martinez who chased Bauer with an RBI single. Francona got some solid relief work from Kyle Crockett and the runner-armed Atchison who got the Tribe out of the dicey situation in the sixth. Knowing just how badly they needed this win, Tito turned to Shaw for the seventh. Rajai Davis beat out an infield single and stole second. Then while 68,000 Browns fans were charging out of First Energy Stadium happier than they have been in seven years, All-Star Ian Kinsler was simultaneously crushing the hopes of Indians fans by taking Shaw deep. The two-run blast was a straight kick in the teeth and again the Tigers jumped out ahead with a late game jack.
“Give them credit,” Francona said. “There’s a couple games they knocked us around, but for the most part, every game, a lot of games, we had leads going into the games late. Our bullpen’s been such a strength, but give them credit, they have guys that are very dangerous.”
It got worse for the Tribe pen when C.C. Lee came on for the eighth to attempt to keep the deficit at a single run. With runners in second and third and one out, Lee and catcher Chris Gimenez were in mid-intentional walk to Kinsler load the bases, but Lee fired one wide of Gimenez, scoring a big insurance run. Hunter’s fielder’s choice scored Eugenio Suarez who had moved to third on Lee’s wild pitch.
The bats had a chance against Nathan in the ninth, started the inning with a Michael Brantley single, a Santana RBI double, and a Kipnis walk. Nathan was teetering, but he got Gomes to ground into a killer double play on a 3-2 slider. Francona tried for one last shot of Giambi magic as the tying run with two out, but the pinch hitting veteran flied out to left to end the game and a painful weekend in Motown.
Adding insult to injury was Kipnis’s decision to go after a troll on Twitter after Saturday night’s loss. (While he wasn’t wrong, you have to have a thicker skin and avoid these type of situations. No good ever comes out of it.) Nevertheless, Kipnis fired back to defend his team’s effort, which has never been the issue as far as those of us who watch this team religiously know.
I get it..You can be frustrated. We got guys underachieving, not playing well, no ones hot and no real mashers, AND WERE STILL IN THIS THING
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) September 14, 2014
So don’t ever question this teams heart or effort.. You should want over achievers! That means they have a pulse and give a damn each game! — Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) September 14, 2014
So where do the Indians go from here? They have 13 games left (well, 14 if you include the three outs needed to beat Kansas City which will take place September 22), starting with a four-game set in Houston that begins Monday night.
Because of the rainout that spawned Thursday’s doubleheader, a spot starter is needed. That role will be filled by Zach McAllister, who will get the ball Tuesday night and square off with Houston’s Brad Peacock. The margin for error went from small to almost nothing. They are five games back of Kansas City for the second Wild Card. The good news is the schedule the rest of the way is soft with a three-plus game set remaining with the Royals.
We saw them rattle off 10 in a row last September. Is there a run like that left in this year’s team? There most likely will have to be if they want to play in October.
- MLB.com gives the Tribe a 6 percent shot at making the postseason at this point. [↩]
15 Comments
Dude – I saw that movie at the Cedar Center theater, too. People were going crazy, jumping around and high-fiving in the aisles.
That was awesome.
Think the season is over. My main hope for 2014 was to play meaningful baseball in September and we did. I actually feel much better about going into 2015 than I did going into this season. Yes, there’s a few bad contracts that worry me, but I’m excited about the emergence of our starting rotation, all guys we control for until at least 2017. And the farm system it looks like the farm system is finally developing position players – Ramirez, Lindor, Perez, Urshela, etc. Not sure how good they’ll be, but now it’s not out of the realm of possibility that more than a few young guys can come in and really contribute.
This series against the Tigers was just absolutely soul-crushing. If we could’ve taken even one of these games we could hang our hat on a moral victory but as it stands, even if we miraculously sneak into a wild card game I have no confidence we could beat anyone in a one-game playoff.
The crowd ripped into applause when the Indians won at the end!
It was over before Friday but yea I think it’s safe to say you can move on. Fortunately football is underway the Browns are at .500 but more importantly basketball is right around the corner – go Cavs! But hey don’t fret the winter meetings will be here before you know it and then free agency ya know when the Indians make their huge off-season moves!! Can’t wait for the 2015 versions of David Murphy, Josh Outman and Shawn Marcum.
When Kipnis produces on the field then he can go after fans. Still amazed that Giambi is playing period.
Yea not sure why he (Kipnis) felt the need. Swisher will be Giambi next year, I hope!
I think that all things considered, he handled that situation fairly well. After a tough sweep to the rival Tigers, it had to be tough to be constrained enough to not sound like a buffoon. He came off as frustrated but fiery. I don’t mind it (unless there is more than depicted above).
I don’t see how we get to 90wins at this point, which I think we need for the playoffs. As I mentioned on the other thread though, 85-77 is one heck of a “down” year.
That’s fair. All the frustrations probably came out. The fan was a little ridiculous too.
10 straight wins? I am skeptical, sorry Kipnasty.
It’s been a great season though, and I have very few regrets for following the Tribe.
Half-full: As poorly as we played at times, we were still good enough to be in the race.
Half-empty: Bad contracts and poor decision made what could have been a great team merely okay.
Half-full: A lot of young guys have shown some pretty high potential.
Half-empty: Showing potential and living up to it are two different things.
Half-full: Lot of youngsters on the way!
Half-empty: Bourn and Swisher contracts look like millstones and no payroll space for any substantial free agents.
Even if we did that, 10 straight put us at 86 wins which means that DET and/or KC and SEA would have to play sub-.500 ball for us to overtake them. This is what being an okay ball club looks like. Sorry, Kipper. Prove me wrong.
I also like that the Tribe and the Browns were able to synchronize these performances so as to maintain some excitement about Cleveland sports (yeah, I don’t care about the NBA).
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