One of my favorite Cavs teams ever: While We’re Waiting…
May 26, 2015Cavalier Film Room: Grounding the Hawks with Defense
May 26, 2015Since the Cleveland Indians won a three-game series less than two weeks ago in Arlington against the Texas Rangers, both teams have been winning as many games as any outfit in baseball. The Indians took three out of four games from the Chicago White Sox and swept the Cincinnati Reds in an interleague showdown1 to climb within three games of .500 entering the series with Texas. The Rangers won consecutive series on the road against the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, the latter of which they swept.
The teams picked up where they left off in Arlington as they continued to score runs in bunches, with the Texas Rangers taking the first game in Cleveland 10-8 over the Indians.
Key Factors in the Game
Shaun Marcum honeymoon over:
In his last outing (against the Chicago White Sox), Marcum gave up two home runs in an otherwise good start. In this game, Marcum gave up two home runs before he got out of the first inning. Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre found the ball with the thickest part of their bats early and sent souvenirs up an over the yellow line atop the green outfield walls. However, after the second inning in which he struck out all three Ranger batters, Marcum had five strikeouts, and it appeared that he might be able to recover from his poor start to the game. He even sent the first two Ranger batters in the third inning back to the dugout with a strikeout and a harmless fly out, respectively.
Once again, the middle of the Ranger lineup was too much for Marcum to handle. Fielder doubled, then Beltre and Josh Hamilton walked to load the bases, which Mitch Moreland helped unload with a two-run single. At this point, Marcum got the quick hook that fifth starters for the Indians had been getting all season, but reliever Ryan Webb did him no favors as both Josh Hamilton and Mitch Moreland ended up scoring on an Elvis Andrus double, leaving the Rangers with seven runs after only three innings.
It was a frustrating start (despite the six strikeouts) after such a promising first starting appearance last week, but Marcum will have to learn to navigate the power hitters in opposing lineups better than he did against the Texas Rangers if he is going to hold on to the last rotation spot.
Indians offense keeps pace:
The Texas Rangers are a top-five run scoring team in MLB and have been the highest scoring team in the month of May. However, the Indians are fifth on that list, and are actually ranked second in offensive rating in May ahead of the Rangers (behind only the San Francisco Giants). The Tribe’s offensive surge continued against Phil Klein. After falling behind by three runs in the top of the first, Carlos Santana put the Indians on the scoreboard with a high fly ball over the left field wall, and it appeared that he and Adrian Beltre may have briefly compared notes on their home runs as he passed third base.
In the second and third innings, the bottom of the order made a bit of a surprise appearance. In the second, David Murphy and Jose Ramirez got on base for Roberto Perez, whose home run barely cleared the wall to score three runs. The scoring continued when Michael Bourn and Jason Kipnis hit back-to-back doubles to add another run. Josh Hamilton gave the Indians a bit of a gift on the Kipnis double, as he completed misplayed the angle on the line drive, which allowed it to get past him and to the wall. In the third, it was a David Murphy single followed by a Lonnie Chisenhall double that set up the scoring. Alex Claudio stepped in for Phil Klein, but he fared no better in relief than Ryan Webb had for the Indians, as he allowed both of his inherited runners to score, leaving the game tied at an arcade-style seven runs after the first three innings.
The scoring slowed considerably after the early innings, but the Indians kept getting on base and finally broke through in the sixth inning when Michael Brantley knocked in Carlos Santana, who had gotten on base with a walk. Unfortunately, Nick Swisher struck out in his pitch-hitting appearance, and Lonnie Chisenhall could not increase the scant one run lead either.
Bad defense is bad enough, but bad pitching defense is awful:
There is no way to rearrange the letters in Marc Rzepczynski’s name to spell relief. He has struggled this season, as his 4.22 ERA and 1.59 WHIP suggest. However, there is simply no excuse for making things harder on himself and the entire team by botching easy plays. Throwing the ball well above the head of Carlos Santana at first base on a simple pickoff play where there was not even a close play at the bag gave Delino DeShields second base. Of course, Shin-Soo Choo hit a ground ball to Jason Kipnis that could/would/should have been a double play had DeShields still been on first base. Instead, he advanced to third and scored when Fielder singled to left.
This statement is not singling out Scrabble, as the entire Cleveland Indians pitching staff is minus-11 in defensive runs saved for the season, which is better than only the Philadelphia Phillies. On a day when the rest of the Indians’ defense was not bad and Michael Brantley even made a nice diving catch on a Carlos Corporán blooper into left field in the sixth, it was frustrating to see the pitching staff give away the game with errors. Zach McAllister came in to relieve Scrabble, but the Zach Attack must have been doing the same defensive drills as Rzepczynski as he took a harmless comebacker from Josh Hamilton and proceeded to throw it into right field.
After the seventh inning, the Rangers may have only held a one-run lead, but it felt like the game was over the way that the Indians bullpen gift-wrapped those runs for them.
Key Moment Scorecard:
Texas Rangers: 2
Cleveland Indians: 1
Old Friends; Help or Haunt
Shin-Soo Choo He did get on base with a walk, but was otherwise the one member of the middle of the Texas Rangers lineup that did not hurt the Indians in this game. HELP
The Nine
Jason Kipnis: His .447/.532/.713 May has been perhaps the best in MLB — he leads the majors in batting average and OBP, and is second only to Washington’s Bryce Harper in slugging percentage for the month. Even in a relatively quiet game, he still reached base twice and drove in a run.
Carlos Santana: It was definitely nice to see him hit his fifth home run for the season.
Michael Brantley: He continues to just be consistent. Even his outs are hard hit, and many of those hard hits find open field. He went 1-for-4 with a walk.
Brandon Moss: Well, he leads the Indians in RBI, but that is more a function of his position in the batting order than it is his bat. There are signs that he is getting better at keeping the strike zone, but as his OBP has gone up, his ISO has gone down.
David Murphy: Unsure why Murphy was pulled as he was having another solid day at the plate. Nick Swisher is still struggling and it appeared to be an offensive downgrade to plug him into the game.
Lonnie Chisenhall: A .204/.238/.338 batting slash line is not something that he is going to want to be noted when the team decides what moves the Indians needs to make when Francisco Lindor and potentially other minor leaguers are ready for their promotions.
Jose Ramirez: The only batter in the lineup that has had a more negative effect on the team than Lonnie Chisenhall was Jose Ramirez. He was able to get on base in this game once, but many of the desperate cries for Francisco Lindor are coming due to the disappointing campaign of Ramirez, who will need to go on a hot streak to get back over the Mendoza Line.
Roberto Perez: Definitely good to see him knock a home run for the first time since April 29.
Michael Bourn: It was good to see him be able to motor around to second base and then score. And, he has shown some signs of life (.294/.359/.412) in the past couple of weeks now that Terry Francona is using him more sparingly. Still, he is now merely an extremely expensive platoon player.
The Arms
Shaun Marcum: Allowing seven runs and three walks in less than three innings of work is never going to be a good thing, even when a pitcher strikes out six batters. The strange part is that Marcum has not truly been a strikeout pitcher. If he cannot rebound in his next start, the Indians may decide to continue to try new options for the last rotation position.
Also, a less egregious mental error than Rzepczynski or McAllister had on defense was when Shaun Marcum attempted to pickoff Prince Fielder while the ball was still dead. Not only would the play not have counted, but Prince Fielder was able to get his large self safely back to the bag anyway. And, he let everyone know that he was amused.
The Bullpen: Webb and Rzepczynski may not have allowed any earned runs, but they did allow runs that hurt the Indians. And, McAllister giving up a Nelson Cruz home run did not even seem to matter after he threw away the game an inning earlier. Of course, six innings is a lot to ask out of the bullpen (Nick Hagadone and Scott Atchison looked good, while Bryan Shaw was not terrible).
- And to win the Ohio Cup. [↩]
18 Comments
What did Fielder do to taunt the Indians?
And that’s why Marcum was rotting in the minors, period!
Wooped our butts like it was street-hoops. It was a very Miguel Cabrera-esque performance.
I was there yesterday and that throw from Reptar was insane. We were behind home plate looking down the line and that throw flew 4-5 feet over Carlos and had a curve on it that was just… wow. Never seen a throw that bad on a routine play.
The play pictured was when he dove back to 2nd base on an illegal pickoff attempt. The umpires had not signalled out of the dead ball when the Indians attempted to sneak in the attempt, but Prince dove his large self back to the bag in time. He seemed to take great joy in not only noting that to the Tribe, but that it would not have counted even if they had tagged him (as he pointed to the umpires while belly-laughing).
But, Hopwin is correct, the title was merely a play on that situation as he went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and three runs scored in the game.
For someone who was such a big Aaron Harang fan, I would think that you would appreciate Marcum as well.
I don’t think I saw a worse throw this season in Little League with 6-8yo kids. Then, McAllister goes out and replicates it?
Oops, I was referring to the Z-Mac one! Fixed.
Haha, hard to know when it happens multiple times in the same inning. I edited mine as well to match 🙂
It wasn’t so much Harang himself but that the Indians never gave him one start. Instead they cut him he was picked up by Atlanta and did well. So far he’s followed up last year and done well. Meanwhile Marcum has languished in the minors ever since he was injured. One good start one horrible start the question is will he get a third start?
I see, said the blind man. Thanks for the explanation.
No worries. Had planned on adding it to the bad pitching defense category, but felt it was already running long with the two terrible plays described (this pickoff was bad pitching defense as Marcum did not wait for the umpires to get out of the dead ball).
And, the Indians finally opened up the video for embedding, so I am adding that play above.
languished in the minors ever since he was injured
You mean he sat out a season with an injury (only getting 17IP of rehabilition work in 2014) and has done well in all minor and MLB action before last night (5IP of relief in April in addition to the start last week).
And, you liked Harang after Spring Training last year, so that was before any of his current success much like where Marcum at the same time (h/t to you on him there). Just wondering why you didn’t like Marcum the same since they are similar styles of pitchers (and Marcum has actually have more career success).
Good heavens is Marcum a cousin or something?
merely asking you for some context to your opinion.
That Gavin Floyd injury is killing us. As bad as the defense, bullpen, and bottom 3 spots in the batting order have been this year, the #5 spot in the rotation is arguably the team’s weakest link. The brilliance of the first 4 starters takes some attention away from some of the worst starting pitching we’ve seen in years from House, Chen, and now Marcum yesterday. Maybe I’m exaggerating, but if this team had even a league average fifth starter (and that’s a low bar, to be sure), we’d be at .500 or slightly above. At this point, I’m not sure what else you can do. Hope House and/or Tomlin get healthy, I guess, but even those guys at their best are not sure things. I’m not sure I’m ready for 4-A guys Michael Roth or Nick Maronde, either. Maybe we actually have to bite the bullet and make a trade? There’s a surplus of outfielders in Columbus.
The math supports your theory. League average fifth starter would be at best .500 on average (worse if matched up against other teams average better starters). Indians record with 5th starter = 2-7. Overall record 20-24. So, even if we went 4-5 in those games, we would be 22-22 for a .500 record.
More importantly, the Indians 5th starter has pitched more than 4IP only once. Marcum’s 1st start. So, we have been especially taxing a bullpen that Tito already over-uses during those starts. How much better would our bullpen be if properly rested? Hard to tell for sure, but there is an impact there as well.
I disagree. A starter pitches once every 5 games. Ramirez, Chisenhall (sigh), and Perez get about 45-50 plate appearances in that same timespan and hitting under .200 on a team is brutal, let alone when there are three out of nine guys hovering right there.