Deflated Footballs, Facebook publishing, and Ryan Adams… While We’re Waiting
May 15, 2015Video: Matt Adams destroys his bat after being embarrassed by Trevor Bauer
May 15, 2015While we all may have wanted Corey Kluber’s incredible 18-strikeout performance to become the indelible image of the 2015 Indians season—the 180-degree course correction that launched the team into contention—Thursday afternoon’s encore match-up with St. Louis provided a far more realistic encapsulation of where this club is at. The lasting image, in this case, was Michael Bourn—stretching every inch of his 5-10 frame in a desperate leap at the center field wall, hoping to bring back a Matt Carpenter go-ahead homerun that instead pulled the glove off his hand and trampolined into the former Davey Tree Picnic Plaza. Collapsing back on to the warning track without his prize, Bourn remained horizontal and motionless for three seconds in a state of crippling dejection. Now THAT looked like the 2015 Cleveland Indians.
Re-Capping
With their 2-1 victory, the St. Louis Cardinals (24-10) took a series from the Indians (12-21) for the first time since… well, ever. It had never happened in the history of the universe. Another thing that had never happened was Tribe southpaw Marc Rzepczynski giving up a homerun to a left-handed batter–at least not during his his three-year tenure as an Indian. But in the eighth inning, with Cleveland leading 1-0 (on a Michael Brantley solo shot) and Trevor Bauer working on a 4-hit shutout, Rzepczynski—a man who’s name can only be copy/pasted, never typed—entered the game and surrendered the aforementioned 2-run poke to the left-handed Matt Carpenter (whom Bauer had fanned all three times he’d faced him).
As it turned out, Michael Bourn’s emotional reaction to that blown save was only Act I of a two-part Bourny drama. In the bottom of the ninth, looking for redemption, Michael stung a line drive to deep left field off Cardinal closer Trevor Rosnethal, only to watch a galloping Mark Reynolds awkwardly track it down like a linebacker pulling in a wildly overthrown Derek Anderson timing pattern. Seeing this unfold, Bourn did a U-turn around first base, tossing his helmet and cursing the baseball gods for subjecting him to such blatant bullshit.
Even after that, Cleveland still started a mini rally, with David Murphy singling to right and pinch hitter Zach Walters working a 3-0 count with the scorching hot Jason Kipnis on deck. Then Rosenthal blew three straight strikes by Walters and KOed Kip by pairing a couple 99-mile-per-hour fastballs with an 80-something change-up. Ballgame!
The loss continues the Indians’ increasingly disturbing streak of failing to win consecutive games. The Cavs did it more times this week than the Indians have all season, in fact (it’s officially been 36 days now). The Colorado Rockies have lost 11 games in a row and still have a better winning percentage than the Tribe. Hmm, what else? Well, a very encouraging, dominant return-to-form for Trevor Bauer was wasted. But we’ll cover that in the boxscore highlights. For now, let’s just recognize that the Indians are 4-19 when they allow 3 runs or more to the opposition. And—out of the merely three games they’ve played that were decided by one run—all of them, including today, were losses.
C-Cap Recap Custom Box Score
May 14, 2015
Cardinals 2, Indians 1
Green Highlight (as in “Great”): Trevor Bauer is part of a four-headed strikeout monster unlike anything this franchise has ever seen before. Sure, the famous ‘50s rotation of Wynn/Lemon/Feller/Garcia was great, but none of those guys—including an aging Rapid Robert—were strikeout pitchers at that point (nobody on the ’54 club had a K/9 rate above 5.3). Even the ’68 squad with Sam McDowell (9.5 SO/9) and Luis Tiant (9.2) had a team rate of 7.1. The 2015 Indians—an objectively bad team at the moment, mind you—have a TEAM SO/9 rate of about 9.95. Bauer is now at 9.5 himself after striking out 10 men and getting Matt Adams to smash his own bat into pieces. That means FOUR of the top SEVEN strikeout artists in the league are currently in the Indians rotation: Salazar (13.09, #1), Kluber (10.94, #2), Carrasco (10.7, #4), and lil’ Trev at #7. Step it up, Bauer! You need at least 16 K’s to ensure a victory with this kind of run support.
Yellow Highlight (as in “Almost Green”): Jason Kipnis has reached base at least three times in five consecutive games. Overall, the top half of the Tribe line-up looks almost as loaded as the rotation. It’s just the deadweight of the bottom half, much like the bullpen, that seems to repel any type of momentum.
Red Highlight (as in “Stop, You’re Bad”): I was going to go with Lonnie Chisenhall failing to get down a critical bunt in the sixth inning with nobody out (following Brantley’s homer and a Moss double, he punched a ball right back to the mound, leading to an easy throwout of Moss at third). But sadly, Nick Swisher wearing a golden sombrero is never not going to get its due acknowledgement. … Also the Cardinals have a lot of dudes named Matt.
4 Comments
To kill off momentum with all the baserunning in gaffes and giving up the late home run was so frustrating. The team is making baseball hard.
I’m rooting for a Finals appearance for the Cavs or it will be a long summer.
Looking for good signs but it’s difficult. Not only are we not hitting with RISP, more and more often we aren’t making contact with RISP.
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