Ball Played: Indians literally drop the ball

Sometimes, one play can summarize a larger facet of a season. No single play can ultimately change an entire season especially in the third of a six month season. One play, however, can certainly serve as a symbol for what has occurred during said season. In 2014, the defensive struggles of the entire season for the Cleveland Indians were symbolized by the “Raburn Spike.” On Tuesday, the Indians may have obtained the symbol for their 2015 season with the “Salazar Fumble” during the ninth loss in eleven games to the Detroit Tigers, this one by a final score of 7-3.

The 2015 Indians have seen similar defensive struggles, but the over-arching theme has been missed opportunities. On offense, the Indians continue obtain baserunners only to leave them stranded or utilize them as parts of GIDP¹. The Indians struggles with RISP have been well documented; particularly their .145/.194/.182 slash line with the bases loaded that equates to a sOPS+ of seven² . In fact, if it was not for Salazar’s now viral gaffe, Roberto Perez hitting into a GIDP to knock in a meaningless run with the bases loaded and no outs would be a pretty darn good symbol as well.

On defense, the opponents of the Indians have taken advantage of their opportunities. For instance, in those same bases loaded situations, the opponents of the Indians have hit .311/.333/.525 as their slash line for a sOPS+ of 135, which is 14 points better than what Michael Brantley is hitting on the season. On Tuesday, the Indians once again had more hits than their opponent (12 to nine), but the game itself was a blowout until a couple of meaningless late runs made the score look closer than the game itself.

Since the advent of sabermetrics, there has been efforts to squash the concept of a clutch player. However, those who wish to prove the concept of clutchness might want to utilize the 2015 Cleveland Indians as a case study to provide the perfect example of a team that continues to find new and exciting ways to fail in the biggest moments of a game.

Symbol for the 2015 Cleveland Indians season: Salazar Fumble

Don’t worry, Danny — it happens to the best of us: http://t.co/GcEOT15NV4 pic.twitter.com/bVz3BtEeQc

— Cut4 (@Cut4) June 24, 2015

“I gave away the game,” Salazar said.

No one is going to argue with Danny Salazar over that statement. He needs to put the play behind him and move forward with his season and career, but he is completely correct in that one defensive miscue began the train of dominoes that fell on the Indians.

Of course, there was much more that went into that one play than Danny’s fumble.

The setup started in the bottom of the fourth inning with runners on the corners and one out in a 1-1 game. First, Brandon Moss watched a pitch travel directly over the center of the plate to strike out and even had the audacity to complain to the home plate umpire about it³ . Then, Giovanny Urshela ended the chance to score runs with a deep fly ball to center fielder Anthony Gose.

The setup continued in the beginning stages of the top half of the fifth inning when Danny Salazar walked Rajai Davis and Ian Kinsler after an Andrew Romine double to load the bases with one out for Miguel Cabrera. Mickey Callaway came out to give Salazar a couple of brief words though it appeared his main reason for holding the meeting on the mound was to make sure he got in a couple of words to Eric Cooper, the home plate umpire, about his strike zone. For just the second time in his career, Mickey Callaway was tossed from a game⁴ .

So, bases are loaded, one out, one of the best hitters in MLB at the plate and Danny Salazar cannot get the home plate umpire to call a strike. The odds are stacked definitively against Salazar and the Indians. That is the setup.

The, ummm, payoff is that Danny Salazar pitched masterfully to Miggy getting him to hit a harmless chopper just to the first base side of the mound. Salazar scoops up the ball perfectly, starts to transfer to begin what should be an easy 1-2-3⁵ double play with the slow Cabrera trudging down to first base. Instead, Salazar loses the ball on that transfer and it drops harmlessly to the turf as everyone is safe. The Tigers go on to score an additional five runs that inning because, well, of course they do. 7-1 Tigers lead.

A break from routine

I could do the standard of providing tidbits on each player as we do for every game, but it is pretty meaningless for this one.

Instead, Jason Kipnis is going to provide this section from his postgame interview with Jordan Bastian:

Frustrating to play so well and not have wins to show for it?

“For lack of a better word, it just sucks. It’s hard to even enjoy it too much. You want hits to mean something. You want it to spark rallies. You want it to ignite an offense, to be that spark at the top of the lineup. Guys are trying . We’re getting some hits. We’re getting on base. We’re just not cashing in at all right now. Hopefully, some things start to fall, but we can’t wait around for them to fall. We need to have a little bit better approaches and kind of pick it up. We can’t sit around and let this keep going.”

There is not a single Indians fan that disagrees with you, Jason Kipnis. You speak the truth.

1. Additionally, on Monday, it was uncanny how mistakes by members of the Tigers defense seemed to be directly followed by redemption plays for those fielders. [↩]
2. sOPS+ is the OPS+ normalized against all teams under the same circumstances with 100 being average. For instance, Nick Swisher’s horrific 2015 season has yielded an OPS+ of 56. The 2015 Indians with the bases loaded are hitting 8x worse than Nick Swisher. [↩]
3. EDIT: As commenter GORDONATION pointed out below the pitch was actually off the plate. It was the only poorly called strike of the entire night by Eric Cooper to a left-handed Cleveland batter. Apologies for my error. [↩]
4. “We want every call,” Francona said. “But I thought [Tigers starter David] Price was getting some pitches than Danny wasn’t.” [↩]
5. Pitcher to catcher to first baseman [↩]