Indians miss out on an All-Star starter
July 6, 2015Kevin Love: My best basketball is ahead of me
July 6, 2015The Cleveland Indians’ first visit to Pittsburgh in five years began with one of the most entertaining and encouraging wins of the season, but concluded on another flat note—with a pair of “woulda-coulda-shoulda” losses that left our promising char-grilled weekends slathered in Heinz 57 garbage sauce. At the official midway point of the 2015 campaign, Cleveland is now 38-43, nine games back in the AL Central and 4.5 behind in a logjam of wild card hopefuls. And while a five-game winning streak last week (with some incredible starting pitching) may have felt like a turning point, it’s also possible that we’re just a fanbase of dot-eyed Charlie Browns, expecting Lucy to hold the football steady this time, ignoring everything about who Lucy is.
The brightest moment of the three-game set with the Pirates (47-34) actually occurred during a driving rainstorm on Friday night, as Trevor Bauer’s ridiculous, straight-faced series of batting stance impersonations (including a dead-on Jason Kipnis, Ryan Raburn, and Mike Aviles) instantly rendered all previous local sports themed comedy (Chuck Booms) obsolete. Bauer—who drew a walk on that same at-bat and dove headfirst into a mud-caked first base later in the inning—may be the Bill “Spaceman” Lee of the 21st century. He’s a different cat. And much like a J.R. Smith, a player’s eccentricities can prove a lot more charming when they’re pointed in a positive direction with a supportive club around him.
It’s also possible that we’re just a fanbase of dot-eyed Charlie Browns, expecting Lucy to hold the football steady this time, ignoring everything about who Lucy is.
Weekend Re-Capping:
Friday:
Indians 5, Pirates 2
W: Trevor Bauer (7-5), L: Charlie Morton (6-2), S: Cody Allen (16)
Boxscore Excerpt: Michael Bourn | 2-3, 3 RBI, 1 2B, 1 BB
After his antics as an offensive player in the top of the seventh inning, Trevor Bauer returned to the mound in the bottom of the inning with the Indians up 3-2 and the weather seemingly on their side. Even playing in a torrential downpour, though, the umpires appeared hesitant to strike the nail into the home team’s coffin by pulling the tarp out. The radar looked like a pixilated Sega Genesis explosion, so a rain delay would likely become a postponement and a Tribe win. Forced to continue pitching in these conditions, Bauer finally walked his first man of the night, largely because the mound had taken on the characteristics of a slip-and-slide by this point. After one more batter, the umpires were finally left with no choice. The tarp came out and PNC Park emptied out, save for some die-hard Indians fans who’d made the trip across state lines.
To their surprise, and probably the players, as well, the game resumed a couple hours later, with Marc Rzepczynski and Zach McAllister stepping in for Bauer to finish the seventh. The worry, naturally, was that nature’s failure to secure a PPD would result in the Indians blowing their hard-earned advantage. But instead, Michael Bourn—who’d driven in a run with a key double earlier in the game—delivered another huge hit with a two-run single in the eighth to give Cleveland some breathing room at 5-2. Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen shut the door after that, giving the Tribe its fifth straight win. Weird fact: Allen only had three save opportunities in the entire month of June.
Saturday:
Pirates 1, Indians 0
W: Jeff Locke (5-4), L: Cody Anderson (1-1), S: Mark Melancon (26)
Boxscore Excerpt: Cody Anderson | 8 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 4 K
When you’re riding a five-game win streak and your rookie starting pitcher gives you eight innings of one-run ball, you’ve got to find a way to win that game. Unfortunately, the Indians ran into their rally kryptonite: a “crafty” young left-hander pounding the strikeout with tantalizing fluff. Jeff Locke looks like a lazy police sketch of every other generic, unheralded southpaw who’s bewildered the Cleveland bats in recent years—complete with the obligatory hemp necklace. After a couple early singles to Yan Gomes and Giovanny Urshela, Locke went into locke-down mode, retiring 22 batters in a row with a sickening ease, all while Cody Anderson twirled his third straight gem on the other side to keep things interesting.
Per Jordan Bastian:
CLE history, 3 straight starts with 7.2 IP, 1/0 ER, 1/0 BB:
Anderson 2015
Kluber 2014
Lee 2008
Swindell 1991
Smith 1924
Covelelski 1923, '21— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) July 4, 2015
A Neil Walker single put Pittsburgh up 1-0 in the sixth inning, and it stood up. Michael Brantley did get a shot with two men on and two out against Pirate closer Mark Melancon in the ninth, but the slumping Dr. Smooth chopped out to end it. Urshela’s hit extended his hitting streak to 13 games. He became the first Indians player to have a hitting streak that long in which he managed no more than one hit in each game. The fun ended on Sunday.
Sunday:
Pirates 5, Indians 3
W: Gerrit Cole (12-3), L: Danny Salazar (7-4), S: Mark Melancon (27)
Boxscore Excerpt: Gerrit Cole | 8 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 5 K
Often, after looking helpless against a left-handed fifth starter, the Indians will be irrationally pleased at the sight of a hard-throwing ace the very next day. This looked like it might be just such an occasion, as Cleveland scratched across a few runs against the mighty Gerrit Cole in the early innings, starting with a pair of unlikely two-out clutch singles from Michael Bourn and Roberto Perez. Michael Brantley followed a Kipnis double and Lindor sac bunt with an RBI single of his own in the third inning, making it a 3-0 Indians lead. It was the first time all year Cole had given up more than two runs to any team besides the Reds.
With Danny Salazar striking out seven men through a dominant first four innings, the vibe of this one felt very good indeed. But as we should have learned long ago, baseball is not a game of good vibrations, or even positive momentum. It’s about making plays. Salazar made a mistake in the fifth, coughing up a two-run homer to Pedro Alvarez after Jung Ho Kang had singled a pitch off his shoe tops. There was no reason to panic, though. He retired the next batter Jordy Mercer on a flyout and got Chris Stewart to hit a weak roller up the middle. That was the aforementioned play, however, that seemed to open the floodgates. Once Francisco Lindor’s great effort went for naught on the overturned replay review, Stewart was moved over to second base by Cole, then over to third on another weak infield single by Josh Harrison. The easy-going Salazar of the first four frames—who’d been joking around about his batting stance with Trevor Bauer before the inning—now took on a more rigid stance on the mound. Neil Walker jumped on the next pitch for an RBI single to tie the game, and Andrew McCutchen did what Andrew McCutchen does, slamming a two-run double off the center field wall to make it 5-3 Pirates.
Salazar was suddenly done, and with Cole settling in, the series was lost—another golden opportunity slipping through the fingertips like sands through the hourglass. 81 games to go.
5 Comments
I thought for sure we were going to come back and win on Sunday. I was dead wrong.
I love Bauer ABs, I hope we start him in every inter-league game for the foreseeable future.
Salazar attempted as well, but obviously did not spend nearly the same amount of time perfecting them (Kipnis and Santana).
Er… I meant ever series, not every GAME ha.
I thought Underwood was going to wet himself. Correction, he probably did.