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September 10, 2015The games where an underappreciated player comes through with a surprise performance are always fun. On Wednesday, the Cleveland Indians received such performances from both starter Josh Tomlin and utility player Jose Ramirez. Yet, it was their star rookie who once again stole the show. Francisco Lindor was in control at the plate as he hit a triple, a home run, and a line drive single to come within just a double of completing the cycle. Lindor wound up accounting for three of the Indians six runs in what would ultimately end as a 6-4 win over the Chicago White Sox.
Keys of the Game
Candygram for Mongo:
Jose Ramirez hit his fourth home run of the year and the sixth of his career. It was the first time in his career he hit home runs in back-to-back games. In fact, it was only the second time during his 2015 season he hit extra base hits in back-to-back games. The only other time he did it was when he had two doubles and a triple in the first two games against the Minnesota Twins on August 9 and 10 (the series where the Indians scored 34 runs in three games). Wednesday’s home run was not nearly as impressive as the 447-foot towering shot from Tuesday, but the ball hitting the top of the center field wall just beyond the reach of Adam Eaton before continuing into the seats counts the same in the scorebook1 .
A Puerto Rican Rookie of the Year? It works in the Amercian League:
Carlos Correa and Francisco Lindor have taken all the doubt out of which country will take the 2015 AL ROY Award. Now, it is just a matter of which player will earn it over the last few weeks. Lindor leads Correa in jWAR2 3.2 to 2.85, but Correa has Lindor beat slightly in hitting due to his power, while matching Lindor’s speed on the basemaths. Lindor makes up the difference by being the best defensive shortstop in the American League (as indicated by his 8 defensive runs saved, DRS). Correa, meanwhile, is a negative factor on the defensive side (-1 DRS). However, Correa has the trump card since his team, the Houston Astros, are likely to make the postseason. Fair or not, team success plays a role in the voting.
On Wednesday, Lindor did his best to win more attention from those voters.
His triple in the first inning was a veteran move where he turned on the jets towards third once he saw Eaton mishandle the ball. The extra moment it took to relay the ball in was all Lindor needed to slide in ahead of the tag for a triple. And, when Brantley hit the ball down the first base line, Lindor smartly stutter-stepped to make sure the ball would not be able to catch him at home. Both plays demonstrated Lindor is learning how to read the play and run the bases intelligently, which should scare the rest of the AL.
After Ramirez homered in the fifth, Lindor must have thought it looked like fun not to worry about base running. So, he hit a line drive home run to right field and trotted around the bases unopposed.
All of the power shots might have made an opposing pitcher think Lindor would be looking for more the rest of the night. But, instead, Lindor simply stayed with the pitch in the seventh inning and poked a single into left field. Again, the rest of the American League should be shaking right now. Lindor is learning, adapting, and growing as a hitter.
Elementary, cactus head:
Trayce Thompson is a good, young player. He is going to be a thorn in the side of the Indians for years to come as a member of the White Sox. He made a fantastic diving play to rob Michael Brantley of a hit (and the Indians of a run, as Jason Kipnis stood on second) in the third inning. At the plate, Thompson hit a home run and also drove in Avisail Garcia in the ninth. However, Thompson also cost the White Sox any chance at winning the game with a terrible play in the field.
Chris Johnson hit a routine single into left field to load the bases as Thompson came forward to scoop the ball and ensure no one got greedy on the basepaths. Whoops! The ball scooted under his glove and all the way to the right field fence, two runners came around to score, and Thompson must have thought he was filming a Southwest commercial (Wanna get away?).
Here: Let us balance the karma by showing Thompson’s good defensive play of the night:
They said you was hung. They was right:
Only Josh Tomlin could hand the opposition three home runs in under six innings and have everyone shrugging their shoulders and nodding their heads in approval. Each of those home runs were solo shots, and the vast majority of remaining balls were hit softly. It was the prototypical Josh Tomlin outing. It has to take a special kind of confidence to understand the opponent might hit multiple home runs off you each time out, but you’ll be fine and the team will find a way to win (Josh Tomlin is now 5-1 with some season-saving appearances since rejoining the Indians).
Steady as a rock. Yeah, but I pitch with this hand (trembling):
Jeff Manship and Bryan Shaw cruised through the seventh and eighth innings (plus the final out of the sixth). Neither allowed a hit, while they struck out three hitters and only walked one.
Cody Allen did not have such a performance. Avisail Garcia led off the ninth with a double and Trayce Thompson was still attempting to make up for his blunder when he drove Garcia in with a single. With the tying run at the plate, Allen gave up some loud contact to Alexei Ramirez, but both times the ball went foul. Once Allen struck out Ramirez for the first out, he seemed to settle down as he struck out Mike Olt before getting Tyler Flowers to ground out to end the game.
The Numbers
There are some good things and some bad things that came out of this game, here they are in numerical format
Extra Base Hits
Three doubles. One triple. Two home runs.
Six extra base hits.
If you believe six is a lot of extra base hits for a game, then you are correct. However, it is becoming a bit normal for the Indians as it is the fifth time in the last 10 games during which the Indians have hit at least five extra base hits. And, the Indians have also accomplished the feat in 11 of the last 30 games played.
Double-digit strikeouts
For the first time in the last eight games, the Indians pitching staff recorded double-digit strikeouts. The lack of strikeouts recently is a departure from season-norms (and likely has something to do with Kluber, Carrasco and Salazar all missings starts) as it was the 52nd time in the 2015 season that the Indians reached double-digit strikeouts from their pitchers.
All statistics above are from either fangraphs.com or baseball-reference.com unless otherwise noted.
6 Comments
Nice job Mike. Grab yourself a Shiner Bock for tonight.
Thanks man. It’s easy to write when the game is fun to watch.
When that game ended I was shocked it ran over 3 hours. Seemed to move much faster than it actually did.
“Carlos Correa and Francisco Lindor have taken all the doubt out of which country will take the 2015 AL ROY Award”
Uh, America? Puerto Rico is America. Puerto Ricans are Americans.
Good point. Instead of a USA! USA! chant, we have to do US Territory!
I don’t like the IOC on most matters, but I will side with them when it comes to Puerto Rico.
The Olympic Charter explains that “the expression ‘country’ means an independent State recognized by the international community,” and the IOC recognized Puerto Rico as such an entity in 1948.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2004/08/why_puerto_rico_has_its_own_team.html