Player of the Game
With a double, the Indians only extra base hit of the day and one of just three hits total, Francisco Lindor wins the player of the game. He also struck out and stole first in his final at bat, at least producing a positive outcome. In a rather embarrassing effort, everyone else in the line-up finished with a WPA of zero or below while the pitching staff after Corey Kluber barely factored into the game, already down six.
Feathers Up
The Indians don’t have to play tomorrow, so Kluber will likely have 5 days of rest before his next start.
Feathers Down
The Indians had some major defensive issues early on, some of which were officially scored and some which weren’t. In the first, Yan Gomes missed an easy fly and while it was initially counted as an error they changed it after Yoenis Cespedes ended up striking out. In the second, it was a few plays that weren’t considered errors that really hurt. Kluber got two quick outs in the second and made Curtis Granderson hit into an easy fly to center. Rajai Davis never saw the ball, however, and Granderson ended up on third for a triple. Asdrubal Cabrera bunted him home with a single to the third base side of the mound and on the play, Kluber threw the ball down the right field line, resulting in an error and Cabrera on second. Michael Conforto then hit his second RBI double down the first base line on a ball Mike Napoli just missed snaring. Davis then missed another chance at the third out as Cespedes hit another easy fly to center that he couldn’t handle. In the end, the only error that counted was on Kluber despite the fact that no runs would have scored had Davis simply caught the first fly ball. Because of these odd plays, three runs scored in the second and all were considered earned runs.
In addition to his bad luck/bad defense, Kluber had some some issues with control today as well. This was particularly apparent in the first when he walked the first batter of the game, then gave up a double to Conforto after falling behind in the count. He did turn things around pretty quickly though, ultimately striking out eight and, if it weren’t for the defensive issues in the second, would have only allowed three runs in the game.
The Indians never came close to putting an inning together against Stephen Matz, hitting safely just three times in seven shut out innings. Even if the defense had held up and Kluber had allowed just three runs, it wouldn’t have mattered as the Indians never got a handle on the Mets right hander. Every batter except Juan Uribe struck out at least once against Matz and the top two hitters, Davis and Jason Kipnis, looked particularly lost at the plate.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 0 – New York Mets 6
On Deck: The Indians will take a day to reflect upon themselves tomorrow before starting up again Tuesday at 7:10 PM against the Mariners. Wade Miley and Carlos Carrasco are the expected starters. There was a little news in addition to this as Lonnie Chisenhall is expected to return on Wednesday and Michael Brantley could be back as early as Saturday if everything goes well.
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