Player of the Game
Carlos Santana continued his recent hot streak with two more hits in his limited two at bats tonight (he also walked in between). His first was an RBI double, scoring Jason Kipnis from third after the Indians had taken two bases on a overthrown pick off attempt. In his third at bat, he hit a single to score Rajai Davis from second and move Kipnis to third. These two hits accounted for two of the Indians three runs and pushed his average since September 6th to .341, a number that has impressively improved his season average by more than ten points in just over three weeks.
Feathers Up
Unlike Santana, Kipnis has had a relatively poor September, but he had his second nice game in a row with a double, two walks and a run scored. He now has doubles in consecutive games and 7 extra base hits in his last 11 games.
Because the game was shortened by rain, the Indians have more relievers available to pitch in another bullpen game tomorrow afternoon.
Feathers Down
Hitting with the bases loaded is supposed to be easy. The pitcher has to throw strikes and with no outs and the bases juiced, nearly any ball in play (or a walk) will score a run. Despite this, it has been an extremely rough situation for the Tribe for the last two seasons. Last year, they batted an MLB worst .212 (despite being second in average with bases loaded in 2014, possibly showing the true randomness of these situations) and this year they have actually been worse overall. They came into tonight batting .232, but with no power, hitting only four doubles and no grand slams. Tonight, they had the perfect chance to make up for some of that with a bases loaded, no out situation in the top of the third after Michael Fulmer walked two batters. Despite the rookie’s wildness, Jose Ramirez swung at the first pitch and popped out, followed by quick outs from Lonnie Chisenhall and Coco Crisp to end the inning without score.
As great as the Indians bullpen is when it matters (late in close games), no team has the depth to do what the Indians have been forced to do of late, pitching what will essentially be four bullpen games in a row and five in seven total games starting on September 24th. Tonight, Zach McAllister pitched well out of the chute and Jeff Manship also had a great inning early, but it only takes one bad pitcher to ruin an entire outing in a game like this and the Indians had two tonight as Cody Anderson (who pitched well in that 9/24 game) allowed two doubles and a home run in the third and Joseph Colon gave up two singles (should have been one single and an error) and a home run to Miguel Cabrera for three more in the fifth.
If this was a game in April, it probably would have been called long before the fifth and finished later in the season. Because it is extremely important given the play-off implications, however, they pushed as hard as they could to get it in tonight and called it after five innings rather than postponing for a later date. It’s easy to say the rain had an effect on play, particularly considering a play that should have been called an error on Lonnie Chisenhall in right, a double that ended up in a pool of water in left and a double play that went unturned by Kipnis and Francisco Lindor altogether enough to amount for the three run deficit. Despite all this, it was the right decision to make and the better team certainly won in this case. If the Indians tried to make it up as a double header tomorrow, when the weather is supposed to be nearly as bad, it could just compound the situation and if they played it Monday after the season ended, it could negatively effect not just the two teams playing, but those waiting to see the results.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 3 – Detroit Tigers 6
Scoreboard Watch: Now that the Indians have won the division and got nearly the entire starting line-up a day off, it’s now time to focus on play-off seeding and potentially home field advantage. The primary focus should be on Boston, who the Indians will likely play in the first round and making up the one game deficit to gain home field advantage in the ALCS.
On Deck: After the injury sustained by Corey Kluber on Monday, the Indians have completely reconfigured their rotation. Trevor Bauer was originally scheduled to pitch today, but has been moved to Saturday, likely so he will be on schedule to pitch either game one or two of the ALDS. Kluber, Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco are out for the rest of the regular season so it will be rookie left hander Ryan Merritt going Thursday afternoon at 1:10 PM against Daniel Norris and Adam Plutko starting on Friday.
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