The Cleveland Indians Played Game 1 Of The ALDS Like A Team That's Pissed About Being Written Off
On Thursday night in Game 1 of the ALDS, the Cleveland Indians played inspired baseball, almost as if a fire had been lit under their ass by those who thought they had no chance against the Boston Red Sox in this series.
I was one of those people. And for good reason, too. They lost two of their best starters in Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar, and arguably their best starting pitcher is taking the mound in Game 2 with an injury. That doesn’t seem conducive to winning. About three weeks ago, the Indians’ Jason Kipnis, who homered last night, and Trevor Bauer, who got the ball in Game 1, went on Twitter to rip a Cleveland columnist who gave the Tribe no chance in the postseason, regardless of their opponent. Make no mistake about it, this team is motivated by the fact that they’ve being written off. I just didn’t think that would be enough of a factor to overcome a mismatch like Rick Porcello versus Trevor Bauer in Game 1.
I’m sure I’ll get called out for making an excuse, but it’s more of a fact — this is why the Red Sox should’ve made more of an effort to clinch home field. Porcello doesn’t lose that game at Fenway Park. He just doesn’t. This year at home, Porcello lost one game, a game in which he went 8 innings and gave up one run to the Orioles.
It’s not like he was a slouch on the road — 3.31 ERA on the road compared to a 2.97 ERA at home — but I’ve gotta believe that Porcello doesn’t serve up three solo shots like that at Fenway. He’s done that a grand total of zero times in 2016. In fact, he’s given up more than one home run at Fenway once all year, and it was in his first start at home this season. I’m fine with resting players the day after clinching the division, but the effort after that was quite minimal, and it never sat well with me.
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Doesn’t matter now. Game 1 is in the books, and Porcello recorded his worst pitching performance since June 2 when he gave up 5 earned runs to the Orioles in Baltimore, also one of three times that he’s allowed three home runs in a start this year, all on the road. The other one was a weird start in Seattle when he gave up three home runs over 8 innings, and those were the only runs allowed, which also represented three of the four hits he gave up. Whether it was the layoff, the road start, or the Indians apparently stealing signs, neither are an excuse. If the Red Sox plan on winning a championship, they can’t line up all of Porcello’s starts at home. I also don’t expect Porcello to pitch that poorly, if given another opportunity in this series, no matter where that game might be played.
Simply put, I’m not worried about Porcello. What I am worried about, though, is Xander Bogaerts. It was one bad start for Porcello, and we’re going on almost four months now for Bogaerts. On June 12, Bogaerts was hitting .359 with a .932 OPS through his first 61 games. Since June 14, including last night’s playoff game, Bogaerts has hit .249 with a .710 OPS over his last 97 games. His slugging percentage is 139 points higher in sample one than it is in sample two.
So, what the fuck’s the problem? Unfortunately, it’s the same exact problem that plagued him in 2014 when the Red Sox panicked and signed Stephen Drew to play shortstop, moving Bogaerts over to third base. Over that second sample where Bogaerts has performed poorly, he’s hitting .285 with an .836 OPS against hard pitches (fastballs, sinkers, cutters). On soft pitches (changeups, sliders, curveballs, splitters), Bogaerts is hitting .196 with a .517 OPS.
In 2014, Bogaerts hit .194 with a .469 OPS against soft pitches, so whoever he talked to that offseason to fix that issue before 2015, he should give them a call again. Last year, Bogaerts hit .278 with a .679 OPS against soft pitches, which isn’t exactly tearing the cover off the ball, but it’s a vast improvement from what he did in 2014, and a steep drop-off to where he is now.
Bogaerts’ prolonged slump has caused him to move from third in the order to second, now down to sixth. I think you’re kinda screwed no matter where you put him if those three slots are the options. He’s not the best pure hitter on the team, so third is out. If he hits second, then he’s a failed table setter for the RBI guys, and if he hits sixth, then his job is to protect Hanley Ramirez, and he’s not doing a great job of that. I was stunned last night when Terry Francona elected to pitch to Ramirez in the 8th inning with one out, a runner at second and first base open in a one-run game, especially after Hanley had already doubled twice by that point.
Speaking of Francona’s managerial decisions, it’s going to be really interesting to see how Game 2 plays out in terms of the Indians’ bullpen. Francona managed Game 1 like it was Game 7 of the World Series, burning Andrew Miller and Cody Allen for 80 pitches, 40 each, last night. I thought it was incredibly shortsighted to do that, knowing that tonight’s Game 2 starter, Corey Kluber, is pitching with a quad injury. It’s the postseason, so I’m not naive enough to think that 40 pitches would make either guy “unavailable”, but it’s pretty obvious that they won’t be as available as they were in Game 1, which is a good sign for the Red Sox.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Red Sox, though. They got a big lift from unexpected spots in the batting order with Andrew Benintendi, Brock Holt and Sandy Leon all hitting solo home runs. I was iffy about Holt hitting second. I thought that Benintendi should’ve been in that spot, but Holt had a 3-for-4 night, and was also the only player to get a hit off of Miller, which was a double in the fifth.
It’s not the biggest postseason start of David Price’s career in Game 2, but it’s certainly the biggest start of his Red Sox career. Stating the obvious, you don’t want to come back to Boston down 0-2 with Clay Buchholz as the guy you’re depending on to save your season. Price faced the Indians on Opening Day and struck out 10 batters over 6 innings, while allowing a pair of runs. I don’t buy into historical stats against teams. I don’t care what Price did against a completely different roster who happened to be wearing the same uniform. That was the only time Price faced the Tribe this year, which featured a very similar lineup to what we saw last night. You know who Price faced in that game? Kluber. And the Red Sox tagged him for four runs on nine hits over 5.1 innings in a 6-2 Red Sox win.
Also, quick shout out to the newest member of Red Sox Nation, Caleb Pressley.
Final score: Indians 5, Red Sox 4