We Live And Die On Pitching
Whether it be our starters or our bullpen, the Indians can only go as far as their pitchers take them. And lately they haven't taken them very far.
Let's begin with the bullpen, who have been our Achilles' heel all season long. A unit that were so strong, often dominate, in 2012 have fallen apart so quickly in 2013. Nothing highlighted this quite like Sunday's game. After another fantastic Corey Kluber outing (6 1/3 innings, 5 hits, 2 runs, 3 walks and 10 strikeouts), the Indians carried a 6-1 lead into the 7th inning. You'd figure a healthy 5 run lead would be enough, even for our bullpen? You would be wrong of course, nothing about this bullpen's lack of ability to get outs should surprise any of us anymore. Joe Smith came in, one of our best guys on his day, but he's been shaky lately and was again on Sunday, letting Kluber's runner score as well as one of his own. The lead was cut to 6-3 as Vinnie Pestano entered the game to start the 8th inning. Pestano proceeded to give up 4 hits and a walk, capping it off with a Torii Hunter 3-run homer to tie the game 6-6. Poor Vinnie hasn't looked right all year and you have to start questioning is it a mental thing, or is something physically wrong? Whatever the problem, Pestano needs to be kept out of tight situations until he's been fixed because he was terrible on Sunday and nearly cost the Tribe the game. Thank goodness for Michael Brantley, who saved our bullpen's ass with his heroics (more on this later) to win the game 9-6 for the Indians, their solo victory of the series.
But what about our starters? They've been better than a lot of us predicted but they aren't making life any easier for the bullpen this season. If every starter not named Justin Masterson could last a bit longer in games, we'd surely be performing much better and the bullpen probably wouldn't be suffering quite so much. Even Masterson had a stinker this series, having his shortest outing so far in 2013 as the Tigers got to him quickly Friday night in the 7-0 loss. But I feel we need to see a bit more from our starters on a regular basis. I'm not pointing fingers at Kluber, he's been great and has pitched past the 6th inning in a lot of his starts lately. However guys like Ubaldo and Kazmir, who honestly have done alright this year, they need to last a little longer if our bullpen is going to stand any chance. Kazmir pitched well again last night but couldn't make it through 6 innings, leaving it up to our tired bullpen to carry the Tribe to the finish (credit to them as well, they pitched pretty well last night, despite losing 4-2) Then we get into the Carrasco and Bauer situations and that's a completely different mystery, we never know how long those guys will last into games (not very long more often than not). So given what has transpired recently, the rotation could use some serious help and I'd like to see the front office make a move this month to remedy this. Go out and get one of those starting pitchers, because this group needs more stability if we're going to remain competitive in the second half of the season.
Congrats To The All Stars
It's not all doom and gloom here at England Tribe, as I thought I'd quickly mention Justin Masterson and Jason Kipnis were both announced as All Stars on Saturday. It's fantastic news and great to see both players recognised for their strong starts to the season. Both guys are first time All Stars as well, so they must be ridiculously excited for the trip to New York next week. I'm really glad Kipnis made it onto the team, it was going to be pretty close whether he made the cut or not. Masterson has easily been the best pitcher on the team in 2013 and he deserves his spot amongst the AL pitchers. I just hope both players manage to find themselves involved in the game and not get left on the bench. I'm looking forward to watching both guys represent the Tribe and I expect I'll be making a special effort to stay up that night to watch the game (it won't start until after midnight here in the UK).
Player Of The Series
Despite a pretty miserable series, there's only one winner for me and that's Michael Brantley. He carried the Indians on his back this series and put in an amazing performance on Sunday. Batting in the number 5 slot, Brantley smashed 2 home runs as well as a double for a total of 5 RBI. It was his second home run of the day that proved to be the difference. Brantley destroyed the ball for a 2-run bomb that put the Tribe back in the lead after the bullpen had allowed the Tigers to tie the game in the previous half-inning. Honourable mentions to Kluber and Lonnie Chisenhall, whose bat has come alive of late as he's hit a bit of form since his return from AAA. But Brantley's memorable Sunday earns him the award for this series, congrats Mike.
The Indians welcome Toronto to Cleveland today, to begin a three-game series. It'll be the Jays' big winter acquisition Josh Johnson (1-3, 4.89 ERA) up against Ubaldo Jimenez (6-4, 4.67 ERA). We need to start this series off better than we did against Detroit so I'd like to see Ubaldo last longer than the 5th inning tonight. Until next time...
Thanks for reading.
it's only a 3 game advantage for the tigers we can catch them, hopefully before the all star break! also how nice was it to see lots of bums on seats in the stands!
ReplyDeleteIt's great to see the fans coming out now, starting to fill those seats a bit more every day!
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