This video game was not totally lost by Sandy Alomar Jr., however he sure didnt help.
If Francisco Lindor or Carlos Santana might have handled an extra-base hit with the bases packed, or if Satan himself didnt get in the baseball and turn it in a random direction in front of Tyler Naquin, perhaps a few of Alomars choices would not have been so glaringly harsh in the afterglow of this stinker. As it is, the universe conspired to dump everything on the Tribe at once and they lost to the lowly Royals, 3-0.
Instead of generating Naquin in this situation, Alomar opted to bring him in two innings later on against Josh Staumont, a pitcher who does nothing however pump high four-seam fastballs. Bringing in Naquin to face him was destined fail from the start. He set out, naturally, on three high fastballs.
Thats a pretty common bad baseball decision that could have other descriptions, or be chalked up to “going with your gut,” which is typically bad but not completely unforgivable. Exact same goes for bunting in the fifth inning when its a tie video game and youre lucky to have anyone on base.
You would think (or hope, if youre a Royals fan) that he wouldnt have actually attacked Naquin in the very same method that he did DeShields, however so numerous other pitchers have actually done the very same in spite of Naquins inability to hit high fastballs. Apparently everyone in baseball either disregards or is uninformed of Naquins glaring weakness– including his own supervisor.
If José Ramírez hit a home run in the fourth inning or something, who cares. Even if it led to a win, it would be much better to have him somewhere healing up for October than swinging away and potentially doing more damage in a mainly useless early-September game. The Indians have a 99.8% possibility of making the playoffs, according to FanGraphs, yet Ramírez is being played as if every win matters today due to the fact that he didnt desire to sit.
Ramírez missed out on Tuesdays video game and the end of Mondays since of a thumb concern that has actually reportedly been troubling him all season. It was bad enough to have him listed as “everyday”, yet he started this video game and could obviously only manage the pain batting from one side of the plate?
He went 7.0 innings, tossed 101 pitches and struck out 6. It was a dazzling night for the Tribe starter, and without a flukey spin on a ball that darted away from Naquin in right field, it would have been pretty strong for Nick Wittgren and Phil Maton, too.
You would think (or hope, if youre a Royals fan) that he wouldnt have assaulted Naquin in the exact same method that he did DeShields, however so many other pitchers have actually done the very same regardless of Naquins inability to hit high fastballs. Instead of bringing in Naquin in this circumstance, Alomar decided to bring him in two innings later against Josh Staumont, a pitcher who does absolutely nothing however pump high four-seam fastballs. Same goes for bunting in the 5th inning when its a tie game and youre lucky to have anybody on base. Even if it led to a win, it would be much better to have him someplace healing up for October than swinging away and possibly doing more damage in a mainly useless early-September video game. It was a dazzling night for the Tribe starter, and without a flukey spin on a ball that darted away from Naquin in right field, it would have been pretty solid for Nick Wittgren and Phil Maton, too.
Despite being the only batter with several hits, there is a great case to be made that Delino DeShields must not have actually batted past the 6th inning. It existed, with runners on first and 2nd, that he faced sinkerballer Jesse Hahn. Hahn tossed him absolutely nothing but low breaking balls and eventually induced a weak comebacker for an out.
Absolutely harsh.
However letting José Ramírez continue to play hurt when youre all but guaranteed a playoff area with two-plus weeks left in the season? That deserves some heavy analysis.
