The Indians had the American Leagues premier pitcher rested and primed for the Yankees.
CLEVELAND, Ohio– There will be great deals of painful analysis about the Indians being gotten rid of from the Wild Card playoffs in two video games by the Yankees.
Fingers of blame will be pointed in many instructions that some of us might wind up utilizing our toes to suggest a perpetrator.
But one stands apart like a sore thumb.
Consider the Tribe opened the series with most likely Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber on the mound in his home park.
4 pitches into his very first playoff game, Bieber had actually allowed two runs. He staggered through 4 2/3 innings, shelled for seven runs.
The Indians had a 9-8 lead in the ninth inning.
Unlike Bieber, Hand wasnt hit hard. A couple of ground balls up the middle for singles. There was a high chop that Hand dropped.
All-Star Brad Hand was on the mound. He was 16-for-16 in save situations this season.
In the end, Hand gave up 2 runs, the 9-8 lead becoming a 10-9 loss.
Other things went wrong in that opening 12-3 loss to the Yankees, but it began with Bieber.
Now think about the final inning of Game 2.
DONT PITCH, DONT WIN
There are other locations to slam the Indians, however the reality is they blew it, and it was their most significant regular-season strength that was the glaring weakness.
Heres my point, a minimum of when it concerns the pitching staff: The series opened with the seemingly untouchable Bieber beginning and it ended with the trustworthy Hand in position to keep the Indians alive in the best-of-3 series.
It was the very first postseason for Bieber and Karinchak. The exact same for novice Triston McKenzie, who allowed two runs in his 1 1/3 innings.
Karinchak had permitted just one homer in the regular season.
The team with baseballs best pitching in the regular season had an 11.00 ERA in two video games versus the Yankees. They strolled 15 in 18 innings. They dished out 7 homers.
Rookie James Karinchak had a meltdown, serving up a grand slam to former Indian Gio Urshela.
Both failed.
Carlos Carrasco got a raw offer with the rain delays mishandled by MLB. In the top of the fourth, Delino DeShields probably need to have caught what became a triple to center by New Yorks Aaron Hicks.
In fact, the Tribes pitching was a catastrophe.
But Carrasco then walked the next two hitters to fill the bases. That ended his night after three innings.
OTHER FACTORS MATTERED
In Game 2, they kept coming back. They scored 9 runs. Josh Naylor and Jordan Luplow had some huge hits.
Bottom line for the playoffs: The reason was the pitching collapsed when the Indians needed it the most.
None of this is to excuse Francisco Lindor, Carlos Santana and Franmil Reyes.
They integrated for a miserable 1-for-23 efficiency at the plate.
We can talk later on about what all this indicates for the Indians in 2021 in regards to trades and budgets.
Lindor had the only hit, a double. However he looked lost in much of his eight at-bats, fanning 3 times. In his last 60 plate looks of the regular season, he batted.188.
The All-Star shortstop looked distracted and shaken at the plate.
Santana and Lindor played on the 2016 World Series team. They also were with the Tribe in the 2017 and 2018 playoffs.
This was the first postseason for Reyes, so that is a factor.
And they were terrible.
CURRENT TERRY PLUTO COLUMNS.
As for Santana, he was 0-for-8 with three strikeouts. Looked like he did most of the routine season, when he batted.199.
The Indians scored 3 runs in the opener. Most likely unsatisfactory to win, but three runs usually kept things close with Bieber on the mound.
Does John Dorsey deserve a minimum of a little credit?
Theres Hunt. Theres Chubb. And how about some defense, too! Browns win!
Terry Talkin Browns: Andrew Berrys strategy, Kevin Stefanskis obstacle.
Cleveland Browns Post Game Scribbles.
Hoping Indians have a long post-season run, cant think regular season is over.
Huge action ahead for Browns, can they take it?
Underdogs & & Underappreciated, the Tribe makes the playoffs.
Hey Terry, what about the Browns, the income cap, the defense?
Unlike Bieber, Hand wasnt hit hard. The team with baseballs best pitching in the routine season had an 11.00 ERA in two video games versus the Yankees. Looked like he did many of the routine season, when he batted.199. In Game 2, they kept coming back. They scored 9 runs.
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Gamble on offensive line pays off.
Browns post-game scribbles after a fun win.
