Here are 17 Walk-Off Thoughts after the Indians’ 10-7 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday.
1. The Indians’ bullpen lately has been among baseball’s best. Wednesday night, though, was a rough one for closer Cody Allen.
2. The Indians entered the ninth leading 7-5. Two singles (including an error on Francisco Lindor) and a walk loaded the bases. Dioner Navarro then blooped a ball into left field that Jose Ramirez got his glove on but couldn’t catch, making it 7-6. Then, the final haymaker: Adam Eaton took a curve ball and crushed it for a grand slam.
3. That’s about as tough of a night as you can have as a closer. The Indians’ Twitter account was probably swarmed with venting fans calling Allen the worst closer in the league. And it was a bad night, one that cost the Indians a win that would have pushed their lead in the AL Central even further.
4. Said Indians manager Terry Francona, “Yeah, we got two infield singles, a walk that you could see the umpire flinch like he almost called it, and then a flair right over third. And he’s not in a good situation. He’s facing a guy that hasn’t put the ball in play yet, gets ahead 0-2 and hung a breaking ball. That was pretty much the ballgame.”
5. To Allen’s credit, he was sitting at his locker waiting for reporters when the clubhouse was opened. “That’s baseball,” he said. “You’ve got to make pitches when you have to. Had a nice opportunity right there to kind of limit what was going on. Didn’t actually think that was a bad pitch to Eaton, he just put a good swing on it. That guy’s a good player. That’s kind of how the inning went.”
6. One of the side effects of having Andrew Miller is that every time Allen or Bryan Shaw make a mistake, “Why wasn’t Miller in the game?” will be the question asked by fans.
7. Francona addressed this in a way recently, saying that he won’t be able to get Miller warmed up every time another pitcher might fall into trouble. You’d “kill” the bullpen over time. Warming up Miller just in case the White Sox get to Eaton in the lineup, and so that he can face one hitter after he’s thrown three times in the last four days, isn’t going to work in the long-term.
8. Francona also said afterward that Miller, who threw two innings Tuesday, wasn’t available anyway.
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9. To take it a step further, Allen had a 1.19 ERA and 12.19 K/9 in his last 30 games (hat-tip to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com for that one). He had allowed one earned run since the beginning of July. And Shaw has now had 25 scoreless appearances in his last 26. Those two, along with Miller, together have formed a three-headed monster lately. But, they won’t be perfect.
10. Said Allen, “It’s one game. Obviously it was a tough one, but it’s one ballgame. We’ll show up tomorrow ready to play.”
11. Francona would love to use Shaw, Miller and Allen every day. That’s not going to be possible, and repeatedly warming up pitchers who don’t enter the game isn’t going to help matters. That’s the balance managers have to find when handling a bullpen across a 162-game grind. It’s one of the reasons bullpens can shift so much from year-to-year, and why they seem like they can be on shaky ground at times.
12. Lately, the Indians bullpen had been borderline deadly—like when they grabbed a one-run lead against the Angels to overcome a 4-1 deficit they had all day and then didn’t allow another hit the rest of the game. Wednesday was a reminder that eventually, a relief pitcher is going to have to be waiting at his locker, ready to answer questions on a rough night.
13. Relief pitchers often have to deal with short memories, the thinking being that it’s a good thing to forget one bad outing and move on. But when evaluating relief pitchers, the opposite is true. Even though it won’t help cooler heads prevail Wednesday night.
14. Lindor’s error didn’t help matters. If he doesn’t make the throw, it’s possible the Indians get an out on the next play, if they had the force-out at second base available. Instead, it was an infield single.
15. Francona still will take Lindor’s aggressiveness. Said Francona, “Yeah, probably. But again, how many times have we seen him make plays where you don’t want to take his aggressiveness away?”
16. Brandon Guyer was acquired to hit left-handed pitchers but got the starter against a righty on Wednesday and responded, coming away with three singles including a go-ahed two-run single in the fifth. He’s hitting .462 since coming to Cleveland.
17. Said Guyer, “It's always fun, whether it's a righty or lefty, to get out there on the field. I love playing with these guys. It's a fun group of guys. It stinks we lost, though. That's all I can think about right now. But, we'll come back tomorrow and we'll be good.”