What a clown show. The defense is horrible, especially on the mound. Quantrill spikes an easy force out at home and Hentges can't figure out where first base is just like Mejia the day before. Pop-ups are dropping all over the place. Runners coming home from third on plays at first base. Outfielders overthrowing cut-off men allowing runners to move up. Even Manning commented on the shoddy play, saying the Indians needed to go back to Fundementals 101.
Quantrill showed he belongs in the bullpen. Hentges proved he belongs in the minors; nine hits in under two innings. Let's go with McKenzie and Mejia as the 4th and 5th starters and pray they are decent.
The pitching was horrid - all those hits on 0-2 pitches. What a joke. At least Stephan looked good. He was throwing 98 and 99 with a nice slider to go along with it. He probably has a lot more development to get to where he's going but obviously there's a huge arm to work with. He throws harder than anybody except Clase. No way the Yankees are getting this Rule 5 pick back.
Well, we finally got Mullins out - on a line drive. What an amazing series he had - nine hits, a couple of walks, and a spectacular diving catch in center. I can't remember an opposing player having this good a series against the Indians. Maybe Miggy in his prime, but even then I don't think he ever had nine hits including three homers and a double.
When Mullins tried to stretch that double into a triple I'll bet he was thinking about hitting for the cycle. He already had the single and home run.
The silver lining is the hitting of Bobby Bradley, who went 4-for-5 with a home run and two doubles, using both right and left fields. By my count Bradley swung at 10 pitches the last two games and only missed one - the first one. His problem has been strikeouts but he was definitely making contact this weekend. I don't want to go overboard on five at-bats but man did he look good. If Bradley is the answer to our first base problem then this was a successful weekend.
In 2019 Bradley struck out 20 times in 45 at-bats. For him to take ten swings and make contact on nine of them is pretty exciting. Even the one time they got him out was on a hard hit ground ball. The oppo home run off a lefty may have been his most impressive swing of series.
Time to bring McKenzie back and get Mejia stretched out.
