2020 Wild Card Series - Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees

[bigfoot5415]

I agree in terms of losses, the 2 game 7 losses were the worst individual feelings.

However, when I think of 97 and 16, I can't divorce them from the context of how fun the postseason was leading up to that point. 97 had that epic ALDS comeback off Rivera, then 3 last ABs wins in the ALCS. Plus, you had the rise of Jaret Wright, Chad Ogea getting 2 hits in a game and Omar Vizquel making one of the best plays in WS history. 16 had a sweep of Boston with a 3 HR inning, the heroics of Andrew Miller, the bloody finger game and Ryan Merrit, as well as Rajai's epic HR. So those memories are bittersweet. Years like 17 and 20 will always just be bitter.

2017 will always be the worst for me because we were the best team in the regular season that year and were up 2-0.

97-16-95-17-18-20 in that order for me. 18 bothers me bc we had 4 200 SO guys and the Astros saw every pitch. It was almost as if they were cheating....

That starting pitching should have mowed down everyone.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

Hand talks about crapping himself, if you read between the lines, I guess:

What happened to Brad Hand in the 9th inning of Cleveland Indians’ Wild Card Game 2 loss to Yankees?
https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/202...indians-wild-card-game-2-loss-to-yankees.html

 

[daddywags]

Hand talks about crapping himself, if you read between the lines, I guess:

What happened to Brad Hand in the 9th inning of Cleveland Indians’ Wild Card Game 2 loss to Yankees?
https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/202...indians-wild-card-game-2-loss-to-yankees.html

It's a subscription only article, or at least that's what it's telling me.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

It's a subscription only article, or at least that's what it's telling me.

I was able to access it through the app, without a subscription. But it might be malfunctioning; I see that it is supposed to be subscriber only. I got lucky, I guess. Or unlucky.

 

[Cassity14]

'17 was easily the worst for me. Indians were the best team in baseball and then shit themselves against one of my least favorite teams in all sports. It sucks because that comeback in game 1 or 2, I don't remember, with the Lindor grand slam to make it 8-8 was such a good individual memory. Then you had the dumb shit like Judge being able to perfectly rob Lindor later on, Edwin's injury, Kluber's 2 poor starts, etc.

The winning streak was so fun, but other than that, thinking of that year just bring up bad feelings. So many dominant performances just to blow a 2-0 lead in a best of 5.

'18 sucked, but the Indians weren't as good as the year before, and their regular season was just so blase. They should have won more games to not draw the Astros in round 1.

It sucked in '16 to lose, but I still have largely positive feelings about that whole postseason. The context of it happening immediately after the Cavs' championship definitely plays a massive factor in that too. Had the Cavs lost to the Warriors that year, I believe the entire city would have completely different feelings looking back on it as opposed to the celebratory nature it's looked at today.

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

The slow starter thing makes Santana riskier now at 34. Hard to tell if he is just cranking it up or if he has lost it for good. Best to just invest elsewhere at this point.

I hope to hell the Tribe doesn't offer him significant money. He"s the exact type of player on which a wealthy team can afford to take a risk. We can't.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Hand talks about crapping himself, if you read between the lines, I guess:

What happened to Brad Hand in the 9th inning of Cleveland Indians’ Wild Card Game 2 loss to Yankees?
https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/202...indians-wild-card-game-2-loss-to-yankees.html

Hand got himself into trouble by walking the leadoff hitter, but to be fair Stanton had already hit a couple of home runs so he had to be careful and a walk wasn't the worst thing with the bases empty. He then got ahead of Urshela 0-2 and threw him a pitch halfway between the knees and ankles. It was a great pitch either for a strikeout or a ground ball double play and just the pitch you want to throw in an 0-2 count with a runner on first. However, Urshela somehow managed to square it up and find a hole up the middle. It was still a good pitch.

Then he gets Torres to check his swing and the ball hits his bat and bounces off home plate to the pitcher's mound - exactly what you want with two on and nobody out. Unfortunately the ball bounced so far that it came down on the back of the mound and Hand was off-balance and dropped the ball. I suppose you can critique him for not catching the ball and getting a force. If he had, we win the game.

He then struck out Gardner but Sanchez managed a routine fly ball to center, which would have ended the game if Hand could have gotten an out off the high chop. Finally, he got the AL batting champion LaMahieu to hit a ground ball which found a hole up the middle.

Hand also got a bad call on a pitch that should have been strike three - to Torres I think.

This was not a bad outing by Hand. He had two unlucky hits and nobody hit the ball hard. The walk was his fault and he failed to make a defensive play he should have made. Not his best outing but there was a check swing base hit and a hit on a pitch well out of the zone.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

Hand got himself into trouble by walking the leadoff hitter, but to be fair Stanton had already hit a couple of home runs so he had to be careful and a walk wasn't the worst thing with the bases empty. He then got ahead of Urshela 0-2 and threw him a pitch halfway between the knees and ankles. It was a great pitch either for a strikeout or a ground ball double play and just the pitch you want to throw in an 0-2 count with a runner on first. However, Urshela somehow managed to square it up and find a hole up the middle. It was still a good pitch.

Then he gets Torres to check his swing and the ball hits his bat and bounces off home plate to the pitcher's mound - exactly what you want with two on and nobody out. Unfortunately the ball bounced so far that it came down on the back of the mound and Hand was off-balance and dropped the ball. I suppose you can critique him for not catching the ball and getting a force. If he had, we win the game.

He then struck out Gardner but Sanchez managed a routine fly ball to center, which would have ended the game if Hand could have gotten an out off the high chop. Finally, he got the AL batting champion LaMahieu to hit a ground ball which found a hole up the middle.

Hand also got a bad call on a pitch that should have been strike three - to Torres I think.

This was not a bad outing by Hand. He had two unlucky hits and nobody hit the ball hard. The walk was his fault and he failed to make a defensive play he should have made. Not his best outing but there was a check swing base hit and a hit on a pitch well out of the zone.

So, then, it was bad luck, like every other year?