CDAV45
Small ball is for pussies!
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I appreciate your detailed posts Wham. You do a great job with these game threads.Nice to win the last Indians game in Fenway. It looked like they were going to blow it until the 9th.
Plesac staggered through five innings, allowing 8 hits and 3 walks. The first four innings he looked like a tightrope walker in a hurricane as he escaped jam after jam. They finally got to him for three runs in the 5th and it could have been more but he stepped up and struck out Renfroe and Devers with runners on second and third. A tremendouly gutsy performance that may have saved the game.
Plesac was lucky that drive by Shaw wasn't 12 inches higher or it would have been a three-run homer.
The Indians bullpen give up two more runs in four innings today (thanks to Wittgren), so the final total for the six Red Sox games is 17 earned runs in 21 innings. This was a very useful and instructive series. The front office should have no doubts about the need to augment the bullpen this off-season, even assuming Sandlin and Karinchak return and pitch well next year.
Nice to see Stephan bounce back and pitch a scoreless inning.
It's amazing how Franmil can go from something like 1-for-23 with 13 K's to 5-for-5 literally overnight. It's like flipping a switch.
The Sox did us a favor by resting Devers and we also got lucky when their starter came down with COVID and they had to rush a kid up from AAA to make his first career appearance. We still almost let this one get away. We got six runs off their two minor league pitchers so this win was kind of a gift.
All six games were decided in the 7th, 8th, 9th, or 10th innings. It really was a close, competitive series. Every game came down to who had the better bullpen. Today it was the Red Sox guy who imploded.
Schwarber is amazing; he almost never chases a bad pitch, even the ones 2 inches off the plate. His OBP since coming to the Sox was .464 coming into the game. The Indians got him today, though, as he went 0-for-4 with a walk.
Owen Miller hit a double off the center field wall. You don't see a second baseman do that every day. He and Chang are very similar in that they are infielders with unusual power but they don't make solid contact enough to be worth playing.
The Red Sox have used 50 players this year including 32 pitchers thanks to the usual injuries plus COVID. They're now in second place in the wild card race. Verdugo is hitting .363 his last 25 games; Plawecki .344 since the All-Star break. Schwarber is .338 since being traded. These guys are stepping up.
A couple of things I'd like to mention:
1) Outside of a good LHRP, do we need BP help for next year?
2) Has the SP injuries put unusual wear and tear on the BP.
3) Wittgren has been a pretty damn good RP for us until his recent struggles. Is he on the downside or a victim from #2?
4) Do you bring Shaw back?
5) Does Stephan go to Columbus next season to get stretched out?
6) Do you really think that Miller has "unusual power", and why would you not think he'll migrate toward his career norms. I recall the conversations from earlier in the year/season comparing Miller and Freeman. I thought both were similar hitters with Freeman having a slightly better bat to ball skill and Miller having a bit more power. I'm anxious to see Miller with a fresh start.
7) Just imagine if Chang could ever hit .275 and get on base at a .330 clip. He'd probably have 25 HR with a full season's worth of AB. Thing is, he might actually be able to do that, but I doubt it will be with Cleveland. I don't view Miller and Chang as similar hitters at all, but that's just my opinion.
8) We played the Red Sox tough this season, and they're a competitive team so I think that speaks volumes about Cleveland's ability to compete.
9) Getting production from the bottom part of the lineup dramatically increases this team's chances of winning regular season ballgames. The difference is astounding.