Apropos of nothing, the most baserunners you can squander in an inning is five — squander meaning only that a guy got on base, wasn't swapped out for another guy on a fielder's choice, and didn't score. You get to five by making the first two outs on the basepaths, after the batter and any runners have all reached safely, and then ending the inning with the bases loaded, stranding three.
The Indians scored three runs in the top of a very, very strange 9th, and it may seem gluttonish to suggest that they should have scored more, but really, it isn't. They put seven men on base and only there scored. That isn't a bad rate for a whole game, but for a single inning, it's kind of atrocious. After the third run scored, we did have the bases loaded with only one out and the top of the lineup coming to the plate.
As for what followed, I'll defer to our astute occasional contributor TribeJay (no relation), who may be confused here for a negativist but is not one. Posted he:
The elephant in the room that the media isn't talking about is that JoBo's velocity is DOWN. He threw 88-89 for much of last year. In Lakeland he topped out at 86 with most of his fastballs at 83-84. Today he was at 85 for the one fastball I saw on the scoreboard (STO's radar readings weren't working later in the game), and his fastball just doesn't look as firm as it did last year. Not that he ever threw smoke, but I can tell a noticeable difference, and the radar readings I've seen back that up. Hopefully it's just temporary and he just needs to improve his arm strength, but I can't imagine how he's going to be able to keep the closer job the whole year if he can't increase his velocity. I mean, he was very hittable LAST year
Mind you, he did not post that last night. He posted it the night before.
Earlier in the game, eight other innings just happened. The offense was anemic though occasionally sparked by a strong return performance by Victor. Fausto had an unsteady performance, pitching six shutout innings, or rather, allowing only one unearned run. It is what it is.