Game 65: Pirates 9, Indians 5

There haven't been many of the last-minute variety of losses this year, but plenty of the type that we saw today. I'd call this type the Throttled Comeback loss. It's a loss where you briefly have designs on a comeback, only to have the opposition blow the game open as soon as the front-end reliever enters the game.

This wasn't a classic definition of the Throttled Comeback; it had a defensive twist to it. After Jeanmar Gomez allowed the tying run run to score in the fifth, he got into more trouble (despite the fact that a rally-killing home run had already occurred in the inning), but made his pitch - a sharp grounder right at Asdrubal Cabrera with the bases loaded and one out. I was allowed one brief moment of relief, then the feeling was throttled in its beginnings, for Asdrubal flubbed the catch and flubbed the recovery, allowing two runs to score instead of turning the double play.

That was it for Gomez, but what would a Throttled Comeback be without a reliever giving up a big inning? Esmil Rogers, who had been impressive in his two outings in Cincinnati, entered the game, and promptly gave up a three-run homer to Pedro Alvarez, his second on the day and fourth in the series. Just like that, it was 9-4 Pirates, and garbáge time could begin.

Source: FanGraphs