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Brooks Baseball PitchFX - Ubaldo Jimenez
The last time the Indians lost this many games in a month, World War I was days away, and Babe Ruth had just made his major-league debut.
With tonight's loss, the Indians finished the month of August with 24 losses, tying the franchise record for losses in a month, a record that's stood since July 1914. There's been a lot of awful Indians baseball since then, but not until today has one month been as bad. Not in 1991, not during the dark years of the 70s or 80s, have the Indians been as bad as they've been in August.
As to the particulars of this particular loss...
Ubaldo Jimenez had to throw 32 pitches to get out of the first inning, 29 pitches in the third inning, and because of that would be pulled before getting out of the sixth inning. The Rangers didn't hit him all that hard, with a couple runs scoring on perfectly-placed hits, and he would strike out seven, but the inefficiency killed him. If a team has to use 3-4 relievers regularly after a starter's done, the bullpen's going to get burned out. The length of a start in some ways is just as important for the long-term success of the team as the effectiveness of the start itself. If Ruben Niebla is the pitching coach next season, Jimenez is going to be project #1.
The Indians made the contest close with two runs in the ninth. Casey Kotchman hit a two-run homer off Koji Uehara, cutting the deficit to 5-3. After Ezequiel Carrera flied out to deep center, Ron Washington brought in Joe Nathan to finish the Indians off, and he did so, retiring Brent Lillibridge and Jason Donald to end the game and give the Indians a record-tying 24th loss in the month of August.
Source: FanGraphs