Brooks Baseball PitchFX - Jeanmar Gomez
There have been many good individual developments in September - Lonnie Chisenhall, Russ Canzler, Frank Herrmann - but Jeanmar Gomez certainly wasn't one of them. Banished to AAA in June after winning a starting job in the spring, Gomez ended his 2012 campaign in about the worst way possible. After a decent first two innings, and after retiring the first two batters in the third, he suddenly couldn't retire a batter. He allowed a two-out single to Irving Falu, and that seemed to unleash the floodgates. Gomez has had trouble pitching out of the stretch this season, but this was ridiculous:
-A. Gordon walked - B. Butler singled to shallow left, I. Falu scored, A. Gordon to second - S. Perez singled, A. Gordon to third, B. Butler to second - M. Moustakas doubled to deep right center, A. Gordon and B. Butler scored, S. Perez to third - J. Francoeur homered to deep left, S. Perez and M. Moustakas scored - B. Pena flied out to left
After that stretch of batters, the Royals led 6-1, and Gomez was done for the evening. It looked like this would turn into either a blowout or a shootout, especially given that Kansas City's starter was already out of the game.
Royals starter Jake Odorizzi was making his second major-league start (his first was also against the Indians), and while he too struggled, he managed to somehow keep the damage to just one run. He threw over 40 pitches in the first innings, and by the time the second was over, he had thrown 65 pitches. That's a lot of pitches for any starter, never mind 22-year-old top prospect. So the Royals pulled him before the bottom of the third, which was possible because of the expanded rosters.
On the offensive side, Lonnie Chisenhall again had an outstanding day at the plate, collecting three hits, including a double. Two of the Tribe regulars would connect on the hits that tied the game. Choo's single in the eighth brought the Indians to within two runs, and Asdrubal Cabrera's two-out, two-run double in the ninth tied it.
It was a good thing that there were expanded rosters, for if not position players might have to throwing on sides before the evening was over. The Indians ended up using 9 pitchers, and the Royals used 8. The Tribe bullpen, up until Scott Maine in the 14th, was almost perfect, not allowing a run in 10 innings of work. Chris Seddon would throw three innings of shutout ball, making his case for a longman spot (if one is there) in the bullpen next year. Even Tony Sipp pitched a perfect inning. But the Indians, despite several opportunities, couldn't push the winning run across, and after Scott Maine allowed a run in the top of the 14th, that huge opportunity in the 14th wasn't pounced upon, and instead of a walk-off win, the Royals escaped with the victory.
Source: FanGraphs