Another game of missed opportunities and sloppy baseball as Indians drop game to Rays 4-1

Rays 4, Indians 1

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Indians drop to 31–36

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Passive baseball fans looked at today’s pitching matchup in Cleveland and saw "Ramirez 6-2 v Kluber 3-8" and said "Man. Easy win for Tampa Bay. Get me to a casino!"

The Rays got off to an immediate 3-0 lead after a walk to the first batter of the game, a perfectly-executed hit-and-run and a homer by the Longobot.

Shockingly, the Indians were less successful in the first inning, going down 1-2-3.

Longoria had another chance with 2 men on and nobody out in the 3rd inning, but this time he walked, loading the bases. Only one run would end up scoring. This, along with Michael Bourn’s PO-Assist, kept the Indians in the game. But would it matter?

In the bottom of the 4th inning, anybody who bet on the Rays because they had a 6-2 hurler on the mound would suffer a scare; Ramirez bent over after throwing a pitch and was replaced after just 3.0+ innings of work.

So with Erasmo Ramirez more X-Rays than Rays, X-avier Cedeño came on to pitch. Because he got to face the current state of the Indians lineup, Xavier was just fine.

After the 2nd inning, Corey Kluber was just fine as well. Kluber wound up pitching 7 innings, allowing 4 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks. He struck out 6 before being relieved by Ryan Webb.

But it didn’t matter. This game was another embarrassing series of events for a team that’s had plenty of them this season.

The Indians would load the bases with 1 out in the 8th inning and again with 2 outs in the 9th inning. In the 8th, they would scratch a single run across… 0.631 runs below the expectancy for that situation. That and a wild pitch yesterday are the only things that prevented 18 straight consecutive scoreless IP by Tampa pitchers.

As for that guy who headed to the casino based on his glance at W-L records? Sometimes it pays to be a moron. Unfortunately.

Student 2, Teacher 0.

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