The Cleveland Indians proudly present "The strange case of Mr Bauer" and "The reappearance of the invisible man"

Indians 3, White Sox 2

Indians beat White Sox with solo home runs | Let's Go Tribe (USSChoo)
Trevor Bauer, Ryan Raburn HRs burn White Sox | indians.com
Ryan Raburn torches Chris Sale twice as Cleveland Indians top Chicago White Sox, 3-2 | cleveland.com
By now we have become very used to the enigmatic Bauer playing either Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde, but he certainly excelled himself yesterday afternoon by playing both personas in the very same game. It was Mr Hyde for the first two innings before Dr Jekyll finally made his appearance just in the nick of time.

If the Tribe doesn't re-sign Ryan Raburn over the winter, the White Sox should definitely snap him up. He always seems to be at his best at U.S. Cellular Field and at least that way they wouldn't have to face him any more.

Indians news & notes

With Trevor Bauer, "that's not exactly how you draw it up", but the Cleveland Indians will take it | cleveland.com
Zack Meisel with some interesting quotes from Tito and Bauer about last night's dramatic turnaround, along with Ryan Raburn's explanation of how he is able to come in and perform so well on a very irregular basis.

For those keeping count at home, in the six weeks since July 26th, Raburn has hit 10-21 with three doubles, three homers and three walks. He has started just seven games with three additional PH appearances. For whatever reason, Jerry Sands has frequently been preferred off the bench as the first right-handed PH.

Francisco Lindor leads Majors in sac bunts | MLB.com
Er, that's not actually a "good thing".

Despite loss, Clippers win division | The Columbus Dispatch
The Columbus Clippers clinched their playoff seeding last night as the minor league regular season drew to a close. Both the Clippers (Class AAA) and Lynchburg Hillcats (Class A+) begin their playoff series tomorrow, and we shall be providing a full preview article here at LGT.

Tidbits from around MLB

Is there a way to quantify how good managers are? | Sports On Earth
Jeff Long argues that it's not the quantity of mistakes that matter, but the context of those mistakes: "A bad manager can cost his team real, actual, printed-in-the-newspaper wins. That shouldn't be ignored in favor of a broader, context-neutral look at their performance."

Incidentally, going by the recent reaction of Nats' fans to his bullpen use, Matt Williams' in-game decisions make Tito look like a genius. I guess that if Millsy ever retires, Williams would never lack for employment — he would be a shoo-in for the role of Indians' bench coach.

Rays owner Sternberg 'extraordinarily' pleased with Kevin Cash | Tampa Bay Times
On the subject of managers, the former Tribe bullpen coach has impressed everyone during his first year at Rays manager. You could certainly make a good case for him as AL Manager of the year given the starting pitcher injuries that he had to deal with (Alex Cobb, Drew Smyly, Alex Colome and Matt Moore all began the year on the DL, with Cobb out for the season with TJ and the other three having managed just 28 starts between them to date),

Matt Garza removed from Brewers' rotation | MLB Trade Rumors
He's livid and has declined the Brewers' generous offer that he could pitch out of the bullpen for the rest of the year. Yet again, the "vesting option" contract clause causes more acrimony between player and team. But hey, Garza only has two more guaranteed years on his contract, so it's not like this will fester.

Harvey's innings aren't the issue. It's all about stress | Sports On Earth
The plan changes: Sandy Alderson says Matt Harvey to be limited to two more starts | HardballTalk
The Harvey soap opera continues in New York. I guess they never thought to thrash out these innings-related issues earlier in the season, because the very idea of the Mets making the playoff has been fanciful for such a long time.

Matt Harvey & nine other great post-Tommy John seasons | Sports on Earth
If he is shut down, Harvey would hardly be the first TJ-recovering pitcher to be pulled out early after a great season, as Andrew Simon illustrates.