Cody Anderson struggles again, Indians lose 7-1

Indians 1, Mariners 7

Box Score

Indians fall to 32-25

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In a game where not many things broke the Indians way, even foul balls managed to cause trouble.

They tried to dismantle the Indians in the second inning of tonight's game. Jose Ramirez took a cut on a pitch down and in that ricocheted off of the inside of his ankle, which is apparently called the medial malleolus. He rolled to the ground and stayed there for a few moments, hesitant to put weight on his left foot. After being checked by the team doctors, Ramirez finished the at bat with a ground out and stayed in the game.

Yan Gomes had a much more unfortunate encounter with a foul ball.

"He really got smoked on that foul tip. And Yan Gomes is going to be down on his knees for a while, folks. He'll be okay, he'll be able to play, but... let's just say it's going to take a while before he's breathing normally again."

Tom Hamilton

For quite a while it looked like Gomes might lose his dinner and lunch on the field. He held his stomach, but could not stay in the game. I don't blame the man; ball-on-ball crime is an atrocity that no one should suffer, and the replay is one that no man should have to watch more than once. Yan should be fine, and appeared to be in (relatively) good spirits about it. LGT member JZellers reported the following from behind enemy lines:

If I ever learn the contents of Gomes' witty rejoinder, I will share them.

Viewers who thought that these early almost-injuries were ill omens proved to be correct. We have to talk about the bottom of the fourth but I really don't want to. Anderson faced Adam Lind with two runners on and two out. He worked to a 2-2 count, then Lind grounded out to end the inning short-circuited Francisco Lindor and extended the inning. I can't say for sure what happened. Lindor appeared to look to first base, then consider the easier toss to second. Kipnis, however, had not quite reached the bag, although he would have met the ball there in time for the out. With time ticking Lindor fired a bullet to first, but his arm could not outgun Lind after giving him such a head start. I'm so used to Lindor playing picturesque defense that I immediately assumed a bunch of gnats flew up his nose when he tried to throw. No evil bugs. Simply a player getting stuck in his head rather than reacting.

Then, Cody Anderson burned down, fell over, and sank into the swamp.

I didn't want this to be another Very Bad Cody Anderson Game, but here we are. Is it his fault that Lindor couldn't convert an easy ground ball into an out? Absolutely not. Is it his fault for giving up a double and then a triple immediately after? To kill any doubt in your mind, let's look at the pitch locations:

Clevenger's double off a changeup

O'Malley's triple off a fastball

I don't know what the future holds for Cody Anderson. I think he has Major League stuff, but maybe in relief. Zach McAllister might be the better choice this season if the Indians need a sixth man and don't want to tap Mike Clevinger or Ryan Merritt. And besides Cody, Columbus isn't so bad. There's a great Zoo, COSI, Dirty Frank's, and it's got huge...tracts of land.

Lonnie Chisendonged, and also had a double on the night. Other than that I have nothing to say about the Indians offense except that this is an unfortunate aberration in the midst of a glorious hitting renaissance; kind of like the entire extent of the Black Death, but played out in one night.

Is this a disappointing loss? Certainly, but they all are. To keep things in perspective, the Indians are 2.5 games ahead of the Royals and the Tigers, and 3.5 ahead of the White Sox. There's going to be a lot of fun baseball to watch in the AL Central all summer long.