Indians stumble into the All-Star break after dropping 4-game series to the Yankees

Indians 7, Yankees 11

Score, Box

Indians fall to 52-36

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Maybe today didn't go particularly well. Still, the Indians are very good at baseball. You know what? That's fine. I can live with that. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this team is better than the 2007 team. I think this team has a legitimate shot at winning The Whole Goddamn thing because of the pitching staff. Could we use some help in the bullpen? Maybe. Do we need to deal prospects for a reliever? I don't know, I'm not smart enough to say. I'm usually very dumb about trades because I've been lobbying to trade Cody Allen for random prospects for years because I think closers are overvalued. So far, this year, Allen has proved me a fool by being quite valuable.

But what if we do make a trade for bullpen help? I'm not going to start a revolt because we spent some money/roster capital on a LOOGY. Matchups matter, and in a single series in October one bad outing by a reliever can sink a team's title shot. Should we blow up the roster? Not at all. But if a couple of movable pieces make sense for another team — and I won't name names because I wither under the pressure of hot takes because I'm a loser — we should move them.

Was this a boner jam? Not at all. Probably the farthest possible thing from one. But remember — this Indians team is one of the best we've seen in years. We're in position to take the AL central, avoid the awful stupid dumb annoying single game Wild Card Thing, and ride a delightful rotation into World Series Glory.

I SAID IT. I SAID WORLD SERIES. IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN AND WE'RE GOING TO WIN THE DAMN THING BECAUSE I SAID SO.

Unfortunately today we lost. Carlos Carrasco didn't look sharp, as he struggled early and couldn't quite place the ball into the zone of strikes. At the same time, the bullpen today didn't exactly hop in and help out at all. They used three relievers in the middle of the game that each pitched a third of an inning but gave up six runs combined.

That is not the baseball.

Things of note:

• Tyler Naquin hit his 9th home run and continually tells BABIP to go pound sand.
• Francisco Lindor made another error. All is lost. The prophecy is broken. We are all dead.
• Every Indians starter had a hit except for Yan Gomes, who went 0-3 with a walk. In his last at-bat he swung at the first two pitches, which I've heard is a good strategy if you don't enjoy reaching base.
• Jorge Posada is 44 years old, and did not play in today's game because he is 44 years old.
• The Indians committed three errors today. Typically, people assume that three errors is too many.
• The Yankees made an interesting decision by letting Nathan Eovaldi pitch the second half of the game instead of leveraging their usual group of relievers. It paid off, unfortunately. While I hate when the Indians lose, I love seeing a team make an unusual decision like this. Baseball needs to get weird and creative whenever possible because it's fun to watch. Eovaldi's line for today came to 4.1 IP; 1 H; 0 ER or R or Bad Things; 3 BB; 3 SO. Look, whatever, it worked and the Yankees are all geniuses now and life is pointless and it all hurts.