Indians drop a stinker to A’s

A’s 9, Indians 1

Box score

Tribe falls to 72-52

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If I were to tell you that Chris Gimenez accounted for the the only Indians run of the game, and one of only four hits, you would roll your eyes and assume we lost. If I told you that, in addition to the single run, Danny Salazar again collapsed like post-Soviet infrastructure, you’d rock back-and-forth in the fetal position and know we lost.

Now, I don’t want to be crass, but I also don’t like to sugarcoat things: this game was total dogshit. Every thing you would expect a first-place team to do well was done poorly by the Indians tonight. Add to the fact that it was done against the baseball equivalent of the kid who gets picked last for kickball, and this one is sure to leave an undesirable skidmark on the bottom of your shoes. Let’s recap this chunk by chunk:

Rancid starting pitching

On the bright side, Danny Salazar lasted three inning longer than in his last start. On the other hand, he did literally everything else wrong. His control was non-existent, and seemingly every pitch of his was left up in the strikezone. He got an out to start the A’s 1st but then yielded two singles before getting demolished by Khris Davis for a 3-run homer. After settling down in the 2nd, he dove right back in the peed-in deep end, giving up two more runs in the 3rd. Again, he settled down and worked a 1-2-3 4th, but gave up a leadoff double in the 5th and was promptly yanked. Danny’s night ended with six earned runs on six hits and three walks, plus a lot of questions about whether or not the Indians rushed him back from his injury too soon. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him dropped back on the DL for something vague after this performance.

Noxious hitting

There isn’t much to say about this that isn’t summed up by the opening line of the recap. Though they were modern jerseys, Tribe hitters turned back the clock to 2009 in getting absolutely dominated by a no-name rookie lefty. Sean Manaea struck out eight Indians hitters over seven innings. No one except Gimenez advanced past first base. Efforts were similarly futile against LGFT cast-off John Axford and reliever Chris Smith. It was one of the all-around most pathetic performances by the Indians offense all year.

Foul relief pitching

Zach McAllister came on in relief of Danny Salazar and immediately allowed his inherited runner to score. He did manage a 1-2-3 6th inning, but nobody really cared by that point. Likewise for the 1-2-3 inning thrown by Jabroni Mike. Actual Mike (Clevinger) got an opportunity to demonstrate his stuff in mop-up duty, and gave up two runs on a single and two doubles to make this one a laugher. The A’s would score one more run thanks to...

Putrid defense

Francisco Lindor pulled Carlos Santana off the bag on what should have been an innin-ending double play in the bottom of the 8th, which allowed Oakland’s 9th run to score. Just to book-end the total collapse, Jason Kipnis dropped a routine pop-up and looked like a dope while doing it, largely due to miscommunication between him and Santana.

Did anything good happen in this game?

Not directly. At least it ended in under three hours so people didn’t have to stay up and torture themselves any longer. But just to add insult to injury, Detroit blew out Minnesota so they gain a game on the Tribe, moving up to 6.5 back.

Nothing you can do about this but scrape off the stink and hope for a better outcome tomorrow.