Cleveland Indians lose a snoozer to the Mariners

Jose Ramirez hit a home run, Carlos Carrasco looked great for the most part and I still have about 480 words to make this recap viable. So, uh, how about that rain?

The legendary ability of the Cleveland Indians to be mystified by no-name left-handed pitchers continued tonight, with Ariel Miranda no-hitting the lineup through the first three innings until Ramirez opened the Tribe scoring — and hitting — with a solo shot in the fourth.

Other than Ramirez’s blast, the Indians only managed to get a runner on second twice, once when Lindor walked in the first inning then advanced to second on a wild pitch from future Cy Young winner Miranda and again in the eighth when Lindor doubled. Other than Frankie’s expected magic, it was a see of blanks and slap singles for the Tribe tonight.

As for the Tribe’s struggles against lefties, it comes down to two players, in particular: Brandon Guyer and Edwin Encarnacion. They are both struggling against everyone, but when they finally get it going it’ll go a long way towards helping the Indians hit against southpaws again.

If you are an avid LGT reader you already know how much of a lefty masher Guyer has been in his career but it just hasn’t translated in 2017. All but two of his at-bats have come against lefties this year, yet he’s 4-for-33 on the season with a home run as his only extra-base hit. Encarnacion does not have as much of a split as Guyer (132 career wRC+ vs LHP, 124 wRC+ vs RHP), but he’s the big #RightHandedPower bat that needs to get the offense moving against those shifty lefties.

Carrasco may walk away with the loss tonight, but he certainly pitched like he deserved a win. One of the home runs he gave up was an extreme rarity, too, as pointed out by TJ Zuppe of The Athletic:

You know what else probably has a roughly 11 percent chance of happening on any given night? A team getting shutdown by Ariel Miranda.