Cleveland Indians hammered in fifth, fall to Diamondbacks 7-3

The Indians fell 7-3 against the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight. While the game started with excitement, everything after the fifth inning felt pointless. At one point, the Indians pitcher surrendered a nine-pitch walk. That and the fact that I cannot remember who issued the walk and will not bother to look it up captures the feeling nicely.

In the first inning, Francisco Lindor launched another home run. It happened to be his third bomb in as many at-bats. The following inning, “right fielder” Carlos Santana singled home Yandy Diaz and Tyler Naquin. The Diamondbacks escaped with minimal damage, as after the single Lindor fouled out and Brantley smoked a line drive right at a glove.

That’s the extent of the Indians offense on the night. Nothing else is noteworthy.

Josh Tomlin pitched effectively for the Indians until he reached the top of the Diamondback’s order for a third time.

He made a mistake against Paul Goldschmidt in the bottom of the fifth inning. It appears that Tomlin wanted to jam Goldschmidt, but it floated over the inside corner. Goldschmidt crushed it to left center field for a two-run double. The wheels fell off after this. Tomlin got roughed up, “right fielder” Carlos Santana whiffed on a diving catch, and when the floating solid particulate succumbed to gravity in various positions the Indians had fallen behind 7-3.

I’m not even sure there’s that much interesting analysis to provide. Tomlin got smoked the third time through the order, and Dan Otero gave up a double and a triple to round out the scoring. Michael Brantley made solid contact all night but did not gather any hits. He did draw a walk, after which he stole his first base of the season. To celebrate, here are some adorable dogs.

It’s after 1:00am and I’m four Coke Zeros deep, you guys.

A couple of defensive musings

1: An interesting series of hits occurred in the bottom of the second inning. Yandy Diaz. First: a slow roller crept up the 3rd base line, but Yandy Diaz charged, bare-handed, and fired to first, erasing a would-be baserunner. Second: Yandy ranged to his left and nearly snared a high hop. It glanced off the webbing where it met Francisco Lindor. He threw off target but wouldn’t have beat the runner, anyway. I wonder if that’s a play that Lindor would typically “call,” or if Jose Ramirez would know to let Frankie get it. Then again, I’ve always been told that if the third baseman can get to it going to his left, he should do it, as he’s closer to the plate and more likely to throw out the runner.

2: Tyler Naquin looked decisive and fluid in center field tonight. On at least two plays he sprinted across the outfield to make catches, making clear calls along the way. Given the presence of “right fielder” Carlos Santana, this made for a functional and smoothly-operating outfield. Mostly. It’s also just one game worth of information. If this is a sign of things to come, it should be a better overall year for Naquin. I think things are bound to improve when you stop running into walls and making heinous errors on national broadcasts.

Heck I dunno guys here’s a picture of a mommy labrador showing the puppies that water is fun and an all-around good time.

Tomorrow night Trevor Bauer makes his first start of the season and leads the Indians on a new quest toward 161-1. It will be another late game. Someone pointed out that a game will not start this late again for the Indians until July.

Glorious.

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Yeah, that’s right. I’m using my own tweet. Fight me irl.