I generally enjoy my job. Truly, I do. Even when I have to go in early or stay late occasionally, it’s a good gig. But dammit if tonight wasn’t the worst night to have to stay late. You all saw, of course. But I missed the majority of one of the best offensive eruptions from the Cleveland Indians this season. So allow me a moment to get caught up...
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Wait, Jake Bauers did what?!
Yup, that’s right. On the same day that Terry Francona said this...
Terry Francona today on Jake Bauers and the consideration of a trip to AAA: "We just feel like he’s got the tools to do it. Just think that we’re not at that point."
— Zack Meisel (@ZackMeisel) June 14, 2019
OK then. Still, there's no reason Bobby Bradley shouldn't be getting a big-league look right now. https://t.co/pvpAJOAz5b
...and numerous members on this site were calling for Bauers’ immediate demotion/firing into the sun, the mad lad went out and notched four hits. That’s a great day in its own right, but his hits consisted of a single, a double, a triple, and a home run. Also known as the cycle. A day after Shohei Ohtani hit for the cycle for the Angels, Jake Bauers did the same for the Cleveland Indians. Bauers has had a crummy year to date, but at 23-years old, there’s still hope for him to turn things around. And for at least one night, he did just that.
Bauers is obviously the story of the night, but there were some other players involved in today’s shellacking.
Adam Plutko gutted out a quality start
The first inning went well for Plutko as he sat the Tigers down in order with just ten pitches, including 2 strikeouts. The next inning, however, started off horribly with back to back home runs by Miguel Cabrera (of course) and Brandon Dixon. Luckily, the Tribe had tacked on two in the top half of the inning thanks to Jake Bauers and Francisco Lindor (also Jason Kipnis, who walked to lead off the inning and Roberto Pérez’s single to move him into scoring position), so the game was merely tied. Plutko bounced back and struck out the next three hitters, so not all was lost.
The third inning featured five hitters and a total of ten pitches. After Dawel Lugo singled to s tart the inning, JaCoby Jones hit into what should have been a double play. After Kipnis fed the ball to Lindor to nab Lugo at second, a throwing error allowed Jones to make it all the way to third, putting him in prime position to score on Christin Stewart’s sac fly on the very next pitch. Nick Castellanos quickly singled after missing the first two pitches, bringing up Miguel Cabrera. Thankfully, Cabrera flew out to center field to end the threat. That would be all the scoring that Plutko would allow. He went an additional three innings to get the bullpen to the seventh inning, and the Tigers never really threatened. But it wouldn’t have really mattered because...
The Tribe erupted in the fourth inning
As I mentioned above, I saw none of this inning. I’m sure fans of the Indians and my boss will be happy to know that I must now be working during all Cleveland games so as to ensure that this offensive outburst happens every game. For those unfortunate souls who, like me, missed this glorious half inning, allow me to summarize:
- Roberto Peréz singles
- Jake Bauers singles
- Leonys Martin homered
- Francisco Lindor singles
- Oscar Mercado singles*
- Carlos Santana walks
—— Ryan Carpenter exits the game ——
- Jordan Luplow strikes out (1 out)
- José Ramírez (!) reaches on an error
- Jason Kipnis lines out (2 outs)
- Roberto Peréz doubles (second hit in the inning)
- Jake Bauers triples (second hit in the inning)
- Leonys Martin walks
- Francisco Lindor grounds out (3 outs)
8 runs crossed the plate in this half inning, the highlight of which were a pair of hits from Roberto Peréz and Jake Bauers. This inning was a good daily reminder to #VoteBebo. With a 10-3 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth, the Indians were able to cruise the rest of the way. But that didn’t stop them from tacking on more runs later. Some of which came in...
The Cycle Inning
The Indians headed into the eighth inning with an 11-3 lead, so this inning was set up to be meaningless. But it wasn’t. José Ramírez started off the inning with a single, his second hit of the evening (his other was a triple in the fifth inning). Kip and Bebo then flew out and struck out, respectively, to bring Bauers to the plate. At this point, Bauers was a homer shy of the cycle. On the first pitch of the at-bat, he launched a home run to deep right field, nabbing the ninth cycle in Cleveland history and the first since Rajai Davis did it against the Blue Jays in 2016. Relive all four hits below:
BALLGAME!
— Chief Wahoo (@ChiefWahoo47) June 15, 2019
I see all you @Angels fans talking about how great Shohei Ohtani is yadda yadda yadda ...
Well I present to you, Jake Bauers ‼️ pic.twitter.com/GU1zlz5KRp
A fun game that I’ll have to replay later tonight. But after the majority of this season so far, I’m just glad we’re getting games worthy of replay.