well I guess everyone like me was otherwise occupied last evening but that was a nice rally to tie, and win big in 11; with flawless relief pitching by a collection of our second rank bullpen arms [Perez, Cimber, Goody, Clippard and Carrasco] but not Hand

Peter Gammons
@pgammo
·
1h
Somehow I don't think Aaron Civale will be too nervous pitching for the Indians in Minneapolis tonight. At Northeastern, he made the spring start vs. Red Sox on TV, in 2 innings fanned Ortiz twice, Pedroia twice, Manny Ramirez once.

Damnit Cimber.

We get one back in the top of the 8th.

But now Wood walked the first batter on 4 pitches.

Clippard, Cimber, Perez and now Wood.

The cupboard is getting empty.

Indians made a mistake not addressing bullpen at deadline. But hard to blame the pen when half the time the offense can't score with a 2 bit whore. Just not our year.

We still have a very real shot at a wild card.

Need to call up some relievers.

Another great effort by Clevinger. He and Bieber have taken such amazing leaps. Get back Kluber and Carrasco and the rotation has all kinds of promise.

If we still had Bauer, then what to do with Plesac/Civale next season. Now let those guys and Plutko be 5th starter and starter depth.

As for this season, crucial wild card win today.

They need to start award saves to the outfielders; Mercado's and Allen's catches won us our two games in Minnesota.
Hand, on the other Hand, can barely struggle through an inning; two outs [one on Allen's miracle[, then hits a batter, issues a 4 pitch walk and goes to 3-2 against the potentially tying run. Whew

If we still had Bauer

… if we still had Trevor this year we'd be out of contention.

I assume he'll be Bauer again next year but what a mess he is now.

civ ollilavad wrote:They need to start award saves to the outfielders; Mercado's and Allen's catches won us our two games in Minnesota.
Hand, on the other Hand, can barely struggle through an inning; two outs [one on Allen's miracle[, then hits a batter, issues a 4 pitch walk and goes to 3-2 against the potentially tying run. Whew

Tito said in an interview they are trying to "protect Hand" from overuse.

he is searching for the proper slot for release point. It's a really tough game with such a fine line between success and failure.

Right and often a tired athlete might indeed be "searching for his release point" or have other issues simply because their bodies are not co-operating at that reduced level of energy.

It's much easier to be on top of it all when you are rested with energy. In other words, I don't have a lot of faith he will get it back unless he gets some rest.

Being a closer on a winning team means you pitch a lot - and early in the season he was a savior because the offense was so bad we won a lot of low scoring games.

IMO the price is being paid.

It will be interesting to see how Yu Chang vs. Willi Castro plays out over time. I assume that the Tigers had their choice when they dealt us Leonys Martin. In very very early returns, Willi is walking less and has less power; he's playing SS and Chang is at 3rd.
Castro: 189/228/245
Chang: 220/347/345

I’ll take Castro any day. (and put cash on it)

I expect Willi to win out, too, especially since he should stay at shortstop. Chang could turn out to be a 3B with fair power, in the classic "major league average" mold of Casey Blake.