The Aftermath: Three Takeaways from the Indians’ 8-1 Loss to Chicago

The Cleveland Indians couldn’t cash in on early opportunities and lost to the Chicago White Sox running away on Saturday night.

Well, there’s not a lot of positives to accentuate in the Cleveland Indians’ 8-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Saturday night at Progressive Field. The Tribe squandered promising opportunities to knock the Sox out early in the ballgame, and then went cold while the southsiders poured it on.

The good news is the Detroit Tigers lost in late-inning fashion to the Kansas City Royals earlier in the day, thus cutting Cleveland’s magic number to win the American League Central Division down to two.

On the flipside, both the Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox won, so the Indians fell to third place in the race for the AL’s top record and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Tribe now trails the Rangers by a game and a half, and the BoSox by half a game.

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It was another “bullpen day” for Cleveland, which contrary to what many traditionalists may think, has been an effective strategy for Terry Francona in September, Saturday’s results notwithstanding. Cody Anderson began this one on the bump, and looked like, well, Cody Anderson. In two innings, the big right-hander yielded two runs on four hits, striking out three.

Anderson once again struggled with fastball command, leaving several pitches over the heart of the plate, but did show that plus changeup and his much-improved curveball in an outing that suggested he maybe shouldn’t be written off as a starter in 2017 just yet.

The Indians used another seven pitchers after that, and it was still a 4-1 ballgame headed to the bottom of the sixth. But the Tribe’s bats just didn’t have the comeback magic on this night, and Austin Adams (who is still on the 40-man roster) allowed four runs, three earned, in the eighth to put the game definitively out of reach.

Cleveland can still clinch the AL Central on Sunday in the club’s last home game of the season with a win and a Tigers’ loss. If not, the Indians will be forced to pop the champagne in the visitor’s clubhouse sometime in the next week.

JRam Keeps Hitting

One of the lone bright spots on this night was Jose Ramirez, who just continues to do nothing but hit. The Tribe’s third baseman went 2-for-3, scoring the lone run for his team on the night, and reached a milestone no other player in franchise history has ever reached.

With a double off Chicago starter Jose Quintana in the sixth, Ramirez reached 45 in his unlikely breakout season. He is just the 19th player in franchise history to reach the 45 doubles plateau, and just the fourth in the past 20 years. Ramirez is also the first switch-hitter in club history to hit that many two-baggers in a season.

To say that the 24-year old has been one of the MVPs of the Indians in 2016 is an understatement of epic proportions. He’s slashing .317/.368/.472 for the year, and .358/.393/.569 since August 1st when the home stretch of the season really flips into high gear. As we’ve written many times here at Wahoo’s on First, we shudder to think where the Tribe would be without Ramirez this year.

A Nice Debut

Lost amid the team-record 24 players that saw action for Cleveland on Saturday night, was the major league debut of Adam Plutko, a 24-year old right-hander and former 11th round pick in the MLB draft. Plutko was a teammate of Trevor Bauer in college at UCLA, and split time between Double-A and Triple-A this season.

As we wrote prior to the game, Plutko was not in the Indians’ September plans initially, but got the call to the big leagues after Carlos Carrasco suffered a season-ending fractured pitching hand last weekend.

Plutko came into the game once it was out of reach, but performed just about as advertised, using a low-90s fastball and solid command to work through 1.2 scoreless innings. He struck out two batters, walked one, and gave up two hits.

Opportunity Knocked But No One Answered

Quintana, usually the picture of stoic stability on the mound, was uncharacteristically wild early on in the ballgame, letting up three walks in the first two innings, and generally working from behind hitters.

The Tribe loaded the bases with one out in the first, loaded them again with nobody out in the second, and had a runner on third with one out in the fourth, and all they could push across the plate was run. When looking back at this loss, it won’t be hard to find a reason.

Next: Trevor Bauer: No. 2 Starter?

In total, Cleveland went 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left nine runners on base. This was a bit out of character for the team at home, where opportunities have seemingly been seized all year long. If the Indians hope to chase down Texas and surging Boston for the best record in the league, those sorts of struggles cannot happen in the final week of the regular season.