Cleveland Indians: The highs and lows of Tuesday’s brutal loss

The Cleveland Indians suffered a brutal defeat against the Boston Red Sox Tuesday night in what may have been the craziest game of the 2017 MLB season.

Countless media outlets have deemed Tuesday night’s game between the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox to be the game of the year. While it may have been just that, Indians fans likely view it as the most painful game of the year.

The Indians scored 10 runs and had a great night on offense, yet the pitching gave up 12 in what was an off night for both pitching staffs.

As expected, Chris Sale and Carlos Carrasco combined to allow 12 earned runs, while Craig Kimbrel allowed two and Cody Allen gave up the final three. Just a weird night in general.

The general mood is of despair for Indians fans, but there were both positives and negatives from this game, including one of the greatest catches most fans have ever seen. Let’s start with the positives.

Jackson’s incredible catch

It’s hard to describe in words what Austin Jackson did, so here is the video.

Torii Hunter falling over that same wall is an iconic moment baseball fans remember, but Hunter didn’t catch the ball. Jackson did.

That play saved a run and showed Indians fans that there is a surplus of talent in the outfield this season. Even just in center field there is Jackson and Bradley Zimmer, who seems to be able to cover all areas of the outfield.

The offensive explosion

Brandon Guyer, Edwin Encarnacion, Carlos Santana and Francisco Lindor all hit home runs Tuesday night. Jose Ramirez had three hits. The offense put up 10 runs on 13 hits.

Because the team lost, some fans may point to a few missed opportunities, but 10 runs should be enough to win any game.

And the resiliency of the offense was another positive, as the team put up three runs in the final two frames, including an opposite field game-tying home run from Francisco Lindor that provided some false hope of a victory. But it was fun at the time.

Olson, Otero and Smith

While Carrasco and the big three of Bryan Shaw, Andrew Miller and Cody Allen had a night to forget, three other pitchers fared much better.

Tyler Olson, Dan Otero and the newly acquired Joe Smith combined for 5.1 innings of scoreless baseball, allowing a combined three hits.

Related: Recapping the trade deadline

Olson had to come on in the second inning after Carrasco was pulled, and made a statement that he can be a reliable lefty out of the bullpen at a time when some fans may wonder why Olson is here instead of Kyle Crockett.

Smith’s night was also a great sign, and he was even in a position to pick up a win in his return to the Indians until everything went to pieces in the bottom of the ninth. And on that note, let’s look at the negatives.

The pitchers not named Olson, Otero or Smith

Carlos Carrasco was gifted a 5-0 lead by his offense heading into the bottom of the second, but was pulled in the inning after allowing five runs of his own.

Then there was the big three of the bullpen in Shaw, Miller and Allen who combined to allow seven runs in a total of 1.2 innings. It started in the sixth when Shaw came on for Otero. He put two on and let one run score until he was replaced by Miller.

The bullpen ace proceeded to load the bases and allow a bases clearing double that pushed the score to 9-7 in favor of the Red Sox after the Indians entered the inning with a 7-5 lead.

But the worst was with Allen, who gave up the walk-off home run. He struck out Mitch Moreland for what should have been the final out of the game, but the ball got away from Yan Gomes and kept the game alive. And when extra outs are given, bad things always seem to happen.

The Moreland strikeout

The Mitch Moreland strikeout that didn’t record an actual out was an odd play. The ball got away from Gomes on a check swing, but Gomes had no way of knowing whether the pitch was ruled a strike or a ball as the third base umpire simply help up the strike sign.

With the stadium noise, Gomes tracked down the ball and turned around to see Moreland standing on first potentially unaware the pitch was called a strike. This is neither the fault of the umpires or Gomes, but it is a negative in terms of bad luck taking the final out of the game away from the Indians.

The key takeaway is that this is only one game. It didn’t turn out in the Indians’ favor, but the Kansas City Royals also lost on Tuesday, so the division lead remains intact.

Next: Best prospects from the first half of the season

On to the next one.