Predictions Roundup: Experts weigh in on Eastern Conference Finals
May 20, 2015Kyrie and Delly were “ready to fight each other”
May 20, 2015On May 7, 2015 Jose Quintana made his MLB debut for the Chicago White Sox against the Cleveland Indians. At the time, he was seemingly a random left-handed pitcher from Columbia whom the White Sox needed in long relief after starter Phil Humber had surrendered eight runs in less than three innings of work. In a harbinger of future encounters, “Q,” as he is called in the Chicago clubhouse, shut down the hot Indians bats allowing a mere one hit the rest of the game, while the Indians barely clung onto the win. Quintana has faced the Indians 11 more times since that initial meeting, and he has enjoyed similar success.
The Indians struggled compared with Quintana’s career averages, but even moreso when comparing their struggles to the successes of the AL Central teams (who face Quintana more often than most teams due to an unbalanced MLB schedule). In fact, the Indians 74 tOPS+1 is 38 points lower than the Minnesota Twins.
Jose Quintana Career Statistics before May 19, 2015 start against Cleveland Indians
Thankfully for the Indians, history is not an exact indicator of future outcomes. On Tuesday night, the Indians managed to top “Q” and the Chi Sox, 3-1. Here’s a look at what transpired.
Key Factors of the Game
Indians break through against Jose Quintana, Indians man of constant sorrow: (( A 1913 Richard Burnett song covered famously by the Grateful Dead, Bob Dylan, and George Clooney (actually Dan Tyminksi on fiddle). ))
Tip of the old ball cap for Jason Kipnis who led the game off with a triple over the head of spinning right fielder Avisail Garcia. Jose Ramirez did his best Carlos Santana impression by walking to second base before Michael Brantley hit a deep fly ball that allowed Kipnis to tag up and score without a plate at the plate. Unfortunately, any chance at a big inning were throttled when Jose Ramirez was picked off second base after he had stolen it just a pitch earlier.
It appeared as though the Indians missed their chance to do any real damage against Quintana as he settled down after the Ramirez walk by breezing through the second inning. Then, they had another chance when Roberto Perez singled and Jason Kipnis was hit for the fifth time of the year by a pitch2 . However, neither Jose Ramirez nor Michael Brantley could take advantage of the opportunity.
Jason Kipnis got his revenge in the fifth though when he answered a Chicago fourth inning two run rally with one of our own. Kipnis singled and continued to demonstrate his speed by scoring on a Jose Ramirez double (where he was stranded). The Indians continued to push Quintana in the sixth as well when a Mike Aviles sacrifice put Ryan Raburn and Nick Swisher on second and third base respectively with just one out. Unfortunately, Quintana was able to get out of a bases loaded jam as he intentionally walked Roberto Perez sandwiched between harmless ground outs by Moss and Michael Bourn.
Jose Quintana would not allow another run, but every single Indians batter would get on base at least once on the night except Bourn.
BauerOutage’s Effective Velocity:
Trevor Bauer was coming off a strong start, which he attributed to paying more attention to his effective velocity3 . That attention to detail continued to pay him dividends in this outing.
The temperatures may have dropped to 50 degrees, but it did not seem to effect Bauer at all. He retired each player in the White Sox lineup the first time through with a bevy of meekly hit balls and a strikeouts of Jose Abreu and Avisail Garcia.
The only trouble that Bauer had on the night was running through the Chicago lineup a second time. Jose Abreu started a two out rally in the fourth by hitting a ground rule double to center, but, despite two walks and a Garcia single, Trevor was able to manage the damage to just one run.
And, Trevor Bauer got back to work. He did not even let a throwing error by Jose Ramirez on a double play attempt shake him as he just worked through the Chicago batters retiring 10 out of 12 batters entering the eighth inning.
Unfortunately, Bauer did not look nearly as dominant in the eighth as Adam Eaton singled and Melky Cabrera registered a loud line drive out to right field. So, Bauer was able to watch the rest of the game from the dugout as the bullpen went to work.
Terry Francona’s Bullpen usage:
Bryan Shaw’s appearance was wasted once the passed ball left first base open. He purposefully walked Abreu and his night was done. The decision to go with Marc Rzepczynski likely caused some heart palpitations among Indians fans throughout the nation, but he struck out Adam LaRoche. The decision that I believe Indians fans should have loved though was the decision to allow Cody Allen to go for the four out save. Putting him in there against Garcia – whom he struck out – in the eighth eased my mind and only an Alexei Ramirez foul out stopped him from striking out every batter he faced.
Key Moment Scorecard:
Chicago White Sox: 0
Cleveland Indians: 3
Old Friends; Help or Haunt
Zach Putnam : Brandon Moss was swinging so hard against him that only a strikeout or a home run seemed to be possibilities. Thankfully, Putnam placed the ball over the plate for Moss to send it into the seats beyond the outfield wall. HELP
The Nine
Jason Kipnis: Trevor Bauer and Jason Kipnis are the reason we won this game. Jason has been the team MVP this month and I hope he puts on some batting protection because the AL Central head hunting pitchers ( *cough* Chicago *cough* KC *cough* ) are going to continue to attempt to intimidate him. I don’t think he will be, but I don’t want him hurt in the process either.
Jose Ramirez: Thriving in the second spot the past two games. Possibly a blip in the season, but would love to see him continue rolling.
Michael Brantley: Nothing fancy, but he got the job done with a sacrifice fly and hit.
Ryan Raburn: Continues to be what the team needs on offense against left-handed starters. Got on base twice on Tuesday.
Nick Swisher: An Indians lineup with Nick Swisher being the hitter that he was in 2013 is a much more dangerous lineup. He continued to show signs that it might happen on Tuesday.
Mike Aviles: Just a solid overall game before Lonnie Chisenhall came in to take over in the field.
Brandon Moss: First base seems to suit him on defense. He was having a rather rough night at the plate, but Zach Putnam made him feel better about it.
Roberto Perez: Jose Quintana chose to pitch to Brandon Moss, then intentionally walked Roberto Perez. Not sure if that says more bad about Moss than good about Perez, but let’s go with the optimistic side and can now state that Jose Quintana is terrified of Roberto Perez. And, thankfully, his passed ball did not mess up another beautiful game by an Indians starter.
Michael Bourn: He loudly proclaimed “Oh, come one!” after he was called for a third strike in the top of the fifth inning and that about sums up my feelings for how he has played this season as well.
The Arms
Trevor Bauer: Whether it is because he has gone back to managing his effective velocity or he is just having better command of his pitches in general, Trevor Bauer appears poised to continue to take the next step towards becoming one of the better pitchers in the AL this season.
Bryan Shaw, Marc Rzepczynski, and Cody Allen: They did their job and held onto the slim lead.
- tOPS+ is a statistic that measures the OPS+ against a specific pitcher compared with the overall OPS+ for that batter [↩]
- 4 of the top 5 leaders in HBP are from the AL Central [↩]
- Basically, it doesn’t matter how fast you pitch as much as how fast it appears to the batter. So, mixing your pitch speeds and types effectively make your pitches appear faster or slower to the hitter on their response time. [↩]
12 Comments
I thought for sure Bauer was going to see another strong start wasted but thankfully it didn’t happen.
Intentionally walked Roberto Perez? Really?
The more he plays the more I realize just how important Gomes was for this team.
The more Ramirez plays, the more I realize that maybe we were too tough on Jhonny and Asdrubal.
Well, it was to get to Michael Bourn.
But, yeah, I was pretty shocked. And, it probably deserves a citation for proof of occurence:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2015_05_19_clemlb_chamlb_1&c_id=cle#game=2015_05_19_clemlb_chamlb_1,game_tab=box,game_state=Wrapup
See:
IBB: Perez, R (by Quintana)
I hate the intentional walk.
I keep trying to avoid picturing Kipnis @ 3B, Lindor @ SS and Ramirez @ 2B.
In general, I agree, but it can make sense in certain situations.
Depends on the pitcher, defense, and next batter. If Dallas Keuchel (extreme GB pitcher) has a slow batter on deck with 1 out and first base open, then it makes sense to put the double play as a possibility at multiple spots.
I’m just of the school of thought that it’s a rule that is unsportsmanlike and should be updated. If the team that is supposed to be penalized is actually benefiting, then the penalty isn’t really all that bad. But no, I have no idea how you’d get rid of it.
interesting angle to think about on it.
They could require the catcher to remain in the crouch for some cockamamie reason, like not obstructing the umpires’ view. Wouldn’t stop the ole unintentional walk though. What I never want to see is the omission of pitches for the IBB that you see in Little League and Beer League softball, pace of play be damned.
I’m becoming more and more frustrated with ‘Berto as a receiver, one of the more unheralded aspects of Gomes’ defensive skill set. Doesn’t frame pitches well early in counts, doesn’t keep balls off the plate in front of him, seems to lack chemistry with the relievers; you accept that from a catcher that makes up for it offensively, but Perez isn’t that either. Better times coming for future Tribe batteries, but it’s a bit of mess right now after Yan, as far as “Major League” talent goes at the position.