Ball Played: Gio flexes muscle to save Cookie’s gem

As the night had long turned into early morning for those on the North Coast attempting to keep their bleary eyes open long enough to see the outcome of the game, Giovanny Urshela attempted to be aggressive on the basepaths in the 10th inning, but his aggressiveness turned into impatience when the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) caught him at third base. He would get his revenge though. The game remained scoreless, allowing Urshela to take his aggressiveness to the plate in the 12th inning, when his home run accounted for the only runs scored as the Cleveland Indians defeated the Angels 2-0.

Keys to the Game

Carlos Carrasco’s beauty nearly wasted
How does a pitcher follow up a complete game, two-hit, one-run dominating performance? Well, if that pitcher is Carlos Carrasco, then it is followed up with nine innings of one-hit, zero-run baseball (to go with seven strikeouts, just one walk, and a hit batter).

Cookie was absolutely dominant on Tuesday as he casually worked through the Angels order. In seven of the nine innings that Carrasco pitched, he faced the minimum three batters. Only in the ninth inning did an Angel player reach second base (Johnny Giovotella was sacrificed to second after he was hit by a pitch to begin the inning). In fact, things were so dire that Mike Scioscia had David Murphy attempt to steal second base in the fifth inning. Yan Gomes threw him out.

Bullpen refuses to let Carrasco’s effort go to waste
Carrasco gave the bullpen the night off last week in Oakland. He should have given them the night off on Tuesday had the offense been able to put up any runs. However, the bullpen was ready when needed and the stalwarts of the relief staff each pitched a strong inning.

Bryan Shaw took down the heart of the Angels lineup when he retired Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and David Murphy in order. Zach McAllister could not hold the one-hitter as Giavotella reached base for a second time, but McAllister did strand him at first. Cody Allen was particularly nasty as he took down the top of the Angels lineup in the bottom of the 12th. He struck out David DeJesus and Kole Calhoun. Mike Trout proved to be a bit trickier, so Allen induced a game-ending groundout to first base from him.

Aggressiveness

The Indians might not be scoring many runs lately, but it is not for a lack of trying. The baserunning has amped up recently. It has led to some outs on the basepaths (Jason Kipnis in particular tends to get a tad over-aggressive), but the green light has also led to some scoring opportunities.

For the second night in a row, Jose Ramirez led the game off with a walk. Ramirez then tried to help the Indians to a second straight night scoring runs in the first inning by stealing second base. He beat the tag, but in doing so he slid so hard that he went past the bag and was called out.

Michael Brantley desperately attempted to lead off the fourth inning with a double, but his attempt to stretch that single ended with him getting tagged out at second.

In the fifth inning, with Jerry Sands on third base and Jose Ramirez locked in a 2-1 count, Michael Bourn took off for second base. He not only swiped his 13th stolen base on the season on ball three, but Angels starter Matt Shoemaker gave Jose Ramirez first base to load the bases. Sadly, Francisco Lindor struck out with the bases loaded, but kudos to Bourn for setting the table. It’s not his fault that the turkey was dropped on the floor.

Fresh off a double with one out in the top of the tenth inning, Urshela took off for third base as Jose Ramirez drove a ball into the hole between short and third base. Urshela thought that either the ball would get through or Conor Gillapsie would come off the bag to attempt to make the play. Neither happened as Eric Aybar fielded the ball cleanly and Urshela was caught at third.

The aggressiveness carried over to the plate as well. The Indians have seemingly been a bit more free swinging lately as they registered another 13 strikeouts on Tuesday. It paid off with some hard hits and the deciding home run, but it also took a great pitching performance for that to happen.

Offense still struggling
Of course, the reason that Terry Francona is likely giving runners the green light to force something to happen is that the offense has continued to struggle. The Angels used six different pitchers on Tuesday, and the Indians could not do damage against any of them until Cam Bedrosian gave up the home run to Urshela.

The Indians might have managed 10 hits and another three baserunners on walks compared to just four total baserunners for the Angels, but the hits were completely scattered and only Jerry Sands in the fifth inning was able to reach third base.

And, yet again, when runners did reach second base, the Indians continued their season-long RISP suffering. The Indians were 0-for-5 on Tuesday with runners in such positions.

Key Scorecard
Cleveland Indians: 2.5
Always the Anaheim Angels to me: 1.5
Half point to each on the aggressivness category as the approach led to some outs for the Indians, but it also led to Urshela’s home run.

The other story
On Monday, Lonnie Chisenhall made a fantastic diving attempt on a ball in right field. He kept the ball in front of him and limited the play to a single. However, he also injured himself. Early in the day, the Indians flew out the recently acquired Abraham Almonte thinking that Chisenhall would need to be placed on the DL. Instead, Lonnie Baseball played the game and wound up scoring the winning run (he was on first base when Urshela hit his home run).