Ball Played: Broken Bats, Bloopers, Bunts, and Brantley; Indians outlast Yanks in 16

The Cleveland Indians nearly had another familiar ending to a game in the 2015 season. The Indians hit 4-for-15 with RISP leaving 15 men on base throughout the night. Carlos Carrasco was spectacular as the starting pitcher and went deep into the game, but he left with a no decision. When the New York Yankees took a 2-run lead with one of MLB’s premier closers coming onto the field, it appeared the game would end badly. Instead, the Indians made a dramatic bottom-of-the-tenth-inning comeback to tie the game, and would eventually outlast the Yankees in a 16-inning, 5-4 win.

Another item to note is that the Cleveland Indians have had a fantastic run of starting pitching health with the top four starters in their rotation¹ . Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, and Danny Salazar² have yet to miss a scheduled start during this season(combined 89 starts). On Tuesday, Carrasco continued that streak when he pitched against the New York Yankees in the 16-inning Indians win.

However, the Indians announced that they will be calling up Josh Tomlin to start on Saturday in Minnesota, which means that the Little Cowboy will be the seventh starting pitcher to try his hand at the backend role of the rotation.

Can you name the other six pitchers and how many games they started for the Indians in 2015?
The answer will be provided at the bottom of this recap³ .

Keys of the Game

Brett Gardner has a tough day:
The Yankees Gardner finished his day 0-for-6 with a walk and a caught stealing. A terrible day at the plate, but there was a huge hand from the Indians defense in that line.

Yan Gomes started his day off by chasing down a nearly perfect bunt, but turning and firing a shot to Chris Johnson at first base to nab Gardner anyway. Then, the next time Gardner came up in the fourth inning, he hit a shot down the third base foul line that only Manny Machado should have been able to make a play on. However, Giovanny Urshela did his best impression by somehow getting enough juice behind a jump throw to once again send Gardner back to the bench.

After striking out in the sixth inning, Gardner finally managed to get on base with a walk in the ninth. He got a great jump on the pitch and utilized his speed to run towards second base on an 87 mile per hour breaking pitch. However, Yan Gomes was behind the plate. I’m not sure he even caught the ball because the transfer was so quick and fluid it was as if he utilized the force to redirect the path of the ball mid-air⁴ .

Gomes' 1.68 second pop time on the Gardner caught stealing was his quickest of the season, and the 13th-fastest by any catcher this season.

— August Fagerstrom (@AugustFG_) August 12, 2015

After striking out again in the eleventh inning⁵ , Gardner actually missed the Indians superb defensive play by one at bat in the thirteenth. Jacoby Ellsbury hit a rocket between first and second base and it took a diving Jose Ramirez into the outfield grass to snare the ball and throw him out. Gardner tested Ramirez again, but it was a much more ordinary 4-3 put out.

As had become customary, Gardner struck out in an odd numbered at bat in the sixteenth inning (his first at bat was the only odd numbered at bat that Gardner did not strike out and it took bunting for that to happen).

I mean, it seemed like the Indians defense was specifically picking on Brett Gardner.

Cookie handles his business: 8IP, 4H, 2ER, 0BB, 8SO

And, it is not like Carlos Carrasco had a bad night and the defense had to bail him out. For the first three innings, the defense could basically rest as Carrasco struck out four Yankees and the contact that was made was rather meek. On the night, Carrasco struck out eight hitters and did not allow a walk. So, only four Yankees even reached base against him.

Unfortunately, two of those hits sailed over the infield grass, the infield dirt, the outfield grass, and found their way above and beyond the outfield wall. Stephen Drew led off the sixth inning with a home run, and Carlos Beltran opened the eighth frame in a similar fashion. Overall, Carrasco was incredible, but these two mistakes nearly cost the Indians the game as the team struggled to find runs.

Broken bats of the literal and figurative kind: The game did not need to go into extra innings. There were opportunities early for the Indians to put the game out of reach from a Yankees comeback. First inning: Runners on first and third, one out and 0 runs scored. Third inning: Runner on second, 0 outs and 0 runs scored. Also, in an oddity on the night, at least five Indians (and two Yankees) broke their bats, plus several more players exchanged their bats during an at bat (indicating that they thought it had perhaps cracked). Something was in the wood on Tuesday in Cleveland (termites?).

Ninth-inning madness: With the game tied 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth, Chris Johnson led the frame off with a single. Johnson is not a particularly fast runner, so Francona wisely allowed Zach Walters to run for him. However, then he made some perplexing game management decisions. Mike Aviles pinch-hit for Lonnie Chisenhall. But, Aviles did not enter the game to actually hit. He entered the game to bunt. A bunt is not the worst decision in the case that only a single-run is needed. But, confounding the issue is that Aviles has had some struggles bunting and he did again on Tuesday. After a pop up foul bunt, Aviles found himself in a two-strike count. Then, he very nearly popped his next bunt attempt back to the pitcher. Aviles managed to move Walters over to second base, but it was not a simple matter.

Giovanny Urshela could not move Walters over to third as he hit his groundout to that base, but it would not have mattered as Jose Ramirez absolutely smoked a line drive over Texeira’s head. Except the ball did not get over the Big Tex’s glove and the inning was over. Now, Tito was left in a strange spot with Walters and Aviles in the lineup. He ended up making a double-switch by inserting Jerry Sands as the defensive replacement for Chris Johnson, and allowing Zach Walters to take Chisenhall’s place in left field. The decision almost unexpectedly paid dividends in the tenth inning.

Indians defense was good against more than Brett Gardner: Wow. Wow. Wow. Is there a better word for how the defense played on Tuesday? Short, simple, and to the point. And “on point.” The defense played amazing. There were plenty more plays made than the ones highlighted against Gardner. Chris Johnson snared a Mark Texeira line drive down the first base line, then turned and hop-stepped back to first base ahead of a diving Alex Rodriguez to complete a double play for instance.

Lost amid all the madness: Three really good defensive plays.

Gio. Chris Johnson. JRam. pic.twitter.com/U4iouOHltG

— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) August 12, 2015

And, the defense did their part in the Yankees 2-run tenth inning to give the bullpen enough time to warm up another arm as Bryan Shaw attempted to get to bed a bit earlier. It is not their fault that Francona left Shaw in. When Carlos Beltran blooped a single to center with one out in the inning, Brian McCann (who had walked) thought about rounding towards third base until Abraham Almonte unleashed his arm to demonstrate that it would have been a bad move. So, the Yankees put Chris Young in to pinch run for McCann. When Didi Gregorius then also hit a blooper to center field, Young wisely held up at third base as Almonte once again put a stop to any extra bases for the lead runners, which left the bases loaded.

Jerry Sands (more about the double-switch that put in him in the game later) made a nice scoop on a hard hit Stephen Drew ground ball that Sands was able to nab the lead runner at home for the second out. Bryan Shaw was then left in to face pinch-hitter Chase Headley for some reason. Headley hit the Yankees third bloop hit in the inning to right field, and the Yankees scored two runs. But, even on that play, Zach Walters made a fine throw that should have gotten Didi Gregorius at the plate if only Gomes would have been able to handle the late hop (Of course, Kyle Crockett came into the game after the Yankees took the lead and promptly struck out Jacoby Ellsbury to end the inning.).

The Comeback: After the Yankees went up 4-2 in the top half of the 10th inning, the game seemed over. Andrew Miller had given up seven earned runs all season (1.66 ERA entering Tuesday) and had not blown a save. In other words, he was picking up right where Mariano Rivera had left off for the Yankees. So, it was a bit of a surprise when Lindor was able to get himself on board with an infield single. It was more of a surprise when Brantley would continue his big night by hitting a double to put the tying run on second base with no outs. And there was likely some outright shock by the Santana-haters in the crowd when he hit a deep fly ball to drive in Jose Ramirez from third base. But, none of the above hits would not matter if Yan Gomes did not copy the Yankees method of bloop hitting over the infield to drive in Brantley, which tied the game once again. It was an improbable comeback, and it was fun to watch.

Brantley’s Walk-off Hit:

With one out, Jose Ramirez singled to right field. Francisco Lindor singled to center field. Then, Brantley singled to right field, and Jose Ramirez is far too fast for someone to throw him out on that turn. It was simple and it was beautiful. Hit-Hit-Hit-Win! In the aftermath, Michael Brantley tries to run away into the outfield, but Francisco Lindor uses his speed once more on the night to track him down and hold him up so that teammates can shower him with Gatorade, water, and Corey Kluber even breaks out the Super Soaker.

Is that a Super Soaker, @CKluber?#Windians pic.twitter.com/PQnBNmHAWc

— Cleveland Indians (@Indians) August 12, 2015

Key Scorecard: New York Yankees of the Bronx: 16 innings, 1 loss Cleveland Indians: 16 innings, 1 win.

The Numbers

There are some good things and some bad things that came out of this game, here they are in numerical format

16 Innings

The Indians last played a 16 inning game on April 5 2012 (Opening Day!) against the Toronto Blue Jays in a 7-4 loss.

9-for-22 with a walk

The top three hitters in the Indians lineup certainly did their job on Tuesday as they reached base 10 times between themselves.

It took the rest of the other six hitters in the Indians lineup to match that total of 10 with Chris Johnson leading the charge with his 3-for-4 night, and Giovanny Urshela struggling the most as he and the Yankees Jacoby Ellsbury went 0-for-7.

Also, the entire Yankees lineup could barely match either total as they reached base 11 times, and Yan Gomes erased one of those with his arm.

0.5 Games

The Yankees now lead the surging Toronto Blue Jays by a mere 0.5 games after leading by 4.5 games just back on Friday. And hey, the Blue Jays are neither the Boston Red Sox nor the New York Yankees (or a team in Baltimore that stole the Browns from another city), so Cleveland fans might as well root for them to win the AL East as the Indians play spoilers to the Yankees.

3.5 Games

The playoffs are all but out of the question for the Indians. However, second place in the AL Central is very much up for grabs. With the Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers reeling, the Indians sit a mere 3.5 games back from second place. The Indians still sit in the AL Central cellar, but only one game behind both the Tigers and Chicago White Sox, while the Indians actually hold the best run differential between those four teams.

Trivia Answer for the seven fifth starters the Indians have trotted out
Cody Anderson (8 starts, 4.31 ERA)
Shaun Marcum (6 starts, 6.00 ERA)
T.J. House (4 starts, 13.15 ERA)
Bruce Chen (2 starts, 12.79 ERA)
Zach McAllister (1 start, 11.25 ERA)
Toru Murata (1 start, 8.10 ERA)
Josh Tomlin (to start on Saturday at Minnesota)

Rarity of the feat?

Not all that rare, yet. However, it is possible that the top four starters all get to 28 starts depending on what the FO does with innings limits down the stretch. If it happens, then here are the only teams since 1961 with twelve or more starters (Indians one shy right now with 11 counting Tomlin) and four other starters with 28 or more games started:

2000 New York Yankees (12 starters; 4 with 28+)
1996 Chicago White Sox (12 starters; 4 with 28+)
1996 New York Yankees (12 starters; 4 with 28+)
1992 Montreal Expos (12 starters; 4 with 28+)
1989 Toronto Blue Jays (12 starters; 4 with 28+)
1972 New York Yankees (12 starters; 4 with 28+)
1962 Boston Red Sox (13 starters; 4 with 28+)
1962 Chicago Cubs (12 starters; 4 with 28+)
1961 Minnesota Twins (12 starters; 4 with 28+)

Current start count: Kluber 24, Carrasco 23, Bauer 22, Salazar 20

1. Yes, the sound you hear in the background is Andrew Schnitkey groaning as per Tuesday’s WWW. [↩]
2. Yes, I am cheating a little bit here because Salazar technically started his season with the Columbus Clippers [↩]
3. Don’t peek! [↩]
4. Pop time in the Fagerstrom tweet refers to the time from catching the ball to releasing it towards second base. [↩]
5. Perhaps it felt better to just strike out? [↩]