Pinch Me: Indians claw their way to 1-0 win in Game 3

For much of the 2016 regular season, as the Cleveland Indians were marching their way through a bevy of injuries to the top of the American League Central, their National League nature was a point of focus. Through platoons and bunting and pinch hitting and stealing of bases and an all-around scratch-and-claw style of play rooted in pitching and defense, Indians manager Terry Francona was the puppet master of a team that won baseball games through opportunity and tactics in a league that celebrated a home run frequency that had not been seen in over 15 years.¹

This National League nature was on full display Friday night as the Indians took to Chicago for Game 3 of the World Series, hitting the road after two games in their American League confines. The result: A 1-0 masterpiece of a contest that saw a starting pitcher who was pulled after 4 2/3 innings and the lone run be driven in by a pinch-hitting veteran left fielder as all 13 position players were used at some point within the nine-inning affair. With the winds in Chicago blowing out and becoming a substantial story line for a Cubs team full of power, it was Cleveland’s Josh Tomlin who allowed just two hits over his starting frame. Andrew Miller, the club’s outright dominant left-handed reliever, extended his scoreless streak to 15 innings after he struck out three Cubs batters in just 1 1/3 innings, fanning the entire side in the sixth.

While tension was thick throughout the contest with the Indians stranding base-runners throughout (including a bases-loaded fifth inning that ended with Francisco Lindor grounding into a double play), the drama would unfold in the bottom of the seventh inning where Francona’s magic would once again leave the audience in awe. Catcher Roberto Perez started the inning with a single off of Chicago reliever Carl Edwards Jr. Perez, who was the hero of the team’s Game 1 victory and had caught every postseason inning to this point, was pulled for a pinch runner in utility man Michael Martinez. Rookie center fielder Tyler Naquin would bunt a 1-0 curveball, moving Martinez to second base in the sacrifice. With Rajai Davis batting, Edwards Jr. threw a pitch past catcher David Ross, allowing Martinez to move to third. Davis would subsequently walk, giving the Indians runners on first and third. With a pickoff attempt at third that was reviewed and upheld in favor of the Indians, Francona had a choice to make: bat relief pitcher Andrew Miller, thus allowing him to continue into the contest to keep the Cubs scoreless, or pull him in hopes of increasing the odds of driving in Martinez from third.

With Miller on the on-deck circle, helmet on and lumber that didn’t belong to him in his left hand, Francona chose the latter, going with Coco Crisp, a veteran left fielder who was added to the Tribe’s roster on the very last day of postseason eligibility who just so happened to be one of the league’s best hitters with runners in scoring position. On Edwards’ very first pitch, Crisp smacked the ball into right field, allowing Martinez to walk home for the game’s lone run, first player to cross the plate in a World Series game at Wrigley Field since Peanuts Lowrey on October 10, 1945.²

The remainder of the contest would not be drama-free, however as the play that scored the run involved Davis being thrown out at third base as he attempted to go from first-to-third on the play. The very next batter was Jason Kipnis who would be out by millimeters at first base, the Indians challenging the play in hopes of keeping the inning alive.

In the ninth inning, the Cubs gave their last attempts at plating a runner with the heart of their batting order facing Indians closer Cody Allen. Chicago first baseman Anthony Rizzo took the first offering from Allen, a 93 mile-per-hour four-seam fastball, to left field where it would fall in front of Brandon Guyer (who replaced Crisp from a defensive standpoint). The Cubs would use a little managing of their own as Joel Maddon opted to pinch run Chris Coughlan for Rizzo. Allen would strike out Ben Zobrist with knuckle curve in the dirt before getting Wilson Contreras to ground out for the second out. A Jason Heyward ground ball, however, would be mishandled by first baseman Mike Napoli, allowing Coughlan to move to third while the outfielder represented the winning run on first. With shortstop (and firend of Lindor) Javier Baez batting, Heyward would steal second, meaning that a hit would win the game for Chicago.

Allen had other ideas. Here’s Tom Hamilton on the call:

While every World Series game is important, winning Game 3 in a series that was knotted at one game a piece is that much more so. With home field advantage on their side, the only way the Indians will not see a Game 6 back in Cleveland is if they sweep the Cubs on the road. Math is also on the Tribe’s side as teams winning the third game of a 1-1 World Series have gone on to win the championship 37 of 57 times (nearly 65 percent), including in four of the past six years. Heading into Game 3, the Indians were given 38 percent odds from analytic-heavy sites such as Fangraphs and FiveThirtyEight. These odds now stand at 63 percent.

For all of the bantering about Trevor Bauer in Game 2 of the World Series, the Indians’ starting rotation now has an ERA of 1.70 throughout the playoffs. The bullpen has merely been better. On paper, this was supposed to be the Cubs’ game for the having. They were pitching a guy who had giving up some of the lowest run totals in all of baseball while the Indians were combating with a guy who allowed the most home runs. The Indians bats (outside of Perez) had been relatively quiet, while Chicago was coming off of a 5-1 win. Mother Nature was flying that W flag, gusting at times where, had the Cubs not grounded into countless outs or swung at 20 pitches outside of the strike zone, she would have single-handedly carried the ball over the Wrigley Field ivy. None of this would matter to Francona.

The Indians’ manager has managed to pull all of the right strings throughout this entire, miraculous run. He’s won a game with eight innings of bullpen work, he started a rookie pitcher who had thrown just 11 regular season innings, he’s utilized his pen in brilliant fashion, and now this game—one where his designated hitter was hit in left field and guys named Crisp and Martinez were the heroes, his final lineup card looking as if it were filled out by a crayon-toting toddler.

The Indians may be the American League representative in the World Series, owning home field advantage thanks to the All-Star game, but they played Friday night’s game as if they were the National League participant, pinch-running and -hitting their way to a decisive, drama-filled contest. The Cubs may have powered their way to 103 wins in the regular season, but it’s the Indians who have clawed their way to being just two wins away from winning the whole damn thing.

1. As of September 23, 2016:

   1. 2000, 1.171 HR per team, per game
   2. 2016, 1.166
   3. 1999, 1.14
   4. 2004, 1.12
   5. 2001, 1.12 [↩]

2. Keep that one in your trivia bank. [↩]