WFNY Stats & Info: Notes on Pau Gasol’s decline
December 31, 2013Browns given permission to interview Josh McDaniels
December 31, 2013If you thought that 2012 was one crazy year in the world of Cleveland Sports, 2013 proved that there is rarely a dull moment. There were good times and bad, hirings and firings, wins and losses, and appearances in postseasons and courtrooms. As the year comes to a close, like we have done the last five years, WFNY will take a look at what we view to be the ten biggest sports stories to grace our local sports scene over the last 12 months. Each day through the rest of the year, we will be counting down from ten to one. Do enjoy.
(Editor’s note: This list was compiled prior to this weekend’s firing of Browns first-year head coach Rob Chudzinski. For any of WFNY’s thoughts on this understandably huge story, please click here, here or here. We appreciate your understanding.)
In Cleveland, stars don’t align. They leave town. They fade away. They become black holes of wasted potential and frustration. But they don’t align.
|
On September 18, the Indians lost to the Kansas City Royals by a score of 7-2, dropping their record to 82-70. Danny Salazar fell to 1-3 on the season, giving up four runs in six innings. Jason Kipnis, Carlos Santana, Ryan Raburn, Asdrubal Cabrera and Mike Aviles were all held hitless in the loss, which left the Indians six games back in the AL Central. They clung to a two game lead over the Royals in the Division, and were looking up at the two AL Wild Card spots held by Texas and Tampa Bay. According to CoolStandings.com, their playoff odds dropped by nearly 14 percentage points with the loss. They were smack in the middle of a six-team pack hunting for only two playoff spots. According to every forecasting metric that I can dig up, the Indians’ odds of making the playoffs were about a coin flip after losing that game.
Over the next 10 days, two seemingly contradictory things happened. The Indians couldn’t lose and yet couldn’t seem to clinch a playoff spot. Over the last week and a half of the 2013 season, we found ourselves in the most Cleveland of spots: waiting for the other shoe to drop. It just never came. Those days and the drama encountered along the way represent your top 2013 Cleveland Sports story of the Year.
In retrospect everything looks like destiny. But it’s worth remembering that the games that the Indians won down the stretch sure didn’t feel certain at the time. The day after the loss to the Royals, the Indians were playing the lowly Houston Astros at home, and after each team scored an early run, both offenses died down and the pitchers went to work. Ubaldo Jimenez was masterful, tossing seven innings while striking out nine and walking none, but Houston’s Dallas Kuechel matched Jimenez pitch for pitch, lasting seven innings himself. The game was still tied 1-1 in the top of the ninth when Chris Perez loaded the bases with one out. The Indians win expectancy dropped to 28%, which would’ve meant a two game losing streak and a further tumbling in the Wild Card standings.
Instead, Perez rallied to strike out the next two batters swinging.
In the top of the tenth, Cody Allen allowed a leadoff double to Astros’ slugger Chris Clark, dropping the team’s win expectancy to 33%.
Instead, Yan Gomes picked off the pinch runner who strayed too far off the bag and Allen retired the next two batters on a ground ball to first and a pop out to second.
In the eleventh, a 31 year old utility player named Matt Carson—an expanded roster call up—hit a pinch hit two-out RBI single to the win game. Because of course he did. This is how these things begin. This is why they feel like destiny when we remember them: because they seemed so ridiculous in the moment.
The next three wins over the Astros were more workman-like, with the Indians jumping out to early leads while the starting pitching shut down the worst lineup in the American League. With a little help from Mother Nature and the umpiring crew in game 2 of the series, the Indians held on to an abbreviated 2-1 win. Saturday Scott Kazmir led the way to a 4-1 victory that never felt nearly as close as the score would suggest. Corey Kluber dazzled on Sunday in a 9-2 win to clinch the sweep.
By the end of the Houston series the Indians had leapfrogged the Texas Rangers in the AL Wild Card standings. September 23rd was their last off-day of the season, and by the time they opened a quick two-game series against the Chicago White Sox to close out their home schedule on September 24th, they were up one game in the Wild Card race. Cool Standings had them at roughly 80% to make the play-in game at that point. As most people in Cleveland will tell you, it still felt like a coin flip. Even though the Indians weren’t losing, nobody else was either, and the race was getting tighter each day.
The Indians had dominated the White Sox to that point in the season, winning 14 of the 16 games they’d played against each other while outscoring the Pale Hose 106-51 in those head-to-head matchups. But the first game of the series would belie that dominance and prove the beginning of the end for Chris Perez’s tenure in Cleveland.
The two teams traded early runs and saw a 1-1 tie heading to the top of the seventh. Ubaldo Jimenez, sharp to that point, allowed a single and a walk to start the inning. Cody Allen came on in relief but let up a single to give a 2-1 lead to the White Sox with nine outs to go.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Indians struck right back: a leadoff home run from Michael Brantley evened the score at two, followed by an RBI single from Jason Kipnis to give the Indians a 3-2 lead. They just needed their eighth and ninth inning relievers to do the job. Joe Smith sent the Sox down in order in the eighth; Chris Perez did not follow suit in the ninth.
On the third pitch of the inning, Dayan Viciedo slammed a home run to right field to tie the game at 3. After two quick strikeouts of Gordan Beckham and Jordan Danks, Alejandro De Aza did the unthinkable, driving a home run to right center to give the Sox a 4-3 lead.
The Chris Perez implosion was on, and we saw our playoff hopes going up in a haze of doggy-delivered pot smoke. Blowing a ninth inning lead is never fun. It’s worse in a playoff race. It’s worse yet when you realize that for the rest of the season, you are more or less without a closer. This was, effectively, the end. We knew it was coming, and now we knew how: the gut punch from the guy that never much liked us anyway—blowing a lead and a season to a chorus of boos. How wonderfully Clevel—
Oh.
With that swing, the Indians announced that they weren’t going quietly. After Giambi touched home, their playoff chances stood at 83%, only two percentage points higher than the day before, as both Tampa and Texas continued to win. But for the first time all year, it started to feel like we had a shot at October baseball and October magic.
Of course, after Giambi’s blast, there were still five games to play. The next day, the White Sox looked beaten before the first pitch was even thrown, and Danny Salazar cruised, striking out eight over 5.1 innings for an easy 7-2 victory.
The last four of the season would be played in Minnesota, against a Twins team that had won only five of its previous 21 games. In the first game of the series, Perez drove another nail into his Cleveland coffin, allowing four runs in the bottom of the ninth and nearly blowing the five run lead he’d inherited from Zach McAllister and the rest of the bullpen. After Joe Smith relieved him and preserved a 6-5 win, Perez told Francona he didn’t want to “cost his team wins”. Somehow the Indians lost their closer without losing a game.
The next day the Indians battered the Twins for 12 runs on 17 hits, including four doubles, a triple and a homer. Kluber was hardly sharp, giving up six runs, but it hardly mattered. After the win, the AL Wild Card race was down to three: Cleveland and Tampa were tied at 90-70, with the Rangers one game back. Two left to play.
Scott Kazmir took the mound for the regular season’s penultimate game. Unless, of course, it wasn’t, because by this point we’d all realized the likelihood of a one-game play-in game for the one-game play-in game were there to be a tie among the three contenders. But as long as the Indians didn’t lose, they wouldn’t have to worry about that. Kazmir ensured the first victory, allowing one run over six innings while striking out 11 en route to a 5-1 win. The Indians were up one game over both Tampa and Texas, with one game to play. They had guaranteed themselves a 163rd game, but whether it would be as a Wild Card team or as a play-in game to get there was yet to be determined.
The Indians would send Ubaldo Jimenez to the mound on the last day of the season with a shot to clinch a home playoff game—the first in Cleveland since 2007. He was nothing short of masterful, striking out 13 batters and walking only one over 6.2 innings of one-run ball. The Indians took a 2-0 lead and never looked back. By the time Kipnis threw out Clete Thomas to end the game, the Indians has won 10 games in a row. It turned out they needed every last one of them: the 2013 Indians went 92-70 and won the AL Wild Card by one game over the Rays and Rangers, who both finished at 91-71.
As quickly as it came, it was gone. The ride ended only one game later when the Indians were shut down by Alex Cobb in a game of wasted chances and bad bounces. The crowd kept trying to work itself into the frenzy that had engendered the streak—partly to will a win and partly, I think, just to remember what it felt like. But each time a rally fizzled, so did the energy, and eventually, what had felt inevitable for at least three hours (and perhaps 65 years), came to fruition: the Indians finally lost, and the season was over.
Stars don’t align in Cleveland. They fizzle out into the black hole of endless winter.
With about two weeks left in the season, I joked that it would be so entirely Cleveland were the Indians to make the one-game Wild Card game, lose, and incite the fans to lash out in existential fury as to whether the team had “REALLY” made the playoffs. It was a joke, because…well, because even I didn’t believe they’d make the playoffs.
And then it happened.
Except that it didn’t play out exactly like I thought it would. Sure they lost their last game: all but one of the playoff teams has that fate each year. What surprised me was that the city didn’t feel angry or bitter or forlorn over it. Most people I spoke with were a bit deflated, sure, but still in awe of the ride that had got them there. The walkoffs. The starting pitching surprises. The meltdowns. The streak, unlike anything we’ve seen, where every last win was desperately needed and never guaranteed.
They were all part of the story, and like any story that’s worth the time, it was more than just an ending.
—
Editor’s note Part II: If we’ve learned one thing over the last few months, just when we think we’ve seen it all, another Holy Crap moment jumps out from behind a dumpster and punches us all square in the mug. By this time next year, we know we’ll have a handful of additions to the Cleveland Browns—including a head coach and potentially a few assistants. Will the Cavs turn things around? Will the Indians repeat? And what about those Buckyes? We’ll have the next 12 months to digest it all as the calendar soon turns to 2014. We thank you all for joining us during this entire year’s ride. For those who joined us midway through 2013, we hope that you’ll stick around for what’s to come. Oh, and tell a few friends, would ya? Have a safe and enjoyable New Year, kids. Cheers!
7 Comments
Great story no doubt I guess technically they made the playoffs unfortunately just like many previous teams with Cleveland attached they went out with a dud. I’m happy for Francona. I will be shocked I mean really shocked if they do as well or better in 2014 but hey, anything is possible.
Despite a very “Cleveland” year in sports, it’s nice that the #1 story is not only actually positive, but was just downright magical at that. (I’m too lazy to search the archives, but how many times has the #1 WFNY story been positive? How many of ALL of the top 10’s have been??)
Here’s to the Indians disproving the “1 out of every 5 years” concept next year.
Here’s to the Browns making a smart coaching hire, finding a competent QB and a real RB and stop being the embarassment of the league.
Here’s to the Cavs not becoming the NBA’s version of the Browns.
And while I’m not trying to start a huge debate, here’s to there not being any OSU stories in a list of “top 10 CLEVELAND sports stories” next year. While I have gracefully just ignored all of the Buckeye articles and the fact that they have been adopted by this site (mainly because it’s not my website and therefore my opinion doesn’t matter much), they are still not a “Cleveland” team.
I’ll end on a positive note, thank the WFNY staff for another great year of reading, even if the product on the field doesn’t make it easy. And here’s hoping that 2014 is “next year.”
Merry New Year all!
I would have also attached the Underwood call of the Giambomb; because he didn’t actually blunder it. 2014 will be tougher with 4 teams competing for the division (and then there’s the LOLSox). Bringing back Jimenez would help and Johan Santana should at least get a shot on a Minor League deal.
I think you started the libations a little early sir! 😉
Depends what you mean by “positive.” Last year’s No. 1 was Haslam buying the Browns—something we all thought was a positive at the time. No. 2 was Francona’s hiring. To your point, however, the No. 1 story in 2011 was the Tressel-tattoo scandal at Ohio State. No. 2, conversely, was Urban Meyer’s hiring.
Call me crazy but I think Slim Jim Haslam will be the gift that keeps on giving for your sect!
I kinda considered hirings and new owners to be neutral, even if they seemed like better options than their predecessors (obviously you would hope a successor will be better than its predecessor). I guess looking back over this year’s list, I would say there are 2 negatives (The Raid of PFJ, and The QB Sitchu), 3 definite positives (AS Kyrie, Walk-Off Wins, and Tribe Playoffs), 2 other possible positives (Cavs Win Lotto, Browns Trade TRich – both can be argued due to either the use of the #1 pick, or whether you thought TRich should have been traded at the time), and 3 neutral (Bynum, Mike Brown, and Browns additions).
The 2011 #1 is somewhat ironic since I said OSU stories don’t belong in a “Cleveland” list…and because as a Wolverine, anything negative about OSU is positive to me…except that it landed them Meyer, which I hate.