Tribe benefits from defense at plate and in field: Ball Played

The Cleveland Indians (48-43) showed off their superiority over the San Francisco Giants (35-59) on Monday night in Fisherman’s Warf. With the waft of garlic fries in the air, the Tribe made up for another meager offensive outing with some fantastic defensive plays throughout the evening. Their counterparts from the Bay did not as the Indians were victorious, 5-3.

Josh Tomlin (7.1 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO, 79 pitches) was efficient and controlled the pace of a game that lasted just two hours and 33 minutes (employers across Northeast Ohio are sure to be grateful Tuesday morning). Two of the three runs he did allow came after Yan Gomes failed to make an easy tag at the plate (more on this in a moment). But, by only allowing six baserunners and having two of them run into double plays, the Giants were only able to find themselves with runners in scoring position three times the entire evening with them capitalizing on a Moore chopper that took a high bounce when the infield was drawn to the grass.

The Indians saw Francisco Lindor continue to show everyone that Frankie is back since returning from South Beach. With his 3-for-5 effort (two RBIs), Lindor has accumulated seven hits between Sunday and Monday. The other offensive contributors included Yan Gomes (solo home run to open scoring), Giovanny Urshela (2-for-4 with two runs scored, hard contact on one of his outs too), and Michael Brantley. The 1-for-5 mark in the box score by Brantley’s name might not have lent many to think that he had a noteworthy night, however Brantley saw 29 pitches in his five appearances (5.8 pitches per PA). The overall strategy against Moore appeared to be to take aggressive swings with mixed results (Bradley Zimmer, Lindor, Brandon Guyer, Gomes, Urshela, and Tomlin average 2.7 pitchers per AB between them), Brantley’s patient approach was good to see (Jose Ramirez and Edwin Encarnacion also were patient to lesser degrees).

Bad defense from Giants

The difference in the game was the defense of the Giants versus the defense of the Indians. The Giants simply could not get out of their own way.

For instance, Tribe fans have long appreciated the great glove work and defense of Tomlin. The only thing holding him back from winning a Gold Glove Award is that he is a flyball pitcher and guys like Dallas Keuchel are as good defensively but get more chances to show off. Matt Moore, on the other hand, reminds Cleveland fans more of Brandon Weeden against the Detroit Lions when he goes to make a simple flip to first with tons of time to get even the speedy Zimmer.

Who is worse at flipping a ball in their respective professional sports?

— michael bode (@mgbode_WFNY) July 18, 2017

Not to be outdone by a pitcher, first baseman Jae-Gyun Hwang wanted in on the action. Guyer’s bad bunt attempt puts itself in perfect play for Moore to grab and obtain the out at first. Perhaps due to the earlier error, Hwang darts in front of his pitcher and makes an ill-advised spinning throw into the dirt where second baseman Joe Panik had not chance to make a play on it. Another run for the Tribe and another runner in scoring position too.

Good defense from Indians

If the Giants needed to watch another team playing good defense to learn from the dugout, then they were in luck. The Indians were on point defensively all night.

First, there was a great relay from Brantley to Lindor to Gomes that had Panik out at the plate by 10 feet. Oh, shoot. That was a great play except that Gomes forgot to step forward and the replay showed it ended up being a bang-bang play as a result. The umpires ruled Panik safe- I like to think to teach Gomes a lesson as he did the SAME EXACT THING against the Detroit Tigers just before the All-Star break though he got lucky that the replay upheld the tag.

OK, that settled, let’s get into the fun. Who enjoys watching Lindor range far to his right and making a throw across his body and the diamond to record the out? (chorus) We do! We do!

How about watching Brandon Guyer rob a double in the right field gap by doing his best Chisen-kaze impression?

I must insist that everyone holds their chin for this one. Is your hand in place? OK. No, really. Hold it. Here is Urshela creating a double play out of thin air. A sacrifice bunt attempt back to the mound results in Urshela charging in front of Tomlin, making an amazing throw to Lindor at second, then the double play being completed to end the inning. This might be the defensive play of the year or at least make every Top 10 list.

What is the best way to finish off a game with this many defensive highlights? Oh, that’ll do Cody Allen. That’ll do.

MOAR DINGERZ !!!

Yan Gomes has had a tough season at the plate. So, let us celebrate when he crushes one beyond the Chevron sign in left field. Also, it is always worth celebrating a game in which Tomlin does not allow a home run as he accomplished on Monday.