Game 20: Red Sox 3, Indians 1
by Ryan on Apr 27, 2009 9:56 PM EDT
in Game Recaps
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PrintIt's easy to view Cliff Lee's Cy Young season as a fluke season by a decent starter. It's certainly easier than to try to explain how a pitcher who had been banished to the minors the season before remade his game in just a single offseason, transitioning from a flyball pitcher with a deceptive fastball and an occasional breaking pitch to a true four-pitch pitcher with exceptional command of said fastball. It's the type of transformation that can be a refreshing challenge to deep-seated assumptions about the career arcs of baseball players.
Consider Lee's opponent tonight. The Boston Red Sox came into tonight winners of ten in a row and with a locked-in lineup. They lead the league in on-base percentage and OPS, and featured two hitters with an OPS over 1.100. Kevin Youkilis is the toughest out in the AL, getting on base at a .549 clip. Lee took on this tough assignment, and more than just passing it, made it look relatively easy. He went eight innings, throwing 106 pitches, 70 of them for strikes, and didn't walk a batter. There is no way the old fastball & flyball Cliff Lee would have lasted five innings against this lineup, never mind eight shutout frames.
Lee had a couple jams to work out of, including a bizarre sequence in the fourth. He got Mike Lowell to foul tip a curve into Kelly Shoppach's glove, but as the players were leaving the field, the first base umpire correctly ruled that the ball hit the ground before Shoppach snared it. Lee returned to the mound, and threw another curve to Lowell; this time the ball was put in play and bounced down the line into Mark DeRosa's glove. He stepped on third to end the inning. Only home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor ruled the ball foul. STO didn't really show a good replay, but DeRosa was incensed, and Eric Wedge had finally had enough. He probably made up his mind before he left the dugout that he'd get himself tossed. Bucknor obliged him. So now Lee had to return to the mound after the excitement and throw yet another pitch to the Mike Lowell. To his credit, he threw one more curve, and this time Lowell couldn't pull the trigger.
But as well as Lee pitched, Tim Wakefield matched him in his own unique manner. He'd been very effective this season, and the unusually-warm April evening helped make his dancing knucklers a bit more vivacious. The Indians couldn't manage a hit after the first inning, though they did have opportunities to score, the best probably being the sixth inning, when Grady Sizemore stole second with nobody out. But Wakefield escaped that threat, and lasted until the seventh.
With Lee going eight, the Indians could bypass their setup guys and bring Kerry Wood in for the ninth to set up a walk-off situation in the bottom of the inning. But after Wood gave up a bloop base hit (which would have been caught had the Indians not been playing no-doubles defense) and a walk, Jason Bay jumped on a mistake fastball and blasted a three-run home to the bleachers. With that, eight innings of shutout ball came to naught, and the Red Sox were well on their way to winning their eleventh in a row. Two-and-a-half hours of built-up excitement was extinguished in one swing. Lee's pitching performance remains as a small token consolation, but, man, this one hurt.
Next Up: Penny vs. Reyes, 7:05 PM.
| Highest WPA | Lowest WPA | ||
| Cliff Lee | .563 | Kerry Wood | -.464 |
| Mark DeRosa | .098 | Jhonny Peralta | -.191 |
| Shin-Soo Choo | .076 | Kelly Shoppach | -.186 |
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A key moment was in the 6th inning with Grady on second, Victor is up to bat and he gets a terrible call on a high/outside pitch that would have been ball 4. It changes the complexion of the inning and could have made the difference in this game. It’s just one of those little moments that gets lost in a box score and makes it frustrating to watch what happens afterwords.
There is no real good time to have a bad umpire calling balls and strikes. But today with Wakefield pitching and our team not hitting very well, it seemed like cruel punishment.
Actually it was a high and inside pitch (as Victor came to bat as a right hander). I went back to Gameday to get their view on the pitch and it’s not as bad as it looked during the game, but it’s still a ball that is both high AND off the plate.
I have no idea what Bucknor favors for balls and strikes. Apparently, he doesn’t either because the consistency was off all night.
I remember his called third strike to Jhonny in the ninth, which Jhonny questioned. Papelbon getting that high and away strike is hard to beat.
CB Buckner is one of the only MLB umpires I know by name and sight. This can’t be a good thing. Every single time he is behind the plate for one of our games, I feel like there are problems.
Il faut d'abord durer.
Was at the game. Lost my voice trying to stay louder then the SAWX fans. So much anger.
Maybe it’s just me, but I firmly believe that J.D. Drew, no matter what the situation, should be hit with the first pitch he sees in every series against the Indians from now until eternity. I will not bend on this.
First ever Indians game was a glorious pitching dual….then not so much.
Couple observations-
Peralta looked absolutely clueless.
Really we’re playing with two OF on our roster.
Lee was marvelous and Grady’s catch was spectacular but so was the Asdrubal play.
There were way too many Sox fans. Really disappointed on this.
File all these under duh.
Down three runs in the ninth, and you don’t want to use up Wood after he’s given up the runs, does it make sense to bring in Betancourt, who pitched yesterday, which means he doesn’t pitch tomorrow? Lewis pitched yesterday as well, so I guess if you’re going to burn out somebody it might as well be RB. I’d be tempted to run Kobayashi out there. We need to get the guy to 50 IPs as soon as possible, and there was no way the team was scoring three runs against Papelbon.
I may be in the minority here, but personally I didn’t like using Wood in the ninth. To me it seemed like a bit of a panic move. He’s the closer, and we weren’t just trying to get him some work. If he’d mowed down the side, we’d still be using somebody else in extra innings, since I would not lay down a bet that we’d score in the bottom of the frame.
It shouldn’t matter, but the way the game was going, he was out of his role tonight.
It actually is totally standard, by the book, to user a closer in a tie game in the ninth at home.
At that point, it is not possible for the home team to have a save opportunity, so that becomes the logical time to use the closer.
This is completely ordinary usage, so nobody involved in the game would interpret it as a panic move.
Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
In fact, it’s become a pretty standard criticism of certain managers that they let themselves get beat while their best reliever goes unused. Do you want to use (a) your best guy, and then maybe your second-best guy later if needed? Or (b) vice versa? Leaving matchup issues aside, if you’re trying to win the game, you go with (a).
Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
We need to get the guy to 50 IPs as soon as possible
Why? I was under the impression that he was terrible in the second half last year because he threw too many innings. Wouldn’t make sense to limit his innings, not burn him out again?
Also, we were somewhat close to scoring three runs against Papelbon.
by Ryan Kelsey on Apr 28, 2009 12:13 AM EDT up reply actions
oh, and there is this option for the 9th which you omitted:
Ben Francisco: An Outfielder only on baseball cards and roster sheets.
by westbrook on Apr 28, 2009 12:17 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
That’s what I was looking for. Cliff looked outstanding in the 8th, going 1-2-3 on (what I’d imagine to be) fewer than 10 pitches. His velocity was still up and he looked comfortable. I don’t think going to Kerry was a terrible decision but it wasn’t what I would have wished for. This team is getting hard to root for.
by jakesinger777 on Apr 28, 2009 1:17 AM EDT up reply actions
He did have 106 pitches. Its not enough to say don’t put him out there the next inning on a short leash, but they may have had to yank him after one batter anyway. From reading some of the after game interviews it sounded like Wood simply missed the spot on that fastball, but that he was throwing in the upper 90s. I’m ok with going with Wood in that situation. Bottom line our offense has to do a better job off of Wakefield.
Cliff got 1-2-3 on the 8-9-1 hitters and the 1 hitter tried to bunt his way on. Pedroia/Youklis/Ortiz is a whole different ballgame, in my opinion. I’m totally ok with going Wood there.
I would have wanted to see Lee face Pedroia and Ortiz, see how he did, and move from there. No big deal (well, we lost, so maybe it is) but that’s what I would have done.
by jakesinger777 on Apr 28, 2009 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions
I’m sort of sorry I missed this one, and sort of not. The starting pitching really seems to be stabilizing. We know that Wood is not gonna have many outings like this. And I don’t think we can read TOO much into the offensive slump from this game. When Wakefield’s knuckleball is really working he’s tough for anyone to hit. I’m not panicking yet. Really.
"Lotta heart in Cleveland." - Ian Hunter
by Denver Tribe Fan on Apr 28, 2009 12:36 AM EDT reply actions
So how do we shape up so far. Lee has been outstanding of late, and I really, really like Reyes, Pavano looks decent and who couldda guessed that Laffey would be this good. Fausto – we’ll hafta wait until June to see if he’s the ’08 or ’07 version. If he tanks we still got Westbrook coming back soon. Bottom line: our starting pitching has been better than I hoped.
Relief pitching: you can see this is starting to shape up. Wood, despite tonight’s disappointmen, could be the closer we’ve been looking for since Mesa. Raffie B is – I hope – rounding into form and I like this Lewis kid alot. Masa – who the hell knows what’s going on with Masa? And I still have high hopes for Raffie L. And I almost forgot about Sipp – he’s gotta chance to be really something special if he can just stay healthy. So I figure we’ve got a shut-down closer and should be able to find two good to great set-up guys among the Raffies, Lewis and Sipp. I think we’ve got a WS caliber BP mix.
Our offense looks pretty anemic, but Vic is just unbelievable right now. We all know that Jhonny’s a lot better than he’s shown and I look for Grady to pick it up a notch through the rest of the season. I’m waiting for DeRosa to turn it on and luv – just luv – the way Astrubal is swinging the bat. Choo’s gonna get better and you all know I’m rooting for Garko. Shoppach should get hot here soon too. And Hafner – I take it all back, maybe this surgery thing’ll do the trick. The way I see it we’ll score in the 850-920 range, but with our pitching this should be enough.
Bottom line: I’m still optimistic about this year, but the Boyz better have a much better May before I get my pon-poms out – hadda look up the spelling of that one.
Resident LGT results-oriented boob.
by mauichuck on Apr 28, 2009 2:03 AM EDT reply actions 2 recs
we’ll hafta wait until June to see if he’s the ’08 or ’07 version. If he tanks we still got Westbrook coming back soon. Bottom line: our starting pitching has been better than I hoped.
Don’t forget that Scott Lewis is somewhere around as well. If I’m not mistaken he originally had the starting spot over Laffey.
This Indians Web site says he is due to report to extended spring training and could be back by mid-May.
before I get my pon-poms out – hadda look up the spelling of that one.
What resource did you use, exactly?
(Sorry, couldn’t resist. No self-control)
by Logodaedalus on Apr 28, 2009 10:57 AM EDT up reply actions
Here’s another rosey take on Cliff, for anyone who’s buying.
He was, you may recall, struck on his pitching arm by a comebacker in his second inning of the season, and he proceeded to give up four runs in that inning.
Outside of that one inning, he’s given up 10 ER over 31 IP, good for a 2.90 ERA.
Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
by Jay on Apr 28, 2009 7:34 AM EDT reply actions 3 recs
The Indians have scored 3 or less runs in 8 of our 20 games. All losses.
Of our 13 losses, we ended the game with the winning or tying run on-base 5 times.
I suppose one could look at this as a good sign… Even though they’re not getting it done in the clutch, the team is functionally not all that many breaks away from being .500 or better right now, between the 9th inning rallies that fall short and the games the bullpen has just barely managed to blow. As far as predicting the rest of the season, I’ll take that over a bunch of clear losses.
by Logodaedalus on Apr 28, 2009 11:08 AM EDT up reply actions
The slow start, out of it by the middle, great finishing performance leaving us encouraged. The games are looking like the seasons.
by SuddenSam on Apr 28, 2009 11:15 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
The Cleveland Indians: Fractals of Baseball
by Logodaedalus on Apr 28, 2009 11:18 AM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
The Indians have scored 3 orlessfewer runs in 8 of our 20 games. All losses.
Sorry, but using less instead of fewer is one of my top grammar pet peeves.
by woodsmeister on Apr 28, 2009 11:39 AM EDT up reply actions
The grocery store must be agonizing for you.
“12 items or less”
by Seattle Tribe Fan on Apr 28, 2009 12:44 PM EDT up reply actions
Yep, there’s a high-end chain in Seattle that uses "12 items or fewer". Why should proper grammar cost more?
by Seattle Tribe Fan on Apr 28, 2009 4:09 PM EDT up reply actions
its definately possible their doing that
by Logodaedalus on Apr 28, 2009 5:45 PM EDT up reply actions
if it will help your stress levels you could think of it as “12 items, or less (stuff than 12 items’ worth)”
by Logodaedalus on Apr 28, 2009 5:44 PM EDT up reply actions
You need to read Infinite Jest, if you haven’t.
by JulioBernazard on Apr 28, 2009 2:37 PM EDT up reply actions
For some reason, it’s hard for me to be upset about the game with Cliff pitching as good as he did. He looked so sharp, despite a few defensive miscues.
The defense is starting to play better, Asdrubal had a nice pick and Grady made a nice catch, but even with that catch, I have been disappointed with his d. He’s diving too much, last night wasn’t the first time, I think, he’s let a ball get past him on a missed dive. Whether it’s the other outfielders fault or his, there seems to be some real confusion on who’s going after the balls in the gap. Last night, him and Crowe just looked at each other and a ball dropped.
DeRosa’s defense is leaving a lot to be desired. That was a tough hop last night, but it’d be nice if he could make that play, especially with his botching some other routine plays.
Offense looked bad against Wakefield, but when he’s on, who doesn’t. Some good ab’s against their douchey closer helped.
Part of the problem with bad defense, not that any of us need to be told this, is that it elevates pitch counts.
If our guys make a couple more routine plays, Cliff Lee is pitching in the 9th at around 100 pitches. I don’t know if that’s necessarily better than what happened but it’s one of the hidden costs of bad defense.
Yeah, the defense has probably been the biggest disappointment of the year for me so far.
by NickFantana on Apr 28, 2009 10:07 AM EDT up reply actions
I agree with this. But once we start harping on the defensive problems, the defense will fix itself and some other part of the team will crap out. At least, that’s the way it’s been so far. A complete group effort.
by dgcambridge on Apr 28, 2009 10:17 AM EDT up reply actions
I didn’t forget at all. But the bullpen’s struggles (and the rotation’s struggles) have been exacerbated by inconsistent defense. I would also argue that, other than Cabrera, our defense has been disappointing across the board, whereas the bullpen has had some bright spots. (Remember that one game?)
Yes, the bullpen hasn’t been helped by the defense, but certain outcomes (walks and homeruns) are not the responsibility of fielders. I would say the lack of sharp play in the field has further demoralized the team. Also, nothing like getting thrown on the basepaths to take the wind out of your sails.
I definitely would not be nearly as upset had I not actually watched it. Cliff’s performance is a huge take-away.
Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.
Absolutely.
I’m with Chuck — it seems like the individual pieces are there or nearly there, and hopefully it’s not too long before they start to fit together and our winning percentage starts looking less like an on-base-percentage and more like a good slugging average.
by Logodaedalus on Apr 28, 2009 11:16 AM EDT up reply actions
Bucknor is a horrible ball-strike umpire. Period. Always has been.
Wedge obviously didn’t agree with the ground ball call, but the main issue was that since it went past third base, it wasn’t Bucknor’s call. The third base umpire ruled it fair, but Bucknor said the ball didn’t make it to the bag. It was an egregious error, and that is why Wedge argued so vehemently. It wasn’t a judgement call on fair/foul, but a lack of judgement on where the ball was when DeRosa caught it. Didn’t have an impact on the game, but I thought I’d comment on it.
I just had audio, so I appreciate this account.
Though I look right at home, I still feel like an exile
by Manhattan Tribe Fan on Apr 28, 2009 11:07 AM EDT up reply actions
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