Sabtu, 29 Oktober 2016

World Series Game 3: Indians' pitching staff proves dangerous beyond the big names - CBSSports.com

CHICAGO -- It was a moment that seemed to scream for Chicago Cubs salvation.

For six innings the Cleveland Indians and Cubs had battled to a scoreless tie, in a tightly played nail-biter of a game. Then in the seventh the Indians threatened, pushing runners to first and third with one out. Standing in the on-deck circle was Andrew Miller , smiter of enemies, bringer of terrors, the man who'd just crushed the spirits of three All-Stars a few minutes earlier, striking out Dexter Fowler and co-MVP candidates Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo .

Cleveland manager Terry Francona saw the chance to take a look, and he took it, summoning light-hitting outfielder Coco Crisp to pinch hit for his big left-hander. Crisp responded by dunking a single into right, putting the Tribe ahead 1-0. But when Rajai Davis got thrown out[1] on the second of the night's three bad Indians base-running mistakes, and Mike Montgomery escaped further damage by inducing an inning-ending Jason Kipnis ground out (punctuated by a silly slide into first), it seemed that Cubs fans could take heart. Even down a run, with nine outs to go, the National League's best offense[2] taking its hacks, and the world's most terrifying relief pitcher headed for the showers, a comeback seemed like it could be in the cards.

Never happened. Two relief pitchers not named Andrew Miller built on the 4 2/3 scoreless innings thrown by another pitcher not named Andrew Miller, and the Indians sneaked away with a hard-fought, scintillating, 1-0 victory[3].

In many corners, the narrative surrounding the Indians revolved around Miller, and Corey Kluber . In my own series preview[4], I picked the Cubs to win the World Series in six games, on the theory that Kluber would win twice, using Miller's dominance and Francona's aggressive use-him-early approach with his relief ace to secure those two wins. After that, the Cubs would win the other four.

Like a lot of other pundits, I underestimated the quality of the rest of the pitching staff. Even with Carlos Carrasco out until next spring and fellow wicked-stuff right-hander Danny Salazar so far limited to mop-up relief use, this is a team that boasts an army of pitchers who can get you out, in more ways than we can imagine.

Josh Tomlin was the first pitcher to shine. That would have seemed like a crazy proposition two months ago. On August 30, the Minnesota Twins lit up the soft-tossing right-hander for four runs on seven hits in just 1 2/3 innings. That outing hiked his ERA to 4.89, with a league-leading 35 home runs allowed in just 147 1/3 innings[5]. It also temporarily knocked him out of the rotation. With the Tribe pointed toward the playoffs and the rotation trying to overcome multiple injuries, Francona and pitching coach Mickey Callaway hoped to fix the problems ailing Tomlin, and get him back to throwing quality innings ... even if asking more than that seemed like a stretch.

Since returning to the mound on Sept. 5 (and making his first start back nine days after), Tomlin has gone from batting practice thrower to one of the stingiest pitchers in the league. Counting his 4 2/3 shutout innings Friday night[6], he's now flashed a 1.71 ERA his last eight times on the mound, with just one homer allowed in 42 innings.

That tally includes three terrific playoff starts against three loaded offensive teams in the Boston Red Sox , Toronto Blue Jays , and Cubs. I chronicled Tomlin's ALDS-clinching start against the Sox; though that was his worst statistical outing of the three, it showed what even a right-hander with an 88-mph fastball can do[7] when he's locating pitches perfectly, pounding the zone with first-pitch strikes, and keeping hitters off balance with tricky pitch mixes.

That was his M.O. again in Game 3 against the Cubs. Tomlin rang up strikes on 66 percent of his pitches (38 of 58), striking an incredibly even balance by firing 19 cutters, 17 sinkers, and 15 curveballs[8] and ringing up first-pitch strikes to 10 of 17 hitters. Even with notoriously shaky home plate umpire John Hirschbeck stealing multiple strike calls from him[9], Tomlin still plowed through the powerful Cubs lineup twice, setting the stage for Miller to tidy up the rest of the fifth, and get the Indians into the seventh.

When the Indians took the field in the bottom of the seve nth, Francona tapped a pitcher who was either the team's fourth- or fifth-best reliever this year[10] to face the Cubs' 4-5-6 hitters. On this Cleveland team, though, that's not an insult. Bryan Shaw might've struggled a bit at times this year, posting a career-high walk rate and wavering against some tougher left-handed hitters. But he's also a battle-tested reliever with a mid-90s cutter and nasty slider that can be murder on right-handed batters. With young righties Willson Contreras , Jorge Soler , Javier Baez and Addison Russell due to follow switch-hitting veteran Ben Zobrist , the stage was set for Shaw to thrive.

And thrive he did. Zobrist and Contreras both rolled over on harmless ground outs to the right side. When Soler followed with a fluke triple both the right-field line that should have been caught if Lonnie Chisenhall wasn't petrified of the jutting stands skirting the field, Shaw got Baez to roll over on a 2-0 cutter near the bottom of the strike zone, inducing a third ground out to end the inning. Shaw would go on to face seven batters, ostensibly retiring six of them if not for Chisenhall's bungle job. While his command wasn't quite as sharp as Tomlin's, Shaw tossed cutters on 27 of his 31 pitches, getting biting movement on many of them and inducing lots of weak contact.

Closer Cody Allen 's appearance proved to be the most heart-wrenching of the four Indians pitchers' performances. It was also, in many ways, a perfect illustration of the challenges the Cubs face for the rest of this series.

Allen entered the game with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, and the likely NL MVP at the plate. As potent a hitter as Bryant can be, though, he can also be vulnerable to tantalizing pitches out of the zone, as his 154 strikeouts this season demonstrated. With the threat of Bryant sitting dead-red first pitch on his mind, Allen slung a gorgeous, 84-mph knuckle curve that clipped the outside corner for strike one. With Bryant now having that Uncle Charlie on the brain, Allen came back with a riding fastball up and in at 94 for strike two. After catching a bit of a break on an outside fastball that Bryant blooped just foul down the right-field line, it was time for Allen's trademark pitch[11] one more time. This time, Allen's knuckle curve bit the dust, inducing a wild swing from Bryant, and a dejected walk back to the bench for the young masher.

The stage was set for a dramatic ninth. When Rizzo fought off a fastball on the fists for a leadoff, opposite-field single, it looked like some Wrigley magic might be coming. But Allen would not be denied. First, he dispatched the normally patient Zobrist with another vicious knuckle curve in the dirt. A first-pitch knuckle curve to Contreras produced a weak tapper to third for the second out. After multiple umpiring mistakes and base-running blunders, Mike Napoli added to Indians fans' tension by booting a chopper that would have ended the game. By this point, Francona had built a giant stress ball of mouth projectiles in the dugout, so tense was the situation.

But Allen had one more round of heroics to offer. After falling behind 2-1 to Baez, the Indians closer went back to the ol' number-two, spiking yet another curve in the dirt and enticing yet another impatient Cubs hitter to hack at it. With that pitch now haunting the Cubs second baseman, Allen was ready to throw some gas. One 95-mph, neck-high fastball and one wild swing later, the Indians were lining up for handshakes, having secured a 1-0 win[12] so agonizing, it could have only happened in playoff baseball.

After the game, Cubs manager Joe Maddon spoke of his hitters' need to be more patient at the plate, following nine inni ngs of wild swings that doused potential rallies. The affable veteran Crisp earned plaudits for his game-winning hit. And while he didn't make any impactful plays in this game, Yan Gomes returning to the Indians lineup for the first time this postseason, after fighting off multiple painful injuries, made for an uplifting story[13].

Still, the enduring lesson from this game was a simple one. Kluber might win another Cy Young this season, and a high-leverage-at-all-times Miller might be a force of nature that we've rarely seen in any postseason. But the rest of Cleveland's pitching staff is pretty damn good in its own right. If the Indians manage those two more precious wins to win it all for the first time in 68 years, we'll need a hell of a lot of hat-tips to recognize the very deep and wildly underrated pitching staff that made it possible.

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