Written by Steve Buffum

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Not many teams are enjoying inter-league play as much as the Indians, who ran their record against National League team to a flawless 6-0 with a three-game sweep of the surprisingly ept Pirates.  Justin Masterson was the pitching goat because he gave up a second run.  Carlos Carrasco nearly burst into tears as the Tribe scored a second run for him.  The bullpen chipped in with a bunch of zeroes and a win for their collective trouble.  Oh, and a walk-off homer.  Yeah, that was pretty good.

 

 

FINAL	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Pirates (35-34)	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	6	1
Indians (37-31)	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	3	X	5	8	0

W: Tomlin (8-4)              L: Correia (8-6)

 

FINAL	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Pirates (35-35)	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	4	0
Indians (38-31)	1	1	0	0	0	1	2	0	X	5	9	0

W: Carrasco (7-3)          L: Maholm (3-8)

 

FINAL	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	R	H	E
Pirates (35-36)	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	11	1
Indians (39-31)	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	5	9	1

W: Sipp (3-0)                 L: T. Wood (0-1)

 

Okay, who had “five runs on nine hits” in the pool?  You lost the first one.

 

1) Widening the Margin

 

When Josh Tomlin is “on,” he’s a lot of fun to watch.  He’s very efficient.  He pounds the strike zone.  His curveball appears to the lay fan (me) to be above-average.  He walks few hitters, strikes out his share, and ends up pitching somewhere in the 6 inning neighborhood with only a run or two allowed.

 

Friday’s start against the Pirates, who came into the game with a winning record and everything, was exactly this sort of start.  Tomlin threw first-pitch strikes to 20 of 25 hitters and ended up throwing 63 strikes in 85 pitches, nearly a 75% clip.  Of his 6 hits allowed, only 1 was for extra bases (a double), and even his vaunted terrifying GO:FO ratio was stultified to a mere 7:7.  He struck out nearly a batter an inning, 5 in 6 2/3, and didn’t walk anyone, before prudently giving way to Vinnie Pestano, who may or may not have travelled naked through a spacetime vortex in order to strike out a lot of hitters before killing Sarah Connor.

 

So, we’ve seen the good and we’ve seen the bad, and to Tomlin’s credit, there’s been significantly more good than bad.  Does this mean that Tomlin is clearly “good?”  You know what, I still hedge that bet.  I still worry about the kinds of balls he allows to travel such distances, and I’m still concerned about a low BABIP.  I’m still concerned that Tomlin lacks a real “out” pitch, especially against lefties, and both lefties and righties post close to a .200 ISO against him.  When Tomlin gets hit, he tends to get hit hard.

 

And I guess that’s what I end up thinking: here is a guy whose margin of error is just flat-out dinky.  He spots his pitches.  He varies their speeds.  And if his command isn’t close to top-notch, he does not get guys out consistently.  Now, as I said, it’s been close to top-notch enough times to think that he can make it through a whole season with pretty decent numbers.  His WHIP of 1.07 might be a bit fortunate based on his batted ball data, but 1.07 is still a fine number, and it legally belongs to him.  After starting the season with 9 consecutive Quality Starts, he threw four consecutive Clunkers before this start against the Pirates.  And although it might sound clean to suggest that Tomlin just ran into a stretch of better opponents, the fact is that neither Minnesota nor Tampa was good offensively at the time he faced them.  He just got beaten.

 

And so what are we to make of this start?  While it’s all good fun to ridicule the Pirates as a quad-A franchise, they haven’t played like one this season.  Their start is at least as legitimate as Cleveland’s.  No, Tomlin really did pitch fundamentally better in this game, good enough so that objective observers could agree that he genuinely pitched well.  I think what we end up taking from this start is not so much that Tomlin “figured something out” or “turned it around,” but rather that against recent opponents, Tomlin simply hasn’t had the level of command required to have success: with the command, he’s a fine pitcher.

 

How repeatable is this skill?  Hell if I know.  But it was a good start, and I’m willing to take that face value for now.

 

2) Did I say “second” best?

 

Is there a pitcher throwing as well as Carlos Carrasco right now?

 

Well, frankly, yes.  Justin Verlander just pumped another complete game victory past the Rockies in Colorado, on the heels of his near no-hit performance against the Tribe his last time out.  There are actually quite a few pitchers throwing more innings with more Ks and fewer walks than Carlos.

 

There sure aren’t a lot giving up fewer runs, though.  Carrasco gave up his first run in three games Saturday, but this came after he carried his own no-hit bid into the sixth inning and showed some fortitude by working out of a jam in the 6^th.  He ended up giving up 4 hits and a run in the game (2 hits in each of the 6^th and 7^th innings) and struck out 4 against 1 walk, but for the first five innings, he was very effective indeed.  With 11 ground ball outs to go with the 4 Ks, I might have to start calling it the Carrasco Number instead of the Masterson Number.

 

Really, the contrast between Tomlin and Carrasco could hardly be more plain.  Pitching coach Tim Belcher reported that he visited the mound during the 6^th with two runners on base and told Carrasco that while he needed to be smart, his fastball was good enough to challenge the hitters due up in the lineup, who were two of Pittsburgh’s better hitters.  Carrasco reportedly expressed confidence in his stuff, then showed the Pirates that he had confidence in his stuff with back-to-back swinging strikeouts to end the frame.

 

This is the difference, obviously: raw stuff.  Carrasco’s is not just better than Tomlin’s, it is (in raw form) in the top quarter of the league (for starting pitchers).  He, too, could use a bit better command on occasion, but he is 24 in his second season.  Pitching with the confidence of a man who has proven to himself that he can win back-to-back 1-0 games and take a no-hitter past the midway point of the next start, I feel that Carrasco is in line for a breakout season.

 

(This is where I do not bring up the issue of why Carrasco has made only 13 starts this season.)

 

3) The bloom, being off the rose, may have been exaggerated in the first place

 

When was the last time Justin Masterson looked Really Good?  I don’t mean “pitched well enough to win” or “only gave up 2 earned runs,” I mean when’s the last time Masterson pitched and you thought, “Oh, yeah, that’s a front-of-the-rotation workhorse, they’re not gonna touch him tonight.”

 

Because it USED to feel like that.  In his first three starts, Masterson allowed 1 run in each game, never allowing more hits than innings pitched, and either collecting a boatload of non-threatening grounders or whiffing a bunch of guys.  His last start like THAT was probably May 19^th, when he throttled the White Sox for 1 run on 5 hits, notching 8 Ks in 8 complete innings of work.  A game, I might add, he LOST, but that’s hardly Masterson’s fault.  (His next start, against Boston in the “All In Game” was fine as well, so maybe you go back to that one.)

 

Since then, I don’t know what it is, but even when the numbers are there, he just doesn’t LOOK like he’s REALLY in control of the opposing lineup.  He seems to miss the strike zone a lot.  He doesn’t seem to hit his target as often.  He gives up more hits, more than one an inning.  And his ground ball nature hasn’t been nearly as strong.

 

So in one sense, it was nice to see Masterson at least hit the strike zone with more quality pitches: he posted a nice 5:1 K:BB ratio and threw 69 strikes in 110 pitches.  That’s not a great ratio, but it’s better than his previous 5-walk affair.  And he got a nice 8:2 GO:FO mark that would be a welcome return to form.  It should be noted that the Indians should have been out of the first with only 1 run allowed: a scorer isn’t allowed to take double plays for granted, but it sure looked like a good throw from Bob Phelps would have ended the inning.  It’s hard to get too hard on Phelps’ case considering what the rest of the game held in store, but that wasn’t a good play.

 

Still, instead of crumbling after a poor first inning, Masterson tossed four shutout frames after the first, and while he didn’t break his lengthy non-winning streak, he did get deep enough into the game to avoid giving too many innings to the Also-Rans in the bullpen, and the Real Guys were able to carry the team through until the Indians could score again and win the game.  Now, he got kind of forunate to strand so many baserunners, but was also victimized by Tofu Lou having flashbacks to Jake Westbrook’s first start with Marson behind the plate.  Marson did gun down Neil Walker trying to steal, but allowed one runner to reach on a strikeout-passed ball combo, and allowed another to advance from second to third on another passed ball.  This performance can only be described as … wait for it … Loudicrous.

 

4) Batterin’ Bob’s Hallmark Moment

 

It has been a tough couple of weeks for Bob Phelps.

 

Called up from AAA to make his major-league debut at the beginning of the Tribe’s massive offensive outage, Phelps hasn’t exactly turned out to be the spark the brass or youthophiles were hoping for.  Going into the 11^th inning of Sunday’s game, Phelps had started his career 2-for-20 and had made two errors at second base.  In a real gesture of futility, he DH’d one game while Orly Cabrera played second base, and was once removed for Cabrera to be a DEFENSIVE replacement.  This is tantamount to being pinch-hit for by Danny DeVito.

 

So it was eminently sensible, after Shin-Soo Choo singled and stole second, to intentionally walk Carlos Santana to face Phelps.  Santana, after all, hit two homers in the Pirates series, including one earlier in Sunday’s game, and was 2-for-3 entering the AB.

 

On the second pitch, reliever Tim Wood tried to force an inside fastball past Phelps, and Phelps … well, let us simply say that Phelps did not miss.  Not only did it win the game in thrilling fashion, but this was Phelps’ first career homer, which came innings after his first career extra-base hit (a double).  To say this was the finest game of Phelps’ career is a bit understated.

 

5) Feast or Famine

 

It was very encouraging to see Grady Sizemore face a quality left-hander like Paul Maholm (yes, I said quality left-hander: he’s 3-8 and still Paul Maholm, but his ERA is 3.28 and he’s pitched well this season) and not only hold his own but slash a pair of extra-base hits as part of the bargain.  Sizemore smacked his 16^th double on the season as well as his first triple and scored a pair of runs for his trouble.  (He was also plunked once: I don’t know if this counts as the “single” in the cycle.)

 

You know what was less encouraging?  Facing a pair of right-handed starters and going a combined 0-for-8 with SIX strikeouts in the other two games.  Yeesh.  It would appear there is still yet work to be done in the timing department.

 

To a lesser extent, Carlos Santana offset a pair of superlative games (3-for-4 with a homer, 2-for-3 with two walks and a homer) with a clunker off Maholm in which he went 0-for-3 with a pair of Ks.  (It was actually 0-for-4 if you realize that a sac fly is still an out.)  Of the two, Sizemore’s performance concerns me more.

 

6) Terror on the Basepaths!

 

Matt LaPorta reached base in Friday night’s game on an error that awarded him second base as well.  The next hitter, Orly Cabrera, hit a routine ball to short.  For some reason known only to Matt LaPorta, he attempted to advance to third on the play.

 

Not only is this foolhardy and of questionable sanity, but LaPorta managed to injure himself in the ensuing rundown and is now on the disabled list, adding more meaning to “insult to insanity.”

 

In the 9^th inning of Sunday’s tilt, Shin-Soo Choo led off the frame with a single, then was thrown out trying to steal second.  This was a terrible idea for two reasons:

 

a) Santana subsequently doubled in the corner, a ball on which Choo would probably have scored, ending the game immediately
b) The next hitter, Bob Phelps, was terrible, and stealing second would simply take the bat out of one of the hotter hitters (if not THE hottest) in favor of one of the coldest.

 

How do I know (b) is true?  Because it bloody well happened exactly that way in the 11^th.  It worked out and huzzah for Bob, but … awareness is good, man.

 

The Pirates stole three bases on Sunday, but few cared.  The Indians stole three bases on Saturday, which was completely awesome.  It is possible I am biased on the topic.

 

7) A quietly efficient weekend

 

You’ll note above that Choo was on base in both the 9^th and 11^th innings.  This was actually a pretty frequent occurrence for Choo all weekend:

 

Friday: 0-for-2 with 2 walks
Saturday: 1-for-2 with 2 walks, 1 RBI, 1 SB
Sunday: 3-for-5 with 1 R, 1 SB, 1 CS

 

That’s 8 times on base in 13 trips to the plate, which is a pretty darned good weekend’s work.  Sure, he still slugs .354, making him one subpar game away from looking up at Jack Hannahan, but getting on base in front of Carlos Santana seems like a good plan to me.

 

8) The Magic Six-Inning Game

 

I tend to talk disproportionately about the starting pitchers, mostly because I view them as the key to long-term success for the team.  The offense isn’t really a great offense, despite whatever heroics it was conjuring early in the season.  It’s okay (when it’s not abysmal, of course).  It’s not great.  This weekend, the starters gave up 1, 1, and 2 runs, which is quite excellent.

 

For the weekend, Pittsburgh scored 1, 1, and 2 runs.

 

A quick glance at the equivalence of those numbers brings up a very encouraging point: the bullpen did not allow a run.

This is not altogether unexpected: the bullpen has been on a serious roll recently, a span of over 22 innings.  And reading through Sunday’s box score ERAs goes like this: Durbin, 1.27, 1.38, 2.39, 1.13, 2.03.  The guy with the 2.39 is the dominant closer.

 

On Friday, the VFP came through with a big strikeout with two runners on base in a 2-1 game, then finished a perfect inning after that.  Tony Sipp tossed 1, 1, and 2/3 innings in the three games and we’re still waiting for Pittsburgh to get a hit off him.  (He did walk a batter in two of the three games, so there is work yet to do. Joe Smiff pitched a total of 3 innings while allowing a total of two baserunners (1 walk, 1 single).  Chris Perez had a performance to forget (2 walks, 1 HBP), but it was scoreless and hitless nonetheless.  And Raffy Perez induced three ground balls in a 10-pitch inning that featured 7 strikes.

 

Kudos to Chad Durbin for holding the line despite allowing a pair of hits: his two strikeouts show that with him, it’s not about stuff as much as it is command.  His ERA’s still atrocious, though.

 

Here’s the thing: if the Indians have a lead in the middle innings, you have to feel pretty good about their chances to finish well.  Now, if the leads could be a little larger than, say, 2-1 …

 

9) Flashing the leather

 

Okay, you’ve seen the highlight of Asdrubal Cabrera’s barehand play.  I believe he threw the runner out from as far away from first base as anyone ever has on a ground ball to left field.  It was a great highlight.

 

Let me play Curmudgeon’s Advocate here, though: doesn’t a quicker shortstop catch that ball on the fly diving IN on that lineresque trajectory?

 

(This is taking nothing away from the play, which was great.  No argument here.  All-Star Cabrera, you bet.  Just wondering.)

 

10) Welcome back!

 

Travis Hafner’s first game back was not entirely awesome, but it did feature an RBI double, and the pinch-runner for him scored as well, so that’s nice.  He also went 1-for-4 on Sunday.  A productive Hafner in front of more-relaxed Choos and Santanae would do wonders for an offense that has not so much “struggled” as “choked on its own vomit.”

 

Travis Buck was sent down and called up and didn’t play and … well, whatever.

 

11) Sotto voce

 

Mike Brantley can go back to hitting well any time now.  No need to wait.  Go get ‘em, son.