Cleveland Indians: Winning with Substance over Style this October
The Cleveland Indians enter tonight’s game five of the 2016 World Series potentially 27 outs away from being crowned World Series champions, capping a postseason run that has seen them lose only twice thus far. It hasn’t been pretty but it sure has been dominant, here’s how the Indians have won with substance over style.
Terry Francona is a two-time World Series champion as the Manager of the Boston Red Sox in 2004 and 2007. In those two World Series appearances Tito saw his club sweep both the St. Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies, making Francona 8-0 as a Manager in the World Series entering this year’s fall classic with the Indians.
Francona knows a bit about winning championships in baseball, and it is showing in a big way in 2016 as he leads an Indians club with a dinged-up starting rotation, and a lack of offensive production to the brink of fall classic immortality tonight.
No Carlos Carrasco? No Danny Salazar? No problem for the Indians apparently, as the Indians have found a way to navigate through the postseason without two starting pitchers that combined for 22 wins and 311 strike outs in 2016.
Heading into the World Series the Indians owned a team postseason batting average under .200, and entered play last night with a team batting average of .218, while still somehow managing to score 3.18 runs per game. Generally speaking, no one would imagine that 3.18 runs per game would be enough to beat the Chicago Cubs, who ranked second in the National League in offense in 2016.
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So how have the Indians managed to do so much, with so little output from an offense that ranked second in the American League in 2016, and without two starting pitchers that netted them 22 victories in 2016? Substance is the answer folks, the Indians have done everything that they have needed to do, despite lacking major style points this postseason.
In game three on Friday night, Terry Francona replaced his starting pitcher Josh Tomlin, who at the time was throwing a two hit-shutout on the road. Francona knew that the chances of Tomlin getting through the Cubs lineup a third time were not nearly as good as the chances of his best reliever Andrew Miller facing the Cubs lineup.
Many people say that an above average Manager is worth somewhere in the ballpark of two or three wins per season versus a lesser Manager with the same roster. Well, if that is true, Francona earned his keep on Friday night, managing the Indians to a 1-0 win at Wrigley Field in a swing game. Francona not only made the move to go to Miller, but he also replaced Miller with pinch-hitter Coco Crisp, who drove in pinch-runner Michael Martinez to give the Tribe the lone run in the ballgame.
Martinez entered the game as a pinch-runner and advanced to second base on a bunt, and then third base on a wild pitch before scoring on a single by Coco Crisp. That’s the furthest thing from pretty, but it is full of substance. The examples are plentiful in this World Series of how the Indians are winning “ugly”, let’s take a look at a few of those moments;
Game One: In the bottom of the first inning Jose Ramirez drove in Francisco Lindor on a virtual swinging bunt, resulting in a dribbler down the third base line that Ramirez beat out down the first base line for an RBI single. In that same inning Brandon Guyer is hit by a Jon Lester pitch with the bases loaded, plating Mike Napoli and giving the Indians an early 2-0 lead.
Game Two: The lone Indians score in game two was on a wild pitch by Jake Arrieta in the bottom of the sixth inning, Jason Kipnis scored from third base on the wild pitch.
Game Three: The aforementioned Coco Crisp pinch-hit RBI single in the top of the seventh inning was the only run that the Indians would need as they would go on to shut the Cubs out 1-0.
Game Four: With Lonnie Chisenhall on second base and Tyler Naquin on first after an intentional walk, Indians Pitcher Corey Kluber steps into the box having only four at-bats under his belt in all of 2016. Kluber would hit a soft dribbler down the third-base line, beat out the throw for an infield single, as the throw by Kris Bryant skipped off of Anthony Rizzo‘s glove, Lonnie Chisenhall would score on the play giving the Tribe a 2-1 lead early on. The Indians would score again on a base-hit by Francisco Lindor in the third, and a sacrifice-fly by Lonnie Chisenhall in the sixth before Jason Kipnis found his power stroke with a three-run homer in the seventh inning.
So many people have fallen into the Chicago Cubs story-line that we seem to have forgotten just how good this Indians team is, and particularly how good their leader Terry Francona is.
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Short two starting pitchers, short of any sustainable offensive production, short of any sort of style points and buried in the hype of the Chicago Cubs potentially ending a 108 year title drought, Terry Francona and his Cleveland Indians are one win away from being crowned World Series Champions tonight at Wrigley Field.