Cleveland Indians: What went wrong?

The Cleveland Indians were eliminated on Monday from the MLB playoffs. What went wrong in Cleveland this season?

It was a somber Monday afternoon in downtown Cleveland. Earlier in the day, the streets were a sea of blue and red as fans made their way to Progressive Field, knowing it may be the stadium’s last day of operation for the year. The hometown Cleveland Indians were facing an 0-2 American League Division Series deficit to the reigning World Series champions, the Houston Astros, and a win on Monday was necessary in order to stave off elimination.

A few hours later, the Cleveland streets were flooded once again, but this time the game was in full swing. That’s because less than half of the sold-out crowd of 37,252 still remained by the 8th inning, as a 6-run Astros’ top half extended their lead to eight, essentially sealing the game, series, and Cleveland’s season all in one.

When it was all said and done, the Tribe fell to Houston 11-3, clinching an Astros’ sweep — as well as their ticket to the American League Championship Series — and eliminating Cleveland from the postseason. Getting swept in the ALDS is a steep fall for the Tribe, who went from being the first team in all of baseball to clinch a playoff berth to not winning a single game in October. So what happened to the Cleveland Indians?

In short, just about everything went wrong for the Tribe in this series, but let’s examine some of the many things that caused Cleveland to crash and burn in horrific fashion.

Remember how the Astros put up a 6-spot in the eighth inning of Game 3? Well, that’s the total number of runs the Indians scored in the entire series. After averaging over five runs/game as the 3rd-highest scoring offence in the regular season, Cleveland’s bats went silent in the division series as a lineup chock-full of All-Stars combined to hit .144 (!!) — that’s even worse than Chris Davis’ hit this year, and he had the worst full-season batting average ever.

Not only were the Indians unable to do the most basic offensive task, that is hitting a baseball, but the Tribe went oh-fer with runners in scoring position which, as you can imagine, makes it difficult to score. To be fair, Cleveland only had six at-bats w/RISP, but that itself illustrates how pathetic the Indians were at the plate. A team won’t get many opportunities to drive in runs when its lineup has a collective on-base percentage lower than the Mendoza Line.

Though the Astros did a phenomenal job at quieting the Tribe’s offense — Houston did have the league’s best regular season ERA, after all — and certainly deserve a ton of credit, it’s not like Cleveland doesn’t have any offensive superstars. Middle-infield tandem Jose Ramirez and Francisco Lindor had such spectacular campaigns they’ll both likely finish in the top-five for American League MVP voting. Additionally, first baseman Edwin Encarnacion hit 32 home runs with 107 RBI, Michael Brantley (.309, 17 HR) and Yan Gomes (16 HR, .762 OPS) were both All-Stars, and August trade deadline acquisition Josh Donaldson entered the postseason hitting .280 with a .400 OBP since joining his new team. All but one (Jason Kipnis) of the eleven different position players who started in any of the division series games had a regular season OPS above  .728 (which was league average), yet amongst those ten players only Lindor and Yandy Diaz posted an above-average OPS mark in the ALDS — Lindor and Diaz were also the only two Indians who had extra-base hits, with both of the team’s two home runs the entire series coming from Lindor as well. Cleveland’s offence didn’t just perform slightly worse than normal; they simply didn’t perform at all.

With how stagnant the Cleveland Indians were at the plate throughout the division series, the team’s pitching had to be near-perfect if they were to have any chance to compete against the Astros. That wasn’t the case however, as the pitchers who would be most integral to Cleveland’s success in the postseason faded under the bright lights. When the Tribe won the pennant in 2016, unquestioned ace of the rotation Corey Kluber was lights-out — 1.68 ERA in 34.1 postseason innings — but this time around the AL Cy Young candidate got lit up for three home runs (including this 107 mph laser from Alex Bregman) and failed to make it out of the fifth inning in Game 1.

Similarly, transcendent relief freak Andrew Miller pitched to the tune of a 1.40 ERA across 19.1 postseason innings in ’16, but entered Game 2 in the 6th protecting a 1-0 lead and proceeded to give up a 2-run double followed by two walks before getting the hook. The Tribe ended up falling 3-1 in that game, and although starter Carlos Carrasco was charged with the loss Miller was responsible for blowing the lead, and was quick to shoulder the blame for Houston’s comeback victory. Miller’s season-long troubles have been well-documented as the reliever had three stints on the disabled list and finished with a 4.24 ERA and 1.38 WHIP; unfortunately for the Cleveland Indians, his struggles only magnified when it mattered the most.

The bullpen played a key role in the team’s demise; outside of Miller, key relievers Brad Hand (10.80 ERA) Dan Otero (9.00 ERA) and Adam Cimber (4.50) all stunk. Cy Young candidate Trevor Bauer was moved to the ‘pen for the division series in attempt to rectify Cleveland’s poor relief corps, but fell apart in Game 3 and singed shut the club’s remaining hopes of staying alive. Lastly, closer Cody Allen had a 54.00 ERA in one inning of work; that’s right, Allen coughed up SIX earned runs, giving up two home runs and a .571 opp. BA. Of all of the terrible outings by the Indians’ bullpen, he was especially awful.

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What else can be attributed to Cleveland’s early — and frankly embarrassing — exit from the postseason? Is it because they got cold right before the ALDS? They posted a 14-14 record in September, their worst month of the season by win%.

Is manager Terry Francona to blame? He made some questionable moves throughout the division series, which may cause management to reconsider his long-term future with the organization.

Is it because the Tribe had the year-long benefit of playing in one of the worst divisions in the history of baseball, and simply couldn’t compete against a powerhouse Houston Astros squad? Cleveland feasted on sub-.500 teams, going 68-40, yet only went 23-31 against teams with a winning record.

In the end, it’s impossible to pinpoint any specific reabelly-upo why the Cleveland Indians, went belly up in the ALDS. At this point the only thing Tribe fans can do is look towards next year, and the organization will have a busy offseason as an abundance of current Indians are set to become free agents. While it is almost a guarantee that Cleveland will be favourites to win the AL Central once again in 2019, this season made it clear that a division crown doesn’t hold much significance in October.