I don’t mind the heat so much (it is summer, after all); but my seats at Progressive Field tend to be boiling hot for afternoon games. So I’m hot, sunburned, sweating like crazy and growing increasingly crankier by the inning. The least the Indians could’ve done was leave fewer than 10 people on base, made fewer dumb base running errors, and actually manage to score a few extra runs.
I was hanging out at today’s game with one of our friends from the Social Suite, Johnny McHue. Toward the end of the game (or maybe after it, my brain was melting) he said, “They don’t do so well the day after walk-off wins, do they?” It really got us thinking, because they obviously didn’t do that great the day after a walk-off this week – they lost Tuesday against Anaheim 2-1, and again today 5-3. I pulled the statistics for the eight walk-offs at Progressive Field this year, and the Tribe is 3-5 the day after the dramatic win. After the Travis Hafner walk-off home run on May 13, the Indians actually were rained out the next two days. When they finally played again on Monday, they won. So while not technically the day after, it was the next game after.
The surprising thing was the day after results in June and July. Granted, the Indians have struggled in June and July as a whole – but the walk-off stats aren’t necessarily that cut and dried. In April and May the Indians had 4 walk-off wins, and in June and July they also had 4 walk-off wins. In April and May they were 3-1 the day after a walk-off, but 0-4 the day after in June and July. There’s always a lot of talk about momentum, and a walk-off providing a team with some kind of spark. Unfortunately for the Tribe, that hasn’t really been the case over the past two months.
We discussed a similar theory about day games; it seemed as if the Indians also struggled in games with a 12 p.m. or 1 p.m. start time. At home, the Indians are 7-8 in day games; they haven’t won one since June 19 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Away from home, they are just 3-10 in day games and haven’t won a day game on the road since June 29 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Indians finish the month of July at 11-15; they were 0-7 in day games during July.
Kansas City is ranked 27 of 30 teams when it comes to Major League pitching stats, and the Indians’ anemic offense still couldn’t get anything substantial going against them this weekend. It will definitely not get easier from this point forward, as they travel to both Boston and Texas this week. One bright spot for today’s game – I sit in section 103 in right/center field. Johnny called Jason Kipnis’s first Major League home run today, and said that he would catch it. I’ll give him 2 out of 3 in the prediction department – he was dead on about the first Major League home run today, and it did land in our section. Unfortunately, it bounced on the top of the wall and flew about 10 rows behind us.
Given what is coming up on the schedule, this was a “must-sweep” series for the Tribe and they end up losing 2 of 3. All we can do is continue to hope that the bats wake up. I was watching MLB network today and John Hart was on. I miss the guy and his deals like the one that nabbed Juan Gonzalez and sparked the offense in 2001. Did not appear to be such a player this year to be had.
You’re right, there wasn’t much to be had in that regard this year. I was just saying today though – there were still a lot of teams in contention this year at the deadline. The landscape may change by the waiver deadline on August 31 (let’s hope the Tribe is still considered “buyers” at that point!)