While Brantley seemed to steal the show with a 3-4, 3-RBI performance, including a home run to give the Tribe an insurance run in the seventh, the story of the night was really Trevor Bauer, who completed seven innings of work for the first time in his career.
Bauer retired 13 of the final 14 batters he faced, and the one man to reach base did so thanks to an ugly error at first base by Nick Swisher.
The final few innings of this game was the first time all season that Bauer has looked dominant for an extended period of time. He’s allowed at least three runs in each of his last seven starts, including tonight, so he hasn’t really been a guy the Tribe can rely on. But if he’s able to mix in stretches of pure dominance as he showed tonight, he could be a key piece of the puzzle to a strong second half for the Indians pitching staff.
Other notes and thoughts on the game…
- The bullpen has now thrown nine scoreless innings in the last two games. If the ‘pen can keep this up in the second half, the Indians will at least hang around the race until September.
- Santana looked absolutely helpless against Tanaka tonight, which comes as no surprise. Entering tonight, he was a career .071 hitter against the splitter- one of Tanaka’s go-to pitches.
- Despite all the focus on Chisenhall, Brantley is now batting .328 and legitimately in the batting title hunt. And since Chisenhall is batting under .200 over the past month, Brantley’s probably the guy who could actually make it happen.
- Bauer becomes the first Indians rookie starter to beat the Yankees since Josh Tomlin in 2010. Others to accomplish the feat in recent years: Jeremy Sowers in 2006, Billy Traber in 2003 (the one-hitter), CC Sabathia in 2001 and Paul Rigdon in 2000.
Two things:
1. First, I’d like to eat some crow regarding Michael Brantley. While I’ve always liked MB, even as late as early last season I regarded him as a “good 3rd OF on a playoff-caliber team”. I figured him for a consistent .750 OPS guy who played above average defense and ran the bases well. A solid guy to have on the roster, but not a difference-maker. Thrilled that it looks like I was dead-wrong on this!
2. Just curious – does Lonnie Chisenhall finish this season above or below the .300 mark?
Just running some rough numbers, I’d guess he gets about 220 more ABs this year, meaning he’d roughly have to hit .263 from here on out to stay over .300, so I’d say, yes, he’s over .300. Not sure about the .315 or .320 that other’s are guessing, as I’m still not convinced he’s a year in year out .300 hitter. I’d probably guess between .305 and .310 for a final average, which would have him hitting about .280 the rest of the season.
My money is on Chiz staying over .300. .360-.380 was not sustainable and he was due for a cooling off period. But he’s still putting up quality at bats, like that 13 pitch jobbie tonight against lefty Matt Harrison. If Swisher and/or Murphy starts hitting behind him and protecting him better, that will help too. I’ve seen teams noticeably pitch around Chisenhall lately to get to the guy behind him.
i think so too…i figure he’ll be at .315 which is more than respectable. look at it this way…what were your expectations at the beginning of the year for him from last year?? mine were negligible at best. i think with zmac coming back, our opportunity to start shooting up the standings might be getting better.
and yes, to DP’s post on the open thread for the game, Chis just needs 1 more AB over the minimum to become qualified…so 4 tomorrow will do it…unfortunately, as has been pointed out, w/ his recent cooling, he would now be 3rd in the league and just a few points in front of Brantley…and yes, wouldn’t it be fun to see Brantley content for the league lead this year…also think Chis finishes around the .320 mark…did love his 13 pitch final AB – a good sign that his maturing is real
i still have no idea what to make of bauer, but man that curve is nasty when he can throw it over the plate.
Me either, but he’s certainly better than Salazar!