It must be nice to be Terry Francona right now.
Other managers on the outskirts of contention have to make tough decisions between playing veterans and giving youngsters a chance. Francona has no decision to make, however, as the young guns are the guys giving the Tribe their best chance at immediate success.
T.J. House turned in another brilliant performance (7 IP, 1 R, 7 K, 0 BB), and now has a 2.57 ERA with 33 strikeouts and just seven walks in his six starts since the beginning of August (the Tribe is 5-1 in those games).
While the offense was shutdown by Chris Sale and the White Sox bullpen for much of the night, in extra innings it was David Murphy delivering the walk-off hit, keeping the Tribe within 4.5 games of the Wild Card. It was Murphy’s first plate appearance he went on the DL in early August.
Other notes and thoughts on the game…
- Tyler Holt was barely on the prospect radar screen entering this season, but he has been a key piece of the Tribe’s outfield recently. Holt handled the leadoff duties on Friday, and went 2-4.
- Zach Walters is batting .171 with the Tribe and has just three hits in the last 28 at-bats. Walters is probably the one young player on the roster right now who really looks like he’s in over his head at the major league level.
- Corey Kluber takes the mound on Saturday. Win or lose, if the Indians are going to feel confident about having a shot in late September, Kluber needs to regain his midseason form.
Zach Walters is the poster-child for “swinging hard in case you hit it”. My god, how did someone progress through the majors with so little plate discipline? Yikes.
HEY! wheres the open thread for tonight’s game? i want to bitch about the indians defense