Roberto Perez hits a 3-run home run in the second inning of Monday night’s game against the Red Sox.  He would later hit a game-winning, walk-off bunt in conjunction with a Brock Holt error.

 

 

 

I’ve never been a huge fan of bunting.  Sure there are certain scenarios where it can be appropriate and/or useful, but for the most part it never seems worth it to surrender an out.  When Brandon Guyer led of the bottom of the 9th with a double, in a game that was tied 4-4 on Monday night, you could pretty much predict that a sacrifice bunt was in the cards.  The Red Sox were obviously anticipating this bunt, as first baseman Brock Holt raced in and charged the ball when Roberto Perez bunted it back toward the mound.  Holt seemed momentarily torn on whether or not to throw to third in an attempt to nab Guyer, or whether he should throw back to first and get the sure out in Perez.  Holt double-clutched the throw to third and it got away, allowing Guyer to score the winning run.

It was a big night for Perez; his three-run home run got the Indians on the board in the bottom of the second, putting the Indians out to a 3-2 lead.  The Indians truly had to scrape and scrounge for every run they got tonight.  Until the bottom of the 8th inning, the Indians had just 4 hits – Perez’s homer, and singles from Jay Bruce, Austin Jackson, and Brandon Guyer.

Mike Clevinger allowed the Red Sox to jump back into the lead in the top of the 5th off a two-run homer from Hanley Ramirez.  Then in the 7th inning, home plate Hunter Wendelstedt was hit by a pitch and had to leave the game.  There was a considerable delay while Wendelstedt’s injury was addressed and he was replaced at home plate by second base umpire Alan Porter.  Andrew Miller had entered the game to pitch the top of the 7th inning, but had to stand around and wait until the umpire situation was cleared up.  When Miller finally started to throw to batters, he walked Mookie Betts with pitches well below his normal velocity.  Miller eventually removed himself from the game, wincing in pain as he left the field.  Carlos Santana also left the game and was replaced at first base by Jay Bruce (as Bradley Zimmer entered the game).  There was real concern that something was wrong with both of them, particularly Miller.  Was this just a re-aggravation of the knee injury, or was this an arm issue?  And what was wrong with Santana?  It was doubtful that he’d leave a game for anything other than an injury when it was 4-3 going into the 8th inning.

Thankfully, it turned out that Santana just had some tightness in his lower back.  In fact, in his post-game interview Terry Francona said that Santana actually felt his back tweak in the batting cages prior to the game, but still wanted to play.  That doesn’t sound like it’s anything too serious.  As for Miller, he had re-aggravated the knee injury (I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved to hear about a knee injury in my life).  While it’s obviously not great that he’ll likely return to the DL, I’d still rather deal with that than an elbow or shoulder issue.  I’m not sure if the awkward delay with the umpire injury had anything to do with it.  It was a warm and humid night, which means that it’s less likely that he was able to get cold while he was waiting.  However, if the knee seemed off in the bullpen when he was warming up, I feel like he would’ve noticed it, or a coach would’ve noticed that his velocity seemed way off.  Regardless, the Indians are likely to be without Miller again for at least a couple of weeks.

With the Indians now down 4-3 in the 8th, and with all of this injury news, things started to seem a bit bleak.  However, the Indians were able to get runners on first and second with nobody out in the bottom of the 8th.  An Edwin Encarnacion singled plated Francisco Lindor, tying the game at 4-4.  The Tribe had runners on second and third with just one out, but were not able to get the go-ahead run home after strikeouts from Jay Bruce and Bradley Zimmer.  It was around this time that the best-case scenarios were announced for both Miller and Santana’s injuries.  It felt like things were starting to look up for the Indians.

Cody Allen held the Red Sox in check in the top of the 9th inning, despite a couple of hard-hit balls.  This set the Indians up for their dramatic walk-off bunt/error in the bottom of the 9th for their 5th walk-off of the 2017 season.

Even though Clevinger surrendered 4 runs on 2 home runs, he only allowed 4 hits (although he lasted just 4.1 innings).  The bullpen was sharp, with Tyler Olson, Nick Goody, and Dan Otero combining for 3.2 hitless innings – just Allen allowed one hit to open the top of the 9th.

Overall it was a happy ending for a night that could’ve been much, much worse.

2 Comments

  • Jimbo says:

    I’m not nearly as negative toward bunting as some. The Royals played a form of small ball (which included lots of bunting) and reached two World Series just a few years back. So while there are inappropriate times to bunt, I’ve seen it be very effective.