It took 16 innings to finish tonight’s (today’s?) game. And unfortunately for the Indians, there was no repeat performance of Tuesday’s heroics. And that made for a rather miserable evening.
If you liked pitching, however, Carlos Carrasco and Puerto Rican native Jose Berrios were up to the task of bewitching hitters. Both aces went a sterling seven innings of three-hit ball. We were still looking at a scoreless tie into the 11th inning when we thought that Edwin Encarnacion would send us to bed happy after he rifled a liner that caught the left-field foul-pole. So what if it’s a cheapie!
But Miguel Sano needed just one pitch from the slugger’s former teammate Matt Belisle to knot the game up. It was pure get-me-over junk with no regard for location. (I’m tired and cranky and I don’t care that he’s barely pitched. Let me rant.)
And, oh, it was a patented Ty VanBurkleo Special offensively. The Indians were a horrendous 0-for-4,561 (approximated) with runners in scoring position, and looked totally drunk on Puerto Rican rum in any and all attempts to move runners to third base.
Even Lindor, who is probably more happy that this spectacle is over than he’ll ever admit, struggled with the basics that he is usually so good at. Depending on whose telecast you were watching, ESPN might’ve caught Frankie getting a tad bit testy with some autograph-seekers as the game was going on. This is not to absolve him of having a bad night at the plate, but you could clearly see that he was tired and emotionally spent.
Jason Kipnis‘ gaffe, however, will haunt him for a bit. Bad hop, maybe, but it was a play he’ll tell you he’d have no problem making. You hate watching a game for five hours were every little thing is magnified, but that was the case tonight. Pretty sure that they will make good use of the off-day in Baltimore to try to get the mojo back.