The Aftermath: Three Takeaways from the Indians’ 7-0 Loss to Texas

After a blowout win on Friday night, the Cleveland Indians were shutout 7-0 by the Texas Rangers on Saturday.

It’s as though the current roadtrip for the Cleveland Indians is a desert, and Friday night’s 12-1 win was just a beautiful mirage. The Tribe lost 7-0 to the Texas Rangers in Arlington on Saturday, dropping their record to 2-4 with a game to go on the seven-game trip.

Cleveland was forced to play from behind almost immediately, as for the fourth time in the last five games the team’s starting pitcher gave up at least five runs in the first five innings. On this night, Texas scored five against Carlos Carrasco in the first and another two in the third to win running away.

Blame cannot be placed wholly on Carrasco’s shoulders, though, as four of the five runs in the first were unearned. Jose Ramirez made a questionable decision on a grounder to third with one out, attempting to tag the Rangers’ Ian Desmond who had strayed a bit from the bag, and an error by Carlos Santana on a groundball to first by Rougned Odor compounded things.

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It was 1-0 Texas at that point, with the bases loaded and two outs. Carrasco then hung a first pitch slider to Mitch Moreland, who hit a laser down the right field line for the grand slam, and the game was effectively over.

The strange month of August that Carrasco has been experiencing continued. The right-hander entered the night with the best earned run average on the road in all of baseball at 1.74, but allowed seven runs, three earned, on eight hits in getting through just four innings. To cap off the weirdness, he struck out eight in the short outing.

In the opposite dugout, junkballer extraordinaire A.J. Griffin had the Indians’ bats off-balance all night, allowing just five hits in six shutout innings, striking out six and walking one. Three of the five hits came off the bat of Ramirez, who was the lone offensive bright spot for the Tribe with a 3-for-4 night and two helmet-flying-off incidents.

If there’s a silver lining to Saturday’s performance, it’s that it came on a night when the DetroitTigers, who have closed to within 4.5 games in the American League Central, were on the losing end of things at home against the Los Angeles Angels.

The final game of the Texas series and the roadtrip comes on Sunday afternoon with Danny Salazar on the mound for Cleveland looking to turn himself and the team around.

Anemic

That’s the only word for the Cleveland offense on this roadtrip. Sweeping conclusions about the team can’t be made just because it’s gone cold at the plate for a few games, but the fact that the Indians have stopped scoring runs at precisely the time the team’s pitching has hit a funk has made for some ugly baseball of late.

The Tribe was shutout for the second time in three nights by Texas pitching, and while it may be excused against the likes of Cole Hamels, Griffin came into the ballgame with a 6.75 ERA in four August starts and 4.68 overall for the season.

Aside from Ramirez, a two-out triple in the first inning by Francisco Lindor and a Roberto Perez single in the fifth was all Cleveland could muster against Griffin. The team managed two more singles the rest of the way, and never mounted any real challenge to score.

Miller Time

But enough of the negativity. Anyone who has watched the games on this trip knows the Indians are scuffling, as happens from time to time throughout a six-month long season. Along with the Tigers and losing, and earning four ejections in the process, Andrew Miller has been a bright spot in these dark times.

The lanky lefty tossed another 1-2-3 inning of relief on Saturday, striking out three Rangers’ hitters on a grand total of 12 pitches. 11 of the pitches were strikes, or at least that’s how they were called.

In 11.2 innings since being acquired at the trade deadline, Miller has allowed just two runs on four hits, striking out 16 and walking only one. The two runs he has allowed en route to a 1.42 ERA in a Tribe uniform were both solo home runs, and both came within his first four appearances.

Since his last run allowed, a solo shot by Jayson Werth of the Washington Nationals on August 9th, Miller has thrown eight scoreless innings, allowing only one hit and one walk while striking out 13. To say he has been as good as advertised would be doing Andrew Miller a disservice (and he’s under contract for two more seasons!).

Out of Excuses

This Cleveland team is built on pitching. Since the offseason, when the front office refused to part ways with a young starter for a big bat (the right move, by the way), the team has hung its hopes on its starting arms. And for a good deal of the season, that has paid dividends to the tune of over 50 days occupying first place and being in contention for the best record in the AL.

But August, Corey Kluber notwithstanding, has been an unmitigated nightmare for the Indians’ rotation. Carrasco, Salazar, Josh Tomlin, and Trevor Bauer have all had issues, as Tribe starters have allowed six or more runs in fewer than five innings pitched nine times now during the month.

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Kluber cannot pitch everyday (unfortunately), and all four of the other starters have had moments in which it looked as if they were putting it together. But if the Indians have any hope of contending for an AL pennant, and beyond that something more, the starting pitching simply must get back on track. There are no excuses left.