The Aftermath: Three Takeaways from the Indians’ 8-1 Loss to Chicago

The Cleveland Indians’ struggles on the southside of Chicago continued on Tuesday night as one big inning gave the White Sox the win.

For five innings on Tuesday night, the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox were locked in a heck of a game as Trevor Bauer and Jose Quintana mowed down opposing hitters left and right. That all ended in the bottom of the sixth, though, when the Sox erupted for seven runs and blew the game open.

With the 8-1 victory, Chicago has now outscored Cleveland 19-5 in the first two games of the series, and have gone 10-for-25 (.400) with runners in scoring position.

The White Sox got a run in the first off Bauer on what can only be called a nice piece of hitting by Jose Abreu, who muscled an inside fastball into short right field to score Adam Eaton. From that point until the sixth, though, Bauer looked as sharp as he has all season, and really ratcheted up his velocity, hitting 97 MPH on the radar gun several times.

After setting down 13 out of 14, the right-hander issued a leadoff walk to Eaton in the sixth, and the wheels came off from there. Six of the next seven and seven of the next nine Chicago batters got hits, chasing Bauer and Dan Otero from the game before Joe Colon finally recorded the third out.

Quintana had no such trouble, tossing eight solid innings allowing a run on five hits, with one walk and five strikeouts. The lone blemish for the lefty was a second inning solo home run off the bat of Brandon Guyer.

The Indians are now 83-61 on the season, and have seen their road record slip back to .500 at 36-36. But if there is consolation in a second straight bad loss, the club’s lead in the American League Central Division remained at six games thanks to a Minnesota win over Detroit.

Good Trevor Until He Wasn’t

Like most of the Tribe’s starting rotation in the second half of the season, Bauer has been inconsistent. Unless the guy on the mound has “Kluber” stitched into the back of his jersey, Cleveland just doesn’t know what it’s going to get on a night-to-night basis.

Bauer looked firmly in control in this one, having only allowed a run on two hits with six strikeouts through the first five innings, and he usually gets better as the game goes on. That the White Sox came out and tagged him so hard in the sixth speaks to a much bigger issue than just one game or one pitcher for the Tribe.

In his past three starts, the 25-year old has allowed 14 earned runs in 18.2 innings, good for a 6.75 ERA, and since the all-star break it’s over 5.00. Bauer will likely only have three more starts to make in the regular season, so time is running out to find consistency.

The HBP King

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Guyer was hit by a pitch. For a league-leading 30th time in 2016, the undisputed king of getting plunked did it again. Guyer took a fastball off the outside of left leg near the knee and didn’t even flinch. At least not until he got to first base and the trainer’s had to have a look at him.

For perspective, consider that the all-time record for single season hit by pitch in the AL was set by Don Baylor in 1986 when he recorded 35 of them in 687 plate appearances. Guyer is five off the record and has just 325 plate appearances between Tampa Bay and Cleveland this year.

The man gets hit by a pitch in nearly 10 percent of his times at the plate, a higher rate than the base on balls average in MLB, which is just above 8 percent. For his career, Guyer now has 65 HBP and only 60 walks, which has got to be some kind of a record.

Ruff Night (sorry, I had to)

It has absolutely nothing to do with the game, but after two straight nights of watching the Indians get pounded, we deserve to talk about the dogs. Chicago held a “Bark in the Park” promotion at U.S. Cellular Field on Tuesday in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for most dogs to attend a sporting event.

With 1,122 dogs in the stands, the White Sox achieved their goal, though it was never revealed what the previous record was or who held it.

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Despite a game that got away from the Indians and a series in which the team has looked pretty sluggish, the club still has a sizable lead in the division and a lot of meaningful baseball left to play. With two more in Chicago before the final homestand of the season begins on Friday, the dog days of summer (sorry, not sorry) have given way to the pennant race.