Cleveland Indians Pitching Has Gotten to Jose Bautista

The Cleveland Indians have been shutting down opposing hitters all postseason, causing Jose Bautista to claim other forces are at work.

The Cleveland Indians are up 2-0 over the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS and all is well on the shores of Lake Erie. That is, unless you are a displaced fan of the Blue Jays.

The narrative surrounding the first two wins has been about the Indians’ pitching, both from the starters and the bullpen.

Corey Kluber and Josh Tomlin both had amazing starts, putting the game in Andrew Miller‘s hands. Well, his left hand. He has struck out ten batters in two games, surely sucking the confidence out of the Blue Jays lineup.

There have been several instances when Miller and the rest of the pitchers have benefitted from some fortunate calls from the home plate umpire, but so it goes in the game of baseball. When players know the strike zone is a bit bigger than normal, the best defense is to swing the bat and protect the plate.

But Jose Bautista believes making bold claims is a more effective measure, sharing some interesting opinions with reporters yesterday.

Essentially, Bautista is implying the Indians pitchers don’t have to throw him pitches down the middle because the umpires are part of a larger conspiracy against Toronto.

While Bautista has a point on certain pitches, this is not something solely going against the Blue Jays.

This is no way to handle being down 0-2 and just makes Bautista look like he is whining instead of working hard to help lead his team to a victory.

The national media seems to be focusing on how the Red Sox and Blue Jays lost games, instead of how the Indians won them. Corey Kluber is a Cy Young candidate, Josh Tomlin is back to where he was in the first half of the season, Cody Allen is a dominant closer and Andrew Miller is perhaps the best reliever since Mariano Rivera.

The Cleveland Indians official Twitter account seemed to agree with this sentiment.

Being a small market team going up against superstars always breeds complaints from the big names when things don’t go their way, so the best way to combat this is to just keep winning and not say anything. Bautista can complain all he wants, but he has still struck out five times in the first two games of the series and has done nothing to help his team. These complaints may draw more frustration from his teammates as they may want him to back it up with some production on the field.

Next: Lonnie Chisenhall’s Bat Has Been an October Surprise

This kind of stuff always happens when stars struggle, so let’s take it as a compliment and hope the Indians continue the winning today in Toronto.