The Cleveland Indians pitching staff was masterful Tuesday night, but they had an awful lot of help from the Cubs, who struck out 15 times. Starter Corey Kluber had nine in six innings, stud reliever Andrew Miller had three over two innings, and closer Cody Allen struck out the side in the ninth.
A friend with many years’ experience in organized baseball, including at the major league level, called Wednesday morning to say he wasn’t surprised the Indians looked good and the Cubs struggled. “The Cubs struck out too many times against the Dodgers,” he said. “You need to pressure the other team to make plays. Last night the Indians only had to make 12 plays.”
The righty Kluber, he explained, threw predominantly to his glove side last night. “Sliders away to right-handed hitters. He’s a pitcher with lot of movement. So hitters have to come in with an aggressive two-strike approach to put the ball in play.”
The Indians struck out nine times themselves last night, I said. “It’s a lot,” he replied, “but there’s a big difference between nine strikeouts and 15.” Two innings difference, in fact. “The Indians put the ball in play more and created situations for their speed to matter. Then remember that [Cubs starter Jon] Lester won’t throw over to keep runners close. If he gets a comebacker, he runs it over.”
The Tribe is aggressive on the base paths. “The Indians are among the best teams in baseball going from first to third, and second to home,” he said. “They take a good two-strike approach at the plate. And they use the middle of the field and the opposite field well, much more than the Cubs.”
The Cubs have one of the top starting staffs in baseball but, explains my friend, their bullpen covers only the ninth inning—meaning flame-throwing southpaw closer Aroldis Chapman—while the Indians pen is dominant from the sixth inning on. “If they can get to the sixth, the game is generally over.”
This Indians club is built an awful lot like the Kansas City Royals, he says, who appeared in the last two World Series before this one and defeated the New York Mets in five games last year. “Good defense, speed, put the ball in play, dominant bullpen. For the Indians it’s a matter of the starting pitching getting them to the sixth.”
They’re both young teams, said my friend. “But the Cubs showed their youth more than the Indians. They were frustrated with the umpires on the plate and on the mound. You saw it in the first inning and all of a sudden the game sped up on the Cubs and the bases were loaded.”
So how do the Cubs get on track? I ask. What about tonight? “Now it gets interesting,” he said. “The first three or four innings, the Cubs have to put the ball in play. Their bats get really hot or really cold, but they have to make contact against upper-level pitching and that’s what you’re facing come October. Anthony Rizzo showed a good two-strike approach last night. Addison Russell was taking big swings, and missing a lot of pitches. Russell has to use his speed. Maybe some hit and runs, put the ball in play.”
And managerial strategy? I asked. “The Cubs need to challenge the Indians to replace their starter in four or five innings. Make them decide, ‘So you want to use Miller again?’ If they do, that may decide how Miller is used the rest of the series. If Cleveland gets into the sixth with a tie or a lead, maybe they play it the same, or maybe Miller comes in for the seventh. And for the Cubs, Chapman may go two innings instead of one. There are all these scenarios [Indians manager] Terry Francona and [Cubs manager] Joe Maddon are playing through their heads, so you have to come up with ways to counter them.”
I asked about the controversy of Maddon using his designated hitter slot on Kyle Schwarber, the young power bat who missed almost the entire year after injuring multiple knee ligaments in the season’s first week. I thought he looked good last night, especially for not hitting against big league pitching for so long; Tuesday was his first action against an MLB club since April. “There are two schools of thought on this,” my friend said. “I’ll just say that he has no at bats all year and is now facing some of the best pitching in baseball.”
That’s the spot the Cubs are in with Jason Heyward mired in a huge slump. Or it’s not a slump, and this is who Heyward is as a hitter. He is a very gifted athlete with strength and speed but big league pitching finally caught on to him. And come October there is nothing so relentlessly unforgiving as big league pitching.
