The fear here is that our bullpen was worn out, and the Rays had our number all year. They had it again here.
Our season ends in Tampa, 2-5 Rays over Guards.
I’ll think up a retrospective later. Tonight, I process.
Series Results
This is always the super tense part. We made it to the Division Series, but it’s against a team who has owned us. And there was a high cost to get past Chicago. Those were five hard fought games, and the bullpen was worked past its limits.
What burned Chicago in the end, is also why we lost this series. The White Sox had pretty much nothing but bullpen games, and that was a lot more pitching then a lot of bullpen guys have ever done. The weight of innings are not equal, and the shoulders of a starter is not that of a reliever. It’s a mental thing.
Well, we had basically two reliable starters. Big Rig and Messick. Gavin was incredible, and honestly so was Parker when you remember he’s a rookie and had never pitched more than 136 innings in a season. Both were well around 160 at the end. The arms of the bullpen were not prepared to be used like this, and perhaps Vogter learned the wrong lesson from Chicago.
If that was not enough, with only two exceptions our bats were impotent. Yes, José and Bazzana had some amazing home runs, and Kwan put on a Master Class in how to play the outfield, but you cannot win if you cannot hit.
And that’s how you end up with your setup man taking over from your closer, to give up a two run homer in the bottom of the 8th, where you only scored because people got hit by pitches.
Game Results
Game 1 (12 Oct) – WON
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLE | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| TB | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
- Rasmussen is a hard guy to hit. DeLauter seems to get it done.
- We actually got a lot of bats on balls against him, but not a lot of safe hits.
- Bailey hit the dinger to tie it!
- Lowe knocked in two on a single for the lead, which is hilarious because his previous team decided he couldn’t hit lefties, but he can.
- The eighth and ninth were Cleveland. I cannot believe how well they did!
- I do hope Junior Caminero is okay. That hit looked bad.
Game 2 (13 Oct) – LOST
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLE | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
| TB | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
- As Jose said, sometimes baseball is a great game, sometimes it’s stupid. This game came down to a stupid error (by José himself) which resulted in three runs.
- We did not get shut out, though, and we didn’t dig too deep into our bullpen, so we’re set for Thursday.
- Bazz and Roch are turning into quite the keystone combo, with some amazing double plays!
Game 3 (15 Oct) – WON
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TB | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| CLE | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 3 | 6 | 0 |
- Big Rig took the mound and looked good, save a couple hanging curveballs.
- Bailey, Lowe and Adell are proving to have been great pickups for the season.
- Speedy Petey Halpin with a home run for the lead and (eventual) win. The way he was whiffing early on, I thought he’d be another Straw or Zimmer – Good in the outfield but eeeee.
- José did what José does best. He got on base, he stole, and he harassed the pitchers. Sure, he didn’t get a run, but his hustle set the mood.
- Rocchio finally broke free and got a hit. He’s starting to look like himself again.
Game 4 (17 Oct) – LOST
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TB | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| CLE | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
- Apparently Cleveland told MLB there was no way they could play on Friday, but MLB sure tried until it was inevitable.
- Armstrong had a good leadoff inning, and DeLauter got an RBI single to take the lead.
- Griffin gave up a couple hits and a run in the third.
- It went bad after that, we just could not get bats on balls, and our rookies made a couple errors.
- We did struggle and try to edge closer, but we just could not get there.
- I really do not know what’s going on with Bibee.
Game 5 (18 Oct) – LOST
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TB | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 0 |
| CLE | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
- Messick was great all season but I think his tank is empty now.
- While the pitchers did their job, the batters did not.
- An error on the field, while not charged, and defensive misplays led to the loss.
- Kwan is worth all the money in the world. Keep him.
Game 6 (19 Oct) – LOST
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLE | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| TB | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | X | 7 | 7 | 0 |
- This game had some amazing baseball. That bunt was a thing of beauty. And Cantillo had some amazing drop on the curve.
- Our pitching finally collapsed. They had shouldered so much, it’s not surprising.
- Our bats were awful. We can’t hit Freddie’s fastball, and we can’t hit the change up.
- The damn thing is we really played well! We just ran out of gas.
That’s your season, folks. Cleveland went further than anyone thought we could. Further, no doubt, than many wished we did.
At least now, the small market team who wins the World Series is a franchise that has never won it before.
Leave a Reply