Here are 13 Walk-Off Thoughts on the Indians’ 10-6 loss to the Minnesota Twins Tuesday night.
1. It’s a good thing the Indians have had the Tigers’ number, because they can’t seem to handle the Twins. The Indians are now 4-7 against the last-place Twins and have been crushed two nights in a row.
2. Said Indians manager Terry Francona, “I don’t know what they’re doing against the rest of the league but they’ve played us really tough. I mean even the wins, for the most part they’ve been close games except for the couple where they’ve blown us out. They’ve played really well against us. I mean when we play them, I don’t look at someone’s record anyway, because it doesn’t matter, but they’ve definitely played good baseball against us.”
3. It’s been an impressive display of power by the Twins. On Tuesday the Indians punched back, but it wasn’t enough.
4. Said Francisco Lindor, “I don’t know what they’re doing against the rest of the league but they’ve played us really tough. I mean even the wins, for the most part they’ve been close games except for the couple where they’ve blown us out. They’ve played really well against us. I mean when we play them, I don’t look at someone’s record anyway, because it doesn’t matter, but they’ve definitely played good baseball against us.”
5. For the second straight night, the Twins pounded an Indians starting pitcher—this time Carlos Carrasco—and jumped out to a big lead. It’s the first time Indians starters have given up at least six runs in back-to-back outings in just over a year (Corey Kluber/Carrasco, July 24-25, 2015). Max Kepler is probably trying to find a way to stay in Cleveland, because he’s hit four home runs in 48 hours at Progressive Field.
6. It was the worst outing of Carrasco’s season, the first time he’s allowed more than four earned runs. It was a control issue for Carrasco Tuesday night.
7. Said Carrasco, “I think my first inning was good. I lost control my last two innings, with those four run innings. But you know what, I think I learned something from that. Just going to work really hard for my next start and I’m going to go from there. … I made mistakes on pitches. I’m supposed to throw inside on one guy and I throw it right down the middle. Another one, I threw a changeup and he took it out. I think I have to be better than that. Just try and look at more of my pitches. When you do something wrong, you are going to pay for it. That’s what happened.”
8. At this point, it’s scoreboard or bust for Mike Napoli. Amidst the Indians’ six-run fifth inning, which cut it to 8-6, Napoli crushed a mammoth home run that ended up three rows from the top of the bleachers. Some kid caught it, and he was in a seat that had no business having any chance of having a home run ball make it that high up. Per Statcast, it traveled 444 feet, but it was yanked and demolished. It’s the second time this season Napoli has nearly hit the scoreboard on the fly.
More: Indians place SP Danny Salazar on the 15-day DL with elbow inflammation
9. Napoli now has homered in four consecutive games, the second-longest streak of his career (five straight games, in 2012 with the Rangers). He’s now at 26 home runs through 98 games this season, becoming the first Indians hitter to reach that mark in fewer than 100 games since Travis Hafner did it in 2006.
10. Lindor finished 3-for-5 and now has 18 three-hit games, the most in the majors. He also nearly put the Indians up by a run in the sixth, but he missed a home run by a few feet, as it was caught on the warning track. He knew he missed it.
11. Said Lindor, “No. I knew right off the bat. I got under it. I told myself on the first pitch of the at-bat, a pitch up in the zone. I was too on top of it. I was too down, too choppy to it. I told myself, 'Get under it.' And that's exactly what I did. I knew as soon as I hit it that I missed it. It's part of the game. It would've been nice to come up big for the team and take the lead in that situation, but there's nothing I can do about it now.”
More: Indians OF Brandon Guyer excited to be added to a contender
12. The Indians have seen their lead in the American League Central trimmed to three games, as the Detroit Tigers are making it a race again. For now, the Indians are worried about themselves.
13. Said Lindor, “I'm worried about what we have in this clubhouse. I'll let you guys worry about that. I'll worry about what we have inside. I'll worry about how I play every day. At the end of the day, what's going to happen is going to happen. God has a plan. If we're going to be in the playoffs, that's God's plan. They could be up 10 [games] and we could just come right back. If that's not his plan, then we're not going to be in the playoffs. We have to continue to play the game the right way. We have to continue to work day in and day out and that's what we're doing. We had two rough days. We'll shake it off, come back tomorrow and play the way the Tribe plays.”