Here are 22 Walk-Off Thoughts after the Indians fell to the Chicago Cubs 5-1 in Game 2 to even the World Series 1-1.
1. After Corey Kluber’s performance in Game 1, Jake Arrieta evened the score in Game 2, taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning. No pitcher had taken a no-hitter deeper into a World Series game since 1969.
2. The story of the Indians’ offense this postseason hasn’t been an act of overpowering opposing pitchers. It’s been about just doing enough with some timely hitting to support a strong pitching staff. The Indians ran into a former Cy Young winner Wednesday night, and the offense ran cold. Jason Kipnis broke up the no-hit bid with a double to center field.
3. Said Kipnis, “I don’t want anybody to no-hit me in my backyard. Doesn’t matter if it’s the World Series or the regular season. He was sharp tonight. Some were bad at-bats, and probably my at-bats, and other times you just have to give credit. He painted and moved the ball around well and pitched a good game.”
4. But, it wasn’t a positive night for Kipnis. He committed two errors defensively, one that led to a run and one that denied Francisco Lindor of what would have been a sure-fire highlight-reel play.
5. It wasn’t a positive night for the Indians’ defense, period. The Indians had been fairly clean through the postseason, but Game 2 was sloppy. Kipnis’ two errors were compounded by Lonnie Chisenhall’s bad decision in the first inning to throw to second base instead of the cut-off man and then his trip later in the game that allowed Ben Zobrist to round second for a triple. For the first time in October, the Indians’ defense was a liability.
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6. Said Indians manager Terry Francona, “I think Lonnie thought he had a chance at second. Probably we were set up to go home. That's probably where the ball should have gone. I think Lonnie thought that the runner conceded the run and thought he had a legitimate chance to get him and actually came pretty close. … Yeah, we gave up nine hits, eight walks, two errors, and we only gave up five runs. We're probably pretty fortunate because there was traffic all night. For us to win, we generally need to play a clean game, and we didn't do that.”
7. Kipnis has been dealing with a low ankle sprain sustained during the celebration in Toronto. He says it wasn’t a factor in his play.
8. “No. I’m not going to use it as an excuse,” Kipnis said. “I can’t do that. That wouldn’t be right. I have it good enough, I have it taped up enough to move around. I should be making plays.”
9. Either way, Kipnis has been in a slump at the wrong time, and it’s come after one of his most consistent regular seasons.
10. “It’s frustrating. It’s obviously a frustrating time to be in a slump, when the team needs you the most. It’s nice to finally check in and get one hit and hopefully we can build some momentum off that. But we’re going to need to get more than just one hit if we’re going to help this offense go.”
11. The good news for the Indians is that Trevor Bauer’s pinkie didn’t force his early exit for a second time. The bad news was he still couldn’t complete four innings. Bauer went deep into the count with nearly every hitter and struggled to finish innings. It cost him in the third, when he was one strike away with an 0-2 count and ended up allowing a walk and two singles to put the Cubs up 2-0.
12. Said Francona, “They never let him settle into the game. You've got to give them a lot of credit. I thought in the first inning Rizzo had a really good at-bat. As a staff in general, we worked behind a lot tonight a lot more than is helpful. I think some of their hitters deserve credit for that, also. They didn't chase. They had a lot of deep counts. Shoot, I think it was until we got to Otero we didn't have anything less than 19 pitches for seven innings, that's tough.”
13. Bauer said after the game he had trouble finding the feel on his curveball. He ended up throwing some in the cage in-between innings. On such a cold night, he struggled with it and racked his pitch count up to 87.
14. “It’s tough on a cold night,” Bauer said. “There was no moisture in the air, really. It's slippery. It's hard to get a feel for it. I went up to the cage after the second inning and threw 20 or 30 of them and got the feel for it. I thought I was pretty good after that.”
15. The good news for the Indians is that Bauer got through his start and will be an option to pitch Game 5 in Chicago. But they will also need Bauer to find his feel for his final start of the season.
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16. Game 2 was also the postseason debut of Danny Salazar, who allowed no hits but walked two in one inning of work. The reports were mostly positive, as he hit 95 on the radar gun.
17. Said Roberto Perez, “He was awesome. He threw strikes even though he walked two batters. He got two outs and he probably sat back a little bit, relaxed a little bit. But after that I thought he settled down again and went after hitters.”
18. Said Salazar, “I got nervous, the first time they said, ‘Oh, Danny. Go warm up.’ But after I threw like two pitches, it was just back to normal, feeling the way I used to feel when I was throwing my pen before the game.”
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19. Salazar still has the potential to be available to start a game for the Indians should something unforeseen happened—pitching coach Mickey Callaway said he’s stretched out to throwing 65-70 pitches. But for now, it appears as though he’ll remain the bullpen.
20. Said Francona, “We pitched him to try to keep the game where it was and to shake off some rust. I think we were able to do that, because you could see that the ball came out really well, but he wasn’t commanding great. I think there’s potentially five games left. I think we’re probably better served using him out of the bullpen.”
21. Wednesday night was the Indians’ sloppiest game of the postseason. Now, the series turns to Wrigley Field, in which the Indians also have the dilemma of how to keep Carlos Santana’s bat in the lineup. He took some fly balls in left field Monday night but has all of four innings there in his major-league career to his name.
22. The Indians are going on the road in a tied series throwing pitchers on short rest starting in Game 4 against baseball’s best team this season. They’ve responded all October to their backs being against the wall and the odds being against them. That’s never been truer than now. In eleven of the last 14 instances with a 1-1 series, the winner of Game 3 went on the win it all in 11 of them.