The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Healthy rotation good sign for Indians
Depending on how you approach life in general, you can look at how the Indians starting pitchers performed against the New York Yankees the past four days and think about how the 2016 World Series might have ended differently, or you can anticipate how much sweeter early November can be this year.
Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar would have been the top of the rotation in the playoffs last year, but a broken right hand made Carrasco unavailable and a forearm injury limited Salazar to just three innings of relief work against the Cubs in the World Series.
All three are healthy now, as they proved in the four-game series that ended with each team winning twice, and that bodes well for what can happen if the first-placed Indians make a return trip to the World Series.
Kluber (9-3) pitched a complete game on Aug. 3 when the Tribe beat the Yankees, 5-1. He struck out 11 and walked one in a typical Corey Kluber effort. He is 6-1 since returning from the disabled list from a back injury to pitch on June 1. He had a 1.26 ERA in June and a 2.62 ERA in July. The game against the Yankees was his only start this month.
The 8-1 loss to the Yankees on Aug. 6 was hung on Carrasco, but he was magnificent through five innings, as he has been most of the season. He should have gotten away with one run allowed and a no decision.
Carrasco was charged with five runs in the sixth. After giving up a run on a sacrifice fly by Chase Headley, Carrasco walked Todd Frazier on a full count (after having Frazier down 1-2 with two out) to load the bases. A fly ball to deep right eluded Abraham Almonte in the sun and was ruled a triple. That ended Carrasco’s afternoon, and then Ronald Torreyes singled off Bryan Shaw to score Ellsbury.
“It’s a ball that should be caught and I was not able to make the play,” Almonte said. “It wasn’t an easy fly ball, but it was a ball that should be caught.”
Carrasco was 10-4 before Aug. 6. He was hard on himself for walking Frazier after being ahead in the count. He put down the first 11 Yankees in order.
“That’s when you get in trouble,” Carrasco said.
Salazar dominated the Yankees on Aug. 5 in a 2-1loss charged the Zach McAllister. Salazar allowed one run on four hits over seven innings while striking out 12. He has started three games since missing six weeks with a shoulder injury and in those starts allowed a total of three earned runs over 20 innings while striking out 28 batters and yielding a total of eight hits.
And don’t forget Trevor Bauer — the quirky starter Indians fans love to hate. Bauer has won his last three starts, and in the last two allowed two earned runs over 15 innings. He pitched seven innings on Aug. 4 in the 7-2 win over the Yankees.
Manager Terry Francona has to feel pretty good about the way his starters handled the Yankees, nicknamed the Baby Bombers, over the four games. Had Carrasco struck out Frazier, or had Almonte caught Ellsbury’s deep fly, each starter would have allowed only one run and pitched a minimum of six innings.
“That’s not one of my favorite things to do,” Francona said. “I’ll talk about today. I think when you talk about the past games, it’s like a losing mentality. I don’t think it does us any good.”
So, obviously, Francona is among those who look ahead and not backward when he happens to think about having Kluber, Carrasco and Salazar healthy for the postseason.