It was a different suit than Cabrera wore on his way into Kansas City four days earlier. In the American League Central standings, however, the Tigers left town looking pretty much the same as they came in, a half-game up on the Royals. Considering where they stood two games into their four-game series, it was a good look.
Even for a team that knows better than to make too much of an early series, it was noticed. It wasn’t something they welcomed, but it was a nice test for a team that won its first six in a row and had generally won over the rest of the division in April.
“To lose the first two here against a team that’s very hot [and split], I think, could certainly show some resilience on their part,” manager Brad Ausmus said.
They recovered with the same formula that has worked for them for the past four years, leveraging solid starting pitching into games that could be won by key hits. The Tigers were outscored in the series, 17-10, and didn’t top the two-run mark until Sunday’s series finale, but they allowed just two runs over a 22-inning stretch from the second inning Friday night through the sixth inning Sunday. Most of those innings came from starters Kyle Lobstein, David Price and Anibal Sanchez.
By the time the Royals offense reignited against a tiring Sanchez and Detroit’s setup relief, the series split was relatively secure.
“We had three really good pitching performances in a row from Lobstein, DP and Anibal,” catcher Alex Avila said. “Those are the types of things we’ve come to expect from our staff, though. It was just a matter of getting some timely hits the last few days. They’re not an easy team to beat, and it was nice to get some wins. …
“When you get pitching performances like that, you have momentum. That’s why they say it’s as good as your next pitcher, because when you’re able to get guys going out there throwing strikes and innings are moving along, guys are pitching well, that adds to the momentum.”
That momentum will likely be long forgotten when the two teams meet again Friday to start a three-game series at Comerica Park, culminating in a Sunday night showcase on national television. Price and Sanchez will pitch in that series, too, but at the start rather than the end.
What went right: The front line of the Tigers rotation did what they should, and what the Tigers needed. They took over the final two games of the series. For Sanchez especially, that was a major development, giving him three very good starts since two-start issue with home runs. At the other end of the rotation, Kyle Lobstein again looked like someone who could stick for a while, despite a three-run opening inning. His ability to eat innings after an early debacle was Verlander-like, and it avoided a scenario that would’ve left the Tigers bullpen taxed in back-to-back games to start the series. Detroit’s defense, shifts aside, had a good all-around series, not just with more Jose Iglesias highlights but with a couple nice plays from Nick Castellanos.
What went wrong: The Tigers offense struggled to produce until Alex Avila and Miguel Cabrera hit Jeremy Guthrie on Sunday, continuing good matchup numbers for both. J.D. Martinez fell into what was arguably an overdue slump. Detroit’s shift tendencies were exploited for the first time thanks to Mike Moustakas and Eric Hosmer, forcing a tweaking of the shift but no shying away from the shift itself. Meanwhile, Alfredo Simon was hit hard.
Takeaway: While Victor Martinez is producing better swings, they still aren’t producing much offense. It’s not so much the swing as it seems to be the momentum behind it. He generates a lot of power from his lower body, and his legs don’t have that power from last year, at least not yet, turning what might have been doubles and homers last season into outs now. While some clamor for a trip to the disabled list, the advice is iffy at best whether a 15-day DL stint would make any difference at all on his surgically repaired knee, given that his meniscus was clipped rather than fully repaired. Like it or not, he’s probably going to have to manage the discomfort while managing his swing in his new reality.
Snapshot moment: Castellanos’ third-to-first double play didn’t have the artistry of an Iglesias play, but it gave David Price two of his biggest outs of Saturday night. It also showed an awareness on the part of Castellanos, who said after the game that he decided quickly he had little chance to get an out at second base.
Turning point: Anthony Gose’ takeout slide on Christian Colon Saturday led directly to Detroit’s first lead of the series. They never trailed the rest of the weekend.
Pitching performance of the series: Price’s complete-game five-hitter was the illustration of what an ace does to stop losing streaks in their tracks. He not only shut down a Royals offense that had been rolling, he did so with quick enough innings to keep sending the Tigers offense up to bat.
Hitting performance of the series: Alex Avila drove in almost as any runs Sunday (three) as he plated all season leading up to Sunday (four). That doesn’t include the extra run scoring on a Paulo Orlando error.
There was a scary moment in the eighth when Jean Segura was hit in the head by a pitch from Chicago’s Pedro Strop. Segura was able to eventually get up and trot to first, but then came out of the game. He was to stay in Chicago to be examined.
“It scared me,” Cubs catcher Miguel Montero said. “Definitely, it scared me. First of all, you don’t want to hit anybody, especially in that situation, and even worse in the head like that, and especially with a guy throwing hard. It really scared me.
“I think it broke the helmet, too,” Montero said. “As soon as it hit him, I saw a piece of plastic flying around. It was definitely really scary.”
Strop said he was assured by Carlos Gomez and Gerardo Parra that Segura was OK.
The Cubs did score two runs in the fifth to tie the game with a RBI triple by Anthony Rizzo and a RBI double by Kris Bryant. But they went 2-for-10 with RISP, and stranded eight runners in the game.
“From my perspective, I’ve been around this before, with young hitters, you just have to be patient, give them the right
information and keep them kind of loose,” manager Joe Maddon said. “It’ll come to fruition. Some guys are struggling but it’ll come back.”
Up next: The Cubs, dressed in their Blackhawks jerseys on Sunday to celebrate the NHL team, head to St. Louis for a four-game series, starting Monday night.
“This is a good test,” Hammel said. “We’ve got to win these games. To be the best, you’ve got to beat the best. [The Cardinals] are hot and we’re going into their territory. We’ll find out what we’re made of in the series.”
— Carrie Muskat
Varvaro, 30, was 7-9 with 20 holds, one save and a 3.23 ERA in 166 Major League relief appearances with the Mariners,
Braves and Red Sox. He’s held left-handed hitters to a .201 batting average in his career.
In nine relief appearances this season for the Red Sox, he gave up five earned runs over 11 innings. He was designated for
assignment on April 29.
Ortiz, 24, was 0-1 with one save and a 3.38 ERA in eight relief appearances with Triple-A Iowa this season.
On the KC side, Lorenzo Cain is out of the lineup, having dropped the appeal of his two-game suspension from the White Sox fight. He’s 3-for-16 for his career against Anibal Sanchez, so the timing made sense. That said, his replacement, Jarrod Dyson, is 2-for-19 off Sanchez.
TIGERS (career numbers off Guthrie)
P: Anibal Sanchez
ROYALS (career numbers off Sanchez)
P: Jeremy Guthrie
It will be interesting to see what roster moves the Orioles make to add both guys. Rey Navarro seems like an obvious choice, but the second roster spot isn’t quite as clear. Jimmy Paredes is on an offensive tear and out of options. Do the O’s go short a pitcher and pull the plug on Rule 5 draft pick Jason Garcia? Do they pull off a deal? Should be interesting.
Catcher Matt Wieters, who is rehabbing back from Tommy John surgery, addressed the media today and said he’s still on an every other day catching schedule in extended spring. Wieters caught five innings yesterday and the biggest issue is still recovery in between games. He has a little elbow soreness and is trying to be smart with things. The safe bet is he won’t go out on rehab assignment until he can catch back-to-back. Wieters has been here the whole series, watching games in the dugout.
Wesley Wright will throw a game in extended spring on May 19.
RAYS LINEUP
Brandon Guyer LF
Steven Souza Jr. RF
Logan Forsythe 2B
Evan Longoria 3B
Joey Butler DH
James Loney 1B
Tim Beckham SS
Kevin Kiermaier CF
Rene Rivera C
Nathan Karns RHP
ORIOLES LINEUP
Manny Machado 3B
Jimmy Paredes DH
Adam Jones CF
Chris Davis 1B
Steve Pearce 2B
Delmon Young RF
Travis Snider LF
Caleb Joseph C
Everth Cabrera SS
Wei-Yin Chen LHP
Tsuyoshi Wada gave up two unearned runs on two hits over seven innings in Iowa’s 4-1 loss to Oklahoma City. Arismendy Alcantara and Rubi Silva each had two hits. Wada struck out five.
Tennessee ended a three-game losing streak with a 6-5 win over Birmingham in 10 innings. Kyle Schwarber hit a game-winning solo homer in the 10th. Bijan Rademacher also homered for the Smokies, a three-run shot in the fifth. It was Schwarber’s fifth blast this season. Dan Vogelbach had three hits.
Paul Blackburn gave up one run on six hits over five innings in Myrtle Beach’s 5-4 win over Lynchburg. Mark Zagunis hit his first home run, a solo shot in the third. Carlos Penalver drove in two runs.
South Bend won its fourth straight game, a 5-4 victory over Fort Wayne. Chesny Young had two hits and two RBIs. Yasiel Balaguert hit a three-run double in the eighth.
Fowler CF
Soler RF
Rizzo 1B
Bryant 3B
Montero C
Castro SS
Coghlan LF
Hammel P
Russell 2B
* On Saturday, Kris Bryant struck out four times in the game, the first time he’s done that this season. The Brewers gave him a steady diet of offspeed pitches.
“That’s what happens in the Major Leagues, you have to adjust,” manager Joe Maddon said. “He was swinging at some pitches out of the zone today, too. Just get back into the zone because that’s something he had been doing well coming out of Spring Training, wasn’t chasing. He’s been doing it for the most part this season. He’s been doing really well at maintaining the integrity of his strike zone. I’m fully confident he’ll do that again.”
— Carrie Muskat
“I just wasn’t very good today, plain and simple,” Arrieta said. “I didn’t do a good enough job. We need more out of our starter and I didn’t give us the effort I intended to today.”
Anthony Rizzo and Addison Russell survived a collision in the second inning. The two crashed into each other in shallow right chasing Carlos Gomez’s hit.
“It’s just one of those plays, two outs, you’ve got to try to make that play at all costs,” Rizzo said. “[Russell] went all out, I went all out. Thankfully, we didn’t hit our heads on each other. He kind of skidded a little there. We were both laying down, both asked each other if we were all right, and thankfully, we are.”
The Cubs had a really awkward moment in the ninth. With one out, Logan Schafer hit what should have been a routine grounder to shortstop Starlin Castro, but his throw was wild for an error. Rizzo retrieved the ball, but didn’t hustle it back in, and Schafer kept running, eventually scoring on the two errors.
“First of all, it was a routine ground ball,” Maddon said. “That play, Starlin makes that 101 out of 100 times. It seems to me [Kris Bryant] thought he had to cover second, which isn’t a bad thought because the second baseman was gone, shortstop is in, I’m going to go to second, but as you do that, somebody has to get to third, and that would be the catcher or the pitcher. That’s all. At worse, just hold the ball. It looked awful, and it was, but it just comes down to a play that we normally should make.”
Said Rizzo: “A lot of things wrong happened there, just have to move on from it.”
Up next: Jason Hammel starts Sunday in the series finale vs. the Brewers. Milwaukee has yet to win a series this season.
After all, it was May 1. That alone was reason for optimism.
“I don’t ever want this place to be a morgue,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “And that’s hard I think for fans to understand. They want to see the players grumpy and moping. Believe me, we care. But when you show up the next day, it doesn’t help to mope about last night’s loss. If I thought there was a way it helped, we’d do it. … When you show up the next day, it’s got to be the next day. Sometimes, that’s hard, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Or, when you show up the next month, it needs to be the next month.
“April’s over,” Indians third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall said with a smile after a 9-4 win on Friday night.
For the second season in a row, April was not a memorable month for Cleveland. A fitting image for the way things went came when Yan Gomes and Michael Brantley accepted their Silver Slugger Awards a few weeks ago. Gomes (sidelined for six-to-eight weeks after a knee sprain on April 11) was on crutches and Brantley was out of the lineup that day due to a nagging back issue.
Cleveland lost Gomes to the injury, saw Carlos Carrasco take a line drive off the jaw (it only cost him a handful of days, thankfully) and dealt with rough starts from key players such as Michael Bourn, Jose Ramirez and Brandon Moss, among others. While the rotation had flashes of its great potential, the bullpen struggled and runs were scarce for the first four weeks.
“It’s early, but we can’t say that forever,” Indians outfielder David Murphy said after a loss in Detroit last month. “We don’t want to be in a situation that we were last September. And, you don’t want to have to think back to April and think, ‘Well, if we just would’ve picked up this win here or there.’ There’s definitely a sense of urgency.”
With the arrival of May, Cleveland will try to put the first month in the past, while attempting to chip away at the deficit created by the hot starts by the Tigers and Royals.
Here is a look back at the month that was for the Tribe…
Overall: 7-14
Record at home: 2-7
Record on road: 5-7
Offense (AL rank)
.238 AVG (13)
.302 OBP (10)
.373 SLG (11)
.675 OPS (11)
79 R (t-12)
168 H (t-12)
19 HR (t-8)
56 XBH (10)
77 RBI (12)
10 SB (11)
66 BB (8)
139 K (2)
263 TB (11)
1.4 WAR (11)
Notes: It was an anemic month for the Indians, who scored their fewest runs in a single month since plating only 77 in April of 2010. Prior to that, the next occurrence of 79 or fewer runs in a non-strike-shortened season was June 1991 (69). June of 1991 is also the last time Cleveland had 79 or fewer runs with an OPS of .675 or lower. That June, the Tribe had a .589 OPS. Oof.
Pitching (AL rank)
7 wins (t-14)
4.54 ERA (11)
4.88 rot. ERA (11)
4.03 rel. ERA (8)
4 saves (t-10)
184.1 IP (13)
17 HR (t-4)
74 BB t-11)
202 K (2)
.273 AVG (14)
1.46 WHIP (14)
3.53 FIP (4)
2.5 WAR (5)
Notes: This marked the first time since Sept. 2003 that the Indians had no more than seven wins and an ERA of 4.54 or better. This marked only the second time in team history that the club registered 200-plus strikeouts, but only won seven or fewer games. The only other time that happened was — shield your children’s eyes — August of 2012. I don’t need to remind you that the Tribe went 5-24 that month, right? Right. Didn’t think so.
Player of the Month: OF Michael Brantley
Stats: .339/.381/.458/.839, 7 2B, 7 RBI, 6 R, 4 BB, 3 K, 20 H, 15 games
Notes: Brantley missed a handful of games in early April with a back issue, but returned strong enough to fashion a solid month for the Tribe. He is the only Indians batter in the past 12 years to have a month with at least four walks, no more than three strikeouts and 20-plus hits. He also did that in Sept. 2012. The last Indians player other than Brantley to do so was Victor Martinez in Sept. 2003. v-Mart also had an .839 OPS that month. The last player to do that for the Tribe with at least a .458 slugging? Tony Fernandez in 1997.
Pitcher of the Month: RHP Trevor Bauer
Stats: 2-0, 1.80 ERA, 25 IP, 28 K, 13 BB, .174 AVG, 1.12 WHIP, 4 starts
Notes: Prior to Bauer, only six Indians pitchers had enjoyed an undefeated month that included at least 28 strikeouts, an ERA of 1.80 or lower and an opponents’ average of .174 or better. Bauer makes it seven. The others: Corey Kluber (June 2014), Cliff Lee (April 2008), Gaylord Perry (May and June 1974), Luis Tiant (Sept. 1968), Sonny Siebert (Aug. 1965) and Bob Feller (April 1939).
Reliever of the Month: LHP Nick Hagadone
Stats: 2.16 ERA, 8.1 IP, 11 K, 5 BB, .188 AVG, 1.32 WHIP, 10 games
Notes: It wasn’t a stellar month for the bullpen, but Hagadone had a solid showing for the Indians. He joined John Axford (July 2014), Vinnie Pestano (May 2011), Paul Assenmacher (Sept. 1997) and Derek Lilliquist (July 1992) as the only relievers in team history with 10-plus games, 11-plus strikeouts and a 2.20 ERA or better in no more than nine innings in a single month.
Game of the Month (hitter): OF Brandon Moss
April 24 at Tigers: 3-for-5, 2 HR, 1 2B, 7 RBIs, 10 total bases
Notes: Moss became the 15th player (18 times) to have at least two homers, seven RBIs and 10 total bases in a single game. The previous two occurrences were Lonnie Chisenhall (June 9 last year against Texas) and Shin-Soo Choo (Sept. 17, 2010 against the Royals). The last player to have such a game for Cleveland against Detroit was Bill Glynn on July 5, 1954.
Game of the Month (pitcher): RHP Trevor Bauer
April 9 at Astros: 6 IP, 0 H, 0 R/ER, 5 BB, 11 K, 78 Game Score
Notes: Bauer became the only Major League pitcher since at least 1914 to give up no hits and record 11-plus strikeouts in an outing lasting no more than six innings. He joined Len Barker (May 15, 1981), Dennis Eckersley (May 30, 1977) and Bob Feller (April 30, 1946) as the only pitchers in Cleveland history to give up no hits with at least 11 strikeouts in a start.
———————————————————————————–
Minor League standouts for April
Triple-A Columbus
Player of the Month: OF Tyler Holt
Stats: .328/.438/.393/.832, 3 XBH, 4 RBI, 12 BB, 12 R, 5 SB, 19 games
Pitcher of the Month: LHP Bruce Chen
Stats: 1.08 ERA, 25 IP, 17 K, 1 BB, .155 AVG, 0.56 WHIP, 4 starts
Double-A Akron
Player of the Month: OF Ollie Linton
Stats: .280/.400/.340/.740, 3 2B, 2 RBI, 8 R, 7 BB, 5 SB, 15 games
Pitcher of the Month: RHP Cody Anderson
Stats: 1.13 ERA, 24 IP, 18 K, 4 BB, .235 AVG, 1.00 WHIP, 4 starts
Class A (high) Lynchburg
Player of the Month: OF Brad Zimmer
Stats: .357/.452/.586/1.038, 4 HR, 8 XBH, 11 RBI, 15 R, 10 BB, 10 SB, 19 games
Pitcher of the Month: RHP Adam Plutko
Stats: 1.14 ERA, 23.2 IP, 19 K, 3 BB, .148 AVG, 0.63 WHIP, 4 starts
Class A (low) Lake County
Player of the Month: None
Stats: .191/.270/.281/.551 combined for the team
Pitcher of the Month: RHP Dace Kime
Stats: 1.85 ERA, 24.1 IP, 25 K, 3 BB, .218 AVG, 0.90 WHIP, 4 starts
–JB