Cleveland Sports Forum

Shaw sucks.
And Arrieta will have the first WS no no since Larson

Salazar pitching!
Is Tito giving up?

Ooh, hope I didn't jinx Arrieta!

Well there goes the No Hitter and the shutout.

Now it will just be a plain old loss.

Top of the 5th was a killer

Baron wrote:Well there goes the No Hitter and the shutout.

Now it will just be a plain old loss.

Not just another loss, the PIVOTAL loss!
Cubs now have home field advantage

I still believe there is a reason for some optimism here.

Let's face it, mano a mano, we can't compare with the Cubs offense. However, we bore the brunt of their best offensive lineup with Bauer on the mound. The score was not 20-1 or 30-1 but 5-1.

I still think our pitching staff is strong enough to offset that offense. The pitchers showed a lot of rust from the long delay between the last game in Toronto to the first game of this series. When was the last time this staff walked 7+ batters in a ball game? How many times had Miller thrown 47 pitches in 2 innings?

This is not a team that was built to comeback from 5 run deficits. We can't afford 2 or 3 guys in the lineup per game to carry us to many wins. We need more support from the rest of the team.

A lot will be riding on Tomlin's shoulders Thursday. If we get 5 quality innings out of Tomlin, the bullpen can still save us. It's a big game for sure. If we stick to the formula that got us this far, I think a win on Thursday is a real possibility. No doubt, we will need a "team" effort, offensively, to succeed. We are due to break out as a group. Hopefully we can bridge the gap between Tomlin and Kluber on Thursday.

Hopefully, the coaches and pitchers went to school on these hitters tonight. There was a lot to be learned.

joez wrote:I still believe there is a reason for some optimism here.

Let's face it, mano a mano, we can't compare with the Cubs offense. However, we bore the brunt of their best offensive lineup with Bauer on the mound. The score was not 20-1 or 30-1 but 5-1.

I agree Joe. We couldn't match up with Boston's or Toronto's lineups either! And I seem to remember a 5-1 loss to Toronto.

Also agree on Tomlin, lots of room for optimism there. First of all, he's pitched really well against those big hitting/fastball hitting lineups. Secondly he's had tons of rest - and that always seems to agree with him.

If he pitches well and we pull that game out, Kluber goes next and it's ON!

TFIR wrote:

joez wrote:I still believe there is a reason for some optimism here.

Let's face it, mano a mano, we can't compare with the Cubs offense. However, we bore the brunt of their best offensive lineup with Bauer on the mound. The score was not 20-1 or 30-1 but 5-1.

I agree Joe. We couldn't match up with Boston's or Toronto's lineups either! And I seem to remember a 5-1 loss to Toronto.

Also agree on Tomlin, lots of room for optimism there. First of all, he's pitched really well against those big hitting/fastball hitting lineups. Secondly he's had tons of rest - and that always seems to agree with him.

If he pitches well and we pull that game out, Kluber goes next and it's ON!

Ditto!

TFIR wrote:Also agree on Tomlin, lots of room for optimism there. First of all, he's pitched really well against those big hitting/fastball hitting lineups.

I totally agree, I think Tomlin is a far better match up against the Cubs. Recently he has been throwing his curveball for strikes so the above point is a great one. Also, it isn't talked about much but Tomlin is far more effective against lefties than righties. So I think he'll do a better job of navigating thru the 3-4-5 guys. Righties are hitting .299 against him and I've seen Bryant sit on curveballs and crush them so he'll need to be careful with him, but like this match up overall.

I know it won't happen but I do wish Tito would think long & hard about starting Bauer again. Too inconsistant. Too much of a flake. Can't be trusted. I'd rather start Salazar or Merritt. (who I think is a good match up against Cubs as well, for some of the same previous points on Tomlin)

You could tell the very first inning Bauer wasn't able to throw his curve for a strike and he was going to have a rough night. Cubs feast on fastballs. I would have jerked him out early on. (actually I wouldn't have started him at all)

It's not quite time to give up on this team because they lost a game we expected them to lose.
Win 1 of 3 in Chicago and we have the home field advantage again.
If Win 1 of the 2 non-Kluber starts in Chicago and Corey wins his and we are in firm control.

I remain impressed how Forum-ites can always see the grey cloud looming, e.g. the impending no-hitter.
Cleveland's underdogs remain underdogs in the series and if it so happens that Cubs big bats manage to go deep on Tomlin tomorrow that won't make Josh another immortal failure.

This can be fun if you let it.

I wouldn't be shocked at all to see us win the next 2 games and be in control.

joez wrote:
A lot will be riding on Tomlin's shoulders Thursday. If we get 5 quality innings out of Tomlin, the bullpen can still save us. It's a big game for sure. If we stick to the formula that got us this far, I think a win on Thursday is a real possibility. No doubt, we will need a "team" effort, offensively, to succeed. We are due to break out as a group. Hopefully we can bridge the gap between Tomlin and Kluber on Thursday.

Hopefully, the coaches and pitchers went to school on these hitters tonight. There was a lot to be learned.

I can guarantee that Tomlin and the Indians will NOT win on Thursday!

civ ollilavad wrote:
I remain impressed how Forum-ites can always see the grey cloud looming, e.g. the impending no-hitter.

I can't speak for JR, but I'm sure it was the same for him, when we were talking about the no-hitter it was a reverse jinx type thing.

Like if we had a no hitter we don't talk about it, so if THEY have a no hitter we talk about it incessantly.

A friend of mine that is a Cubs fan was at the game last night. At first he was like "Cleveland fans are pretty nice" I told him wait till they are cold and drunk and when Chicago gets a lead. He texted me around the 3rd inning "I now see what you were talking about" Said most Indians fans cleared out in the 8th inning, leaving mostly Cubs fans, and shocking amount of them from what he said.

I was listening to the experts on the postgame show on xm last night, and learned:
The series is NOT coming back to Cleveland.
It's all about the Cubs, and all America wants them to win. And it's all about Wrigley. They can't celebrate the championship there if they lose any more games. So the Indians have won their last game in this Series!