The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Kluber-led Tribe wins 20th in a row
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we are here today to convince you why the American League Cy Young Award should go to Corey Kluber of the Indians and not Chris Sale of the Red Sox.
Kluber is 16-4 after beating the Tigers, 2-0, Sept. 12 at Progressive Field.
At 16-7, Sale has the same number of victories, but he has been beaten three more times. Plus, Sale has made four more starts — 29 to Kluber’s 26 — because Kluber missed time on the disabled list. Kluber and Sale are the only pitchers in the AL who realistically deserve Cy Young consideration.
Kluber’s ERA is better than
When: 12:10 p.m., Sept. 13 Where: Progressive Field
Pitchers: Tigers — Buck Farmer (4-2, 6.32 ERA); Indians — Mike Clevinger (9-5, 3.30)
TV: SportsTime Ohio Radio: WTAM-AM 1100, WEOL-AM 930
Online: See a photo gallery from the Tigers-Indians game. MORNINGJOURNAL.COM. Sale’s — 2.44 compared to 2.76. Batters are hitting .192 against Kluber compared to .203 against Sale.
Sale, a left-handed fireballer, is no slouch. He does have qualities that will persuade voters from the Baseball Writers Association of
America to cast their ballots for him for the award given to the best pitcher in each league and named after the pitcher with the most victories (511) in major-league history.
Sale has 278 strikeouts compared to 242 for Kluber, but he does have those three additional starts — and, besides, we are talking about the Cy Young Award, not an award given exclusively for strikeouts.
Fenway Park can be a graveyard for lefties, yet Sale is 7-2 at home with a 2.81 ERA in 12 starts, so he deserves bonus points for that.
But what really separates Kluber from Sale is the comparison of the two pitchers over the last six weeks.
Sale was 2-2 in August and he is 1-1 in September. He has been inconsistent, as the .500 record over the
last month and a half indicates. Ironically, the slugging Indians will be partially responsible for batting the Cy Young out of his hands if Kluber does win it.
Sale’s troubles began Aug. 1 when the Indians smacked him around for seven runs in five innings. He escaped with a no decision in a game the Indians lost, 12-10. Sale pitched eight shutout innings against Tampa Bay for a victory and was sharp in seven innings against the Yankees (a no decision) in his next two starts, but then he lost three of his next four games, falling to the Yankees (four runs allowed in seven innings), Indians (six earned runs in three innings on Aug. 24, the game that launched the Indians 20game winning streak) and the Yankees again on Sept. 3 (three earned runs in four and a third innings in a 9-2 loss).
Sale did pitch six shutout innings against Tampa
Bay on Sept. 9. Maybe he has found his groove again, but he has not put two strong back-to-back performances together for a month.
Kluber, conversely, is a machine.
“Klubot” is 8-1 since Aug. 1. In those nine starts he has three complete games, and pitched eight innings twice and at least seven innings three other times.
Here is the gameby-game breakdown of earned runs allowed by Kluber in the nine starts since Aug. 1: one, one, three, one, two, two, one, two and none.
Kluber allowed five earned runs in three innings in a 5-2 loss to the Tigers on May 2. He went on the disabled list with a back injury and did not pitch again until June 1.
Kluber has made 20 starts since returning from the D.L. The most earned runs Kluber allowed in those 20 starts was four, and that happened
only once. The Indians beat the White Sox, 5-4, in that game. Three times Kluber pitched without allowing a run, and eight times he allowed only one.
One writer representing each major league team casts a Cy Young Award vote. The Indians’ current winning streak should cast the national spotlight on Kluber if it weren’t there already.
The playoffs are just around the corner, and barring a total collapse by either team, the Indians and Red Sox will be playing baseball well into October.
Which pitcher gives his team the best chance in a head-to-head duel between Kluber and Sale?
Kluber gets the nod there, too, and that could be far more important than who wins a trophy.
Schudel can be reached at jschudel@news-herald. com; @jsproinsider on Twitter.