Francona leaning heavily on Tribe bullpen in ALDS

Indigestion keeps Indians manager Terry Francona up at night if he eats too many of his favorite hot dogs. But it was deciding whom to put in the bullpen and consequently who would not make the playoff roster that made him uncomfortable the last few days.

Francona on Oct. 3 reached a decision about which relievers he wants for the ALDS with the Astros starting Oct. 5 in Houston. Left-handers Brad Hand, Andrew Miller and Oliver Perez will be joined by right-handers Adam Cimber, Cody Allen and Dan Otero, Francona announced at Progressive Field.

Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Mike Clevinger will start the first three games.

Shane Bieber and Trevor Bauer will be in the bullpen at the beginning of the series. One of them will be the Game 4 starter Oct. 9 at Progressive Field if one team doesn’t sweep the best-of-five series.

Josh Tomlin, Neil Ramirez, Tyler Olson and Adam Plutko are not on the playoff roster.

“That’s the one hard thing,” Francona said. “Probably the last couple days of the season, you want to be excited about the playoffs, but I know there were a couple of nights where I was wearing it. Because you’re telling guys that you really care about something they don’t want to hear.

“But we tell the guys from Day One, we’re always going to do what we think is best for our team. Some conversations are harder than others, and that one (Tomlin) definitely was hard.”

The starters will carry the Indians as deep as they can, but it is the bullpen of both teams that could ultimately decides who advances to the American League Championship Series.

“We’re trying to make our bullpen thicker, bigger early,” Francona said. “And maybe do the same with Carrasco late. Some of it depends on how he pitches (in Game 2). But that’s the idea.”

It would be fascinating to sit in on meetings with Francona, the advance scouts, the coaches and everyone else involved in figuring out how to plan for playing the Astros.

The Cleveland-Houston first-round match has been a forgone conclusion for at least eight weeks. The Astros won the regular-season series, 4-3, but they haven’t met since May 27.

“You try to have a plan in place,” Francona said. “We had really good meetings. That helps a ton. While we were out playing, we had a lot of scouts and a lot of guys upstairs attacking different

things on the Astros. It makes you feel good to know that they’ve been doing that.

“Then we had two pretty lengthy meetings Monday and Tuesday and it helps alleviate some of the anxiety because you feel like you’re prepared. Our guys did a really good job.”

Francona changed the way managers use relievers when he successfully used Miller in the middle innings in the 2016 postseason. The strategy helped the Indians get to Game 7 of the World Series before losing to the Cubs in the 10th inning.

Bauer could be the X-factor in the playoffs this year. He might prefer to start, but he won’t complain about a bullpen stint.

“I say this all the time,” Bauer said recently. “I pitch when they tell me to pitch, whether that’s in the starting rotation, in the bullpen, or not at all. That’s their decision.”

Bauer finished 2018 with a 12-6 record. He struck out 221 batters and walked 57

in 175 1/3 innings. He was a Cy Young Award candidate until a stress fracture in his right leg caused by a being hit with a line drive sidelined him for nearly six weeks.

Francona wants his eccentric pitcher to know he will not be a forgotten man in the ALDS.

“I can see, if we get where we want to go, Trevor having a bigger hand in it than he realizes right now,” Francona said. “Having him as a starter can be really important. We wouldn’t use him (in relief) without a leverage (important) situation. But if we got some leverage, that’s where we’re going to try to figure it out.

“The other thing, too, is I don’t know if I’d want him to go that long without pitching, so an inning or two wouldn’t hurt him anyway.”

Bauer pitched one inning of an intrasquad game on Oct. 2. Prior to that, he threw 51 pitches in four shutout innings against the Royals in the final game of the regular season on Sept. 30.