Bauer blames home run on new pacing rules

Pitcher says he didn’t have time to warm up properly before seventh-inning shot

A new rule this year cuts the time between innings for a locally televised game to two minutes, five seconds.

Robert Manfred doesn’t have many friends among those who follow the Indians these days.

The commissioner of Major League Baseball is responsible for pressuring the Indians to remove Chief Wahoo from uniforms beginning in 2019 — a plan many fans disagree with — and now he has a sworn enemy in Indians starting pitcher Trevor Bauer.

Bauer took the loss on April 7 when his first pitch in the top of the seventh inning was clubbed by Lucas Duda over the fence in right field for the only run of the game. Bauer pitched masterfully in frigid conditions at Progressive Field, as did Royals starter and winner Ian Kennedy, but

as far as Bauer is concerned, Manfred’s penchant for faster pace forced him to throw the pitch to Duda before he warmed up sufficiently.

A new rule this year, agreed to in February by MLB and the players’ union, cuts the time between innings for a locally televised game from two minutes, 25 seconds to two minutes, five seconds. Bauer could have used those 20 seconds lost for one or two more warmup tosses — especially with the temperature 34 degrees and the wind chill 25.

“I couldn’t expect to throw it 90,” Bauer grumbled after the game. “First pitch of the inning, coming out, I tried to get loose, but with the new Rob Manfred time (baloney) that we have only a certain amount of time between innings, it’s hard to get loose sometimes, especially in conditions like that. It’s not safe, but, whatever.

“I told the umpire today one time — he was trying to tell me to speed up. I was like, ‘Look, I’ll take the fine if I need to,’ but

I’m not going to put myself at risk and I’m not going to put the team at risk of me having exactly what happened happen. Throw a pitch that you’re not ready to compete on because you’re still trying to get loose and it gets hit over the fence and we lose because of it — not because of it, but it was a contributing factor.”

Bauer, never afraid to speak his mind, basically accused most of his pitching fraternity of bending the rules in bad weather conditions when assessing how he pitched.

“Since I don’t cheat like a lot of guys and put stuff on my hand, just grab the ball and throw it, honestly, my pitches were somewhat inconsistent,” Bauer said.

“I didn’t feel like I could spin the curveball very well and the slider movement was a little bit all over the place, just because I was having trouble gripping the ball. It’s like a cue ball. It slips out of your hand. But, it is what it is. It’s worse for the hitters. I was looking forward to it. I thought I pitched pretty well overall.”

Bauer allowed three hits over eight innings. He is 0-1 in 2018 with a 2.08 ERA. Chisenhall hobbled Right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall, leading the Indians in hitting with an anemic .235 batting average, is likely headed to the disabled list with a calf injury.

Chisenhall was injured running down a line out by Cheslor Cuthbert for the second out in the second inning. Chisenhall was scheduled to bat fourth in the bottom of the second, but Rajai Davis took his spot.

“We didn’t notice (Chisenhall was hurt),” manager Terry Francona said. “Actually, he stayed out there for the third out and he came in and said something to the trainers, so he just got (an MRI). He literally just got out and we don’t have any results yet. We’ll hopefully get them read in a little bit and more than likely it’s probably a DL. But we’ll get some results tonight.”

Francona is trying to downplay the injury, and

maybe Chisenhall will be out only 10 days. But a calf injury at the All-Star break last year limited him to 82 games. He was leading the Indians with 51 RBI at the time.

“That was last year,” Francona said. “We’ll find out because we’re probably not going to have him for a while, but Tyler Naquin is certainly capable of helping a major league team win. Between him and Raj and (Brandon) Guyer, we’ll figure it out.”

Naquin was optioned to Columbus on April 6 when Michael Brantley was activated from the disabled list after being deemed recovered from ankle surgery.

Francona originally planned to rest Brantley on April 8 when the Indians conclude their series with the Royals. Now the day off could be pushed back to April 9 when the Indians open a four-game series with the Tigers at Progressive Field.

Schudel can be reached at jschudel@news-herald. com; @jsproinsider on Twitter.

TONY DEJAK — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Indians starting pitcher Trevor Bauer pitched eight innings against the Royals and gave up three hits. But one hit was Lucas Duda’s gamewinning homer.