FIVE GAME 3 MOMENTS
Bautista can’t hold on The Jays had stressed the importance of getting a lead against Cleveland to avoid an uphill battle against the more fearsome parts of their bullpen, particularly Andrew Miller and Cody Allen. But it was Cleveland that scored the opening run just four batters into Monday night’s game when Mike Napoli sent a long fly ball to the wall in right field. Jose Bautista tracked back and got to the ball in time, but he couldn’t squeeze it, colliding with the wall as it popped out of his glove. It was ruled an RBI double for Napoli, but it should have been the third out of the inning. Marcus Stroman deserves some of the blame, however, as it was his game-opening walk to Carlos Santana that came around to score. Bauer’s bloody mess A day before his Game 3 start, Trevor Bauer was joking about his drone misadventure, suggesting the gash on his right pinky — incurred last week while he was repairing one of his homemade, remote-controlled aircraft — was no big deal and that he would be good to go on Monday night. About as soon as he started pitching, however, it was clear his ghastly cut — which required 10 stitches to close — would be a problem. Bauer had faced four batters, walking two of them, when the wound reopened and began dripping blood on the mound. That set the stage for a Johnny Wholestaff bullpen day, in which Cleveland used six different relievers to get through the game. Napoli goes deep Mike Napoli has been slumping badly for weeks. The veteran first baseman entered Monday’s game hitting just .135 since Sept. 1. But Terry Francona, Cleveland’s manager, defended his struggling slugger ahead of Game 3. “I think with Nap, the really good thing is — and he’s well aware of this — is he always has that three-run home run sitting there. He’s dangerous always. That has to be respected.” It wasn’t a three-run homer, but Napoli, who was 0-for-9 against Stroman in his career, did hit a go-ahead solo blast in the fourth inning that gave Cleveland a 2-1 lead. Napoli went 2-for-3, driving in a pair of runs and scoring twice. Kipnis strikes back The sold-out crowd had just been re-energized by Ezequiel Carrera, who slapped a triple into the alley in right and scored to tie the game on a productive groundout by Ryan Goins. But in the top of the sixth inning, Jason Kipnis, Cleveland’s veteran second baseman, barrelled a fastball Stroman left up and over the plate, driving it more than 400 feet over the wall in centre field to retake the lead for Cleveland. It marked just the fourth time in Stroman’s career he has given up more than one homer in a game and the first time since July. More telling, however, is that Kipnis’ homer came as Stroman tried to navigate a third time through the order — when the right-hander has allowed 15 of the 24 homers off him. Crisp’s catch Much has rightly been made this post-season about the dominance of Andrew Miller — Cleveland’s versatile relief ace — and Francona’s creative use of the dominant lefty. Miller and Francona, meanwhile, have repeatedly insisted they wouldn’t be able to do what they do if the rest of the bullpen wasn’t also very good. On Monday, the guys in the shadows had a chance to shine, while Francona showed more moxie by calling on closer Cody Allen in the seventh inning. Allen got five outs — the most crucial a run-saving, sliding catch by veteran outfielder Coco Crisp on a Josh Donaldson liner — before handing the ball to Miller, who then set a ALCS record for strikeouts by a reliever.