Progressive thought
Game 6 pressure on Tribe
CLEVELAND — The pitcher who’s made everyone rethink playoff bullpen usage didn’t want to go too far on this one.
It’s normal to believe Andrew Miller’s Indians should win the World Series after going up 3-1 in the series on the Cubs. That expectation doesn’t change now that the Indians are up just 3-2 entering tonight’s Game 6, the first of two chances for Cleveland to close out of the best-of-seven series at home. Right, Andrew? “You got to be careful with your phrasing,” Miller said yesterday at Progressive Field. “I think that we like where we’re at. It’s better to be 3-2 than 2-3. We’re at home. . . . Ideally you win four in a row. That doesn’t happen, you win four out of five. That doesn’t happen, 3-2 in Game 6 is a good spot to be.”
We get it. But there’s a reason so many Indians were answering questions about the Cavaliers’ NBA championship parade, a reason media minds were envisioning the Indians doubling up on LeBron James’ handiwork in a titlestarved city.
“It was hard, like I said, not to get caught up in (the Cavaliers’ celebration),” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “In the last game, I was watching the game downstairs where I live and the place, as you can imagine, was just packed. And when Kyrie (Irving) stepped back and hit that 3-pointer, it was kind of hard not to, you know — I had to kind of remind myself I’m 57.”
The Indians are, for once, in a clear power position. They’ve made the regular season’s best team the underdog.
Mike Napoli went where Miller did not.
Absolutely, the former Red Sox slugger thinks the Indians should now win this thing.
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t we?” Napoli said. “We put ourselves in that position to get there. But, just worried about Game 6 now.” He should be. The Cubs have Game 2 star Jake Arrieta starting with an extra day’s rest tonight. They also get the freakish Kyle Schwarber back in the lineup as the designated hitter in the American League park.
Not to be discounted: It should be warmer at Progressive Field than it was at Wrigley Field, possibly close to 70 degrees after it was 50 at first pitch for Sunday’s Game 5.
Higher temperatures can help both sides, but the Cubs offense has been in a deeper hibernation.
If you take Napoli’s word for it, none of the upperhand talk matters, because the Indians thought they were King Kong all along.
Napoli doesn’t dig the popular narrative.
“We’re underdogs to everybody else but ourselves in this clubhouse,” Napoli said. “Plain and simple. Everyone can pick who they want and who they think is better. But we’re confident in each other and in our ability to play the game of baseball. We never looked at is we’re the underdog. Because we’re confident in what we can do.”
Never, Napoli said, did the Indians take a “what do we have to lose” attitude, even at the outset of the playoffs when starting pitchers Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar were hurt.
“Not one bit,” Napoli said. “No. Because, I mean, we’ve been in first place for 100-something days, won the (AL) Central division. It’s not like we snuck in anywhere. We believe in each other. So, it’s not us against our world, what everyone’s saying. No — we’re good. We’ve done what we had to do to get to this point. We’re in good position. Nobody gave us a chance to get out of Chicago. ‘ They’re not going to be able to win in Chicago, they’re not, you know, this and that.’ We’re up 3-2 and we’re at home where we play good, so if people want to say we still don’t have a chance, we’re going to go out there and play the game like we know how to and try to execute and do what we do and hopefully come out on top.”
Francona has always been a bit of a ham with the media. The former Red Sox skipper plays to the moment, eats it up, too.
Why shouldn’t he now, one win away from his third World Series title?
When Game 6 starter Josh Tomlin took to the Progressive Field podium after Francona finished his own press conference, the manager poked fun at the pitcher as they exchanged places.
“Where is Josh?” Francona said. “This’ll be good. If you guys have questions, just use pictures.”
The room cracked up. There’s the old Tito charm everyone knew at Fenway Park.
But those jokes are harder to make if there’s a Game 7, if all of a sudden Cleveland is just as vulnerable as Chicago.
When the Indians pulled ahead 3-1, this World Series became theirs to lose, no matter what Napoli or Miller thought.