Cleveland’s confidence high despite quirks
Young Cleveland pitchers Triston Mckenzie and Cal Quantrill are still learning and getting acclimated to major league baseball.
So is first baseman Yu Chang. Cleveland had its share of nice plays and frustrating plays Monday night in a 4-3 loss to the Chicago White Sox, but Mckenzie and Quantrill each expressed confidence in the quality of players in their clubhouse.
“It is a tough sport, man, and we care a lot about it,” Quantrill said. “We want to win. We care a lot about our teammates and they worked hard to give us a chance to win today.”
The White Sox won in the bottom of the ninth inning following a botched double play with one out.
Nick Williams started the winning sequence by putting ball in play off his shattered bat against relief pitcher Emmanuel Clase. Chang fielded the ground ball and tried to start a double play, but his throw toward second base bounced off the helmet of Yasmani Grandal and into the outfield. Nick Madrigal scored the winning run from second base on the error to snap Cleveland’s four-game win streak.
“That is one where you just take the out at first,” Cleveland manager Terry Francona said of the final play. “That
would have given us two outs and we don’t really care about the force in that situation . ... In a sense, I am glad he is
not shying away from throwing the ball to second. This will give us a chance to talk to him tomorrow that that probably wasn’t the right time.”
Quantrill worked two scoreless innings after Phil Maton posted a scoreless inning Monday. Mckenzie allowed three earned runs in four innings.
“I feel like we win that game if not for that fluky play at the end there,” Mckenzie said.
Quality starters
Quantrill said he continues to be impressed by Cleveland starting pitchers Shane Bieber, Zach Plesac, Aaron Civale, Logan Allen and Mckenzie.
“Our starting pitchers are doing their job and it is tough to get in from the pen right now, and that is alright,” Quantrill said.
More power
Eddie Rosario hit a two-run home run Monday night to give Cleveland its 15th home run in nine games this season.
Cleveland entered Tuesday leading MLB in percentage of runs (65 percent) via a home run with 26 of its 40 runs coming via homers.
Franmil Reyes leads Cleveland with four home runs. Jordan Luplow, Roberto Perez, Jose Ramirez and Eddie Rosario each have two home runs, and Austin Hedges, Cesar Hernandez and Andres Gimenez each have one.
Cleveland hit nine home runs during its four-game win streak.