The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Hitters must justify Francona’s patience
Indians manager Terry Francona isn’t a rash move kind of guy.
He’s a go-with-thepercentages, grind-itout-over-162 games traditionalist.
He sticks with his go-to players, and with the plan, until the go-to players demonstrate they can’t be gone to and the plan no longer is working.
Panic buttons will not be pushed after a lackluster, 1-0 home loss to Minnesota on May 12.
It’s a philosophy that has served Francona well in his 16-plus seasons as a big-league manager, so well that he steered the formerly-jinxed Red Sox to the World Series title in 2004, the franchise’s first in 86 years.
Francona and the Red Sox grabbed the brass ring again in 2007, winning the World Series after erasing a 3-1 deficit to beat the Indians in the American League Championship Series.
Taking over in Cleveland in 2013, he won American League Manager of the Year honors after guiding the Indians to the postseason for the first time since the 2007 meltdown against his former employer. That playoff appearance was brief as the Indians were beaten by Tampa Bay in the wildcard game.
Francona was AL Manager of the Year again last season, leading the Indians to the AL Central Division title, playoff series victories against Boston and Toronto and a thrill ride of a World Series against the Cubs.
Despite less-than-scintillating results thus far for the Indians in this season of sky-high expectations, Francona is again sticking with his players and more or less hewing to the plan.
Against the Twins, in the opener of a three-game weekend series, the hits just weren’t coming after Francona made some minor adjustments to his batting order.
Jason Kipnis, scuffling at the plate since coming off the disabled list April 21, was dropped from third to fifth.
Jose Ramirez, the team’s most consistent hitter, moved from fifth to sixth. Lonnie Chisenhall dropped from the sixth spot to the seventh.
The goal, Francona said, was to add some balance by putting Ramirez between Kipnis and Chisenhall, both of whom swing from the left side.
This is a tinkering, though, and not a longterm solution when some of the batters who need to produce for the plan to work, at least to this early juncture of the season, aren’t producing.
Edwin Encarnacion, the free-agent slugger who left Toronto to sign a threeyear, $60 million deal with the Indians, has been a non-factor. He came into the game against the Twins with an anemic .226 batting average and shockingly low .107 average with runners in scoring position.
His stat line of five home runs, 11 RBI and a teamhigh 42 strikeouts isn’t what the Indians were expecting from a middle-ofthe-order bat that has been one of the best in the big leagues since 2013.
Encarnacion has had plenty of company in not getting the job done overall and, particularly, in clutch situations.
All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor, batting a respectable .288 overall, was at .161 in the RISP category. Yan Gomes (.246, .150 RISP) and Brandon Guyer (.189, .091 RISP) aren’t coming through, either.
Although he has been up, down and up again from Triple-A Columbus, Yandy Diaz (.203, .111 RISP) hasn’t come through when presented with opportunities to do so.
Even with Michael Brantley (.283, .280 RISP), Jose Ramirez (.298, .267 RISP) and Carlos Santana (.230, .333 RISP) holding up their ends of the bargain in the clutch, the Indians started the cool evening with team RISP averages of .238 with less than two outs, .191 with two outs and .215 overall.
Francona is a talented manager with admirable patience and an uncanny knack for pushing the right buttons at the right time.
But this isn’t about pushing buttons.
It’s about Encarnacion and company justifying Francona’s faith in them by starting to come through when it matters.
Glasier can be reached at dglasier@newsherald.com; on Twitter at @nhglasier