The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Indians lack fire to make game a title preview
The Los Angeles Dodgers this week are making their first visit to Cleveland in 14 years, and if the next 3½ months unfold in the way some analysts believe it will, they will be back here in October representing the National League in the World Series.
If that matchup occurs, when the weather will predictably be about 40 degrees cooler than the balmy 86 degrees that settled around Progressive Field on June 13, the Indians will need more fire than they showed in front of a crowd of 22,171.
The pitching matchup for the first of a three-game series wasn’t made for ESPN, but it was good enough to be intriguing: Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers vs. Trevor Bauer for the Indians.
Bauer lives for these duels. He likes being the underdog. He made one mistake in 5 2/3 innings, and Yasiel Puig made him pay by launching a tworun home run in the second inning for a 2-0 Dodgers lead.
As Puig headed to the Dodgers’ dugout, cameras caught Puig flipping the middle finger of each hand to fans who allegedly had been heckling him.
Later, in the top of the sixth, with the score 2-2 and the bases full of Dodgers, Andrew Miller walked to the mound from the bullpen to relieve
Bauer and figuratively flipped Puig the middle finger by striking out the Los Angeles right-handed slugger as Puig swung futilely at Miller’s almost unhittable slider.
The Progressive Field crowd, perhaps sensing they were witnessing a preview of games with higher stakes four months into the future, broke into a loud cheer. But it did not inspire the Indians to greater things.
Anyone following the Indians would not be surprised at Miller working out of a jam not of his own creation.
If this was indeed a preview of the 2017 World Series, the Indians will go into knowing firsthand what to expect from Kershaw, whose list of accomplishments is as long as the 430-foot home run Tribe catcher Roberto Perez hit off him in the bottom of the fifth to tie the game, 2-2.
Kershaw, now 9-2, is a three-time Cy Young Award winner. His 2.36 ERA in 278 starts is the lowest among hurlers with more than 1,500 innings pitched since 1920.
The opposing pitching staff cannot make a mistake when Kershaw is on the hill for the Dodgers, and Indians’ reliever Bryan Shaw did.
Cody Bellinger swatted his 16th home run of the season in the top of the eighth to break the 2-2 tie. The Dodgers added another on a groundout in the eighth and then Bellinger, a rookie, smashed a three-run homer in the ninth to blow the game open.
Both teams – especially the Indians — have work to do to make a World Series matchup happen. The Indians are a mediocre 1819 since May 1.
The Tribe, now 31-30, began the night a game behind the Twins in the American League Central. The Dodgers, 39-25 before the first pitch, began the night with the fourth best record in baseball, but still trail the surprising Colorado Rockies by a game.
A Corey Kluber-Kershaw matchup would have had more intensity than the game that played out June 12. Best to save that for October if the Indians get it gear to create the possibility.