Cleveland Sports Forum

If we could just take all those outside pitches to right, and folks Major Leaguers should be able to do that, but we are all trying to hit homers. Remember Brantley took an outside pitch to left last night. EE just is trying too hard to pull for sure he did not get 127 RBIs last year without swinging for hits or fly balls.. We have set him up with plenty of RBI opportunities.

CWS only had 4 hits. How did the game last 3 hours?

206 pitches in 6 innings between the starters????

6 hitters in tonight's line up hitting under (.208); 4 hitting under (.200). Only 8 games................long way to go.

I don't have the stats, but it seems like we are taking too many first pitch strikes. Maybe we should try swinging at them?

Encarnacion hit .348 (8-for-23) with 24 RBI last season in bases-loaded situations for Toronto. For his career, Encarnacion is hitting .327 (48-for-147) with nine grand slams and 154 RBI.

Yes, Terry Francona wrestled with the idea. It was the eighth inning of Tuesday's home opener and the score was tied, 1-1, between the Indians and White Sox.

Abraham Almonte and Carlos Santana walked to start the inning. Francisco Lindor, his hottest hitter, was at the plate. Lindor had accounted for the Tribe's only run, a first-inning homer.

Michael Brantley, Encarnacion and Jose Ramirez were waiting behind Lindor. Would Francona let Lindor swing away or bunt to advance the runners?

Lindor bunted to move Almonte to third and Santana to second base. With first base open, Brantley was intentionally walked to bring Encarnacion to the plate against hard-throwing Nate Jones. Encarnacion ended the threat when he bounced into a 5-4-3 double play.

After the game, Lindor said Francona made the right call.

"I gave it (the bunt sign) to him Tuesday and I wrestled with it for a lot of reasons," said Francona. He didn't want to take the bat out of Lindor's hand, but the Indians were struggling to score runs and a sacrifice bunt seemed like the thing to do.

"Now, maybe if we let him hit, maybe we would've scored quicker," said Francona. "But, nobody has a crystal ball. You do what you think is right."

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ss ... t_496.html

The offense has too many problems going on right now JR. It looks like the opposing pitchers have found the holes in our bats. Our hitters are seeing a steady diet of down and out pitches. It doesn't matter who the batters is or whether he's batting from the left side, right side, or whether he's a switch hitter. It's tough enough to hit those pitches the way it is, but, when you watch the hitters trying to pull those pitches out of the park, it's no wonder they're struggling. Our hitters aren't seeing too many pitches over the plate and when they do, they seem to be having difficulty squaring the balls up. There were a lot of good pitches being fouled off or being weakly hit.

That series in Arizona was telling. We weren't seeing too many pitches over the plate. A high percentage of the pitches were out of the strike zone and we ended up with a lot of bad swings. We couldn't square up the balls. On the other hand, our pitchers did the opposite. Arizona hammered our pitching because they were putting too many pitches over the plate between the belt and letters and they teed off.

We come home and it seems like more of the same.

Tough to determine how to break the spell save laying off the bad pitches. Easy to say, but it appears that its just a matter of patience and concentration. As I see it, they have to get back to the basics and become contact hitters again. They have to stop trying to hit every pitch out of the park. My opinion I guess.

Yes, Terry Francona wrestled with the idea.

Terrible call! Terrible! Lucky Brantley saved his butt. I don't see how he could make that call when Encarnacion couldn't hit his way out of a wet paper bag. Different story if Encarnacion were hitting but he isn't. I have a feeling that Chicago breathed a huge sigh of relief when Lindor sacrificed. I think Lindor was just being kind. I wonder how he really felt under his breath.

I think Lindor is about ready to enter Bryce Harper-Mike Trout territory as one of the game's new crop of superstars.

It was that one bad inning that did us in. The other observation is that all our balls were hit AT someone. Not so for the White Sox. It happens. This too shall pass.

I'm hoping to see more patience and more contact tonight, less swinging at bad pitches and less home run cuts at pitches they can't reach. My clicks to win.

How will Encarnacion and Santana handle the shift tonight? That is the question.

Way to start the game, Tomlin!

Way to dig a hole, Josh!

"The Indians' strength is their pitching staff"