1) The Indians entered Wednesday’s game against the Royals with a league-high 40 wild pitches, and 31 came with Carlos Santana catching. Santana has caught 60 percent of the Indians' innings, but has 80 percent of the team’s passed balls and 78 percent of the team’s wild pitches. Not every wild pitch thrown is Santana’s fault, but he clearly needs to get better at blocking balls in the dirt, because sometimes pitchers throw them there, and sometimes they do it on purpose — which Matt Albers did the other night when he was trying to get a strikeout. Santana took some extra work Wednesday, trying to work out of a rut where he used his glove to go “up to down” to catch a low pitch rather than “down to up.” Meaning instead of putting his glove low and using his body to keep a pitch in front of him, Santana uses the glove to reach down. The fundamentals are all wrong. “You try to stay on him about that,” manager Terry Francona said.
2) Santana is a good hitter, though, a very good hitter. His .496 slugging percentage leads the team, as does his .390 on-base percentage and .886 OPS. He has 39 walks, which is tied for sixth in the American League. His on-base percentage ranks fifth and OPS sixth. The Indians feel that kind of production from the catcher gives them an advantage. “If he were a position player he’d still be a good player, but the fact that he’s a catcher makes him a great player,” Francona said. OK then. Clearly Santana brings a lot to the proverbial table. The only question is whether he gets it done as a converted third baseman behind the plate. This season (entering Wednesday) he’s hitting .271 with a .926 OPS at catcher, .233 and .772 as a first baseman and .390 and .858 as a DH. The differences are marginal, and seem more marginal when considering his career: .248 and .813 as a catcher, .257 and .851 at 1B and .269 and .743 as a DH.
3) Heading into Tuesday night’s game, the Indians were 27-14 when their starting pitcher had pitched six innings. Not six quality innings, just six innings. Which means they are 9-21 when the starter did not last six innings. Which pretty much illustrates the importance of starting pitching to this team.
4) Corey Kluber’s secret in his last two starts (one run, 15 innings)? Francona said pitching inside effectively. A year ago Kluber had a 5.14 ERA in 12 starts as he left a lot of pitches out over the plate. Francona and pitching coach Mickey Callaway talked at length with Kluber about the need to be effective on the inside part of the plate. To Francona, it meant not only backing guys off the plate, but following with another good pitch inside. In his last seven starts, Kluber is 3-2 with a 2.51 ERA, with 45 strikeouts in 43 innings.
5) The Indians needed to bring Lonnie Chisenhall back. But he shouldn’t be looked on as a savior. Not that he was going to be, it just seemed wise to put that on the record. For posterity’s sake. Chisenhall is merely 22 and he has some growing up to do. But Francona says the Indians “want Lonnie to be a big part of what we do.” To do that he has to start hitting lefties better (.200 in his career vs. .266 vs. righties) and he has to grow defensively. His presence does help because he balances the offense. With Nick Swisher injured, the Indians were forced to use John McDonald at third and Jason Giambi at DH against right-handed pitchers. McDonald is hitting below .100, Giambi below .200. Chisenhall at least gives the potential of hitting, and if he does what he did in the minors since he was sent down (.390 with six HRs and 26 RBI in 27 games), it would be an extra bonus.
6) Why did Francona turn to Bryan Shaw Monday night in the seventh inning with two consecutive left-handed hitters coming to the plate? Because both lefties have been hitting left-handed pitchers like mad this season. Alex Gordon is .373 against LHP entering Wednesday’s game, Eric Hosmer .338. “That’s why it’s so fun,” Francona said. “There’s so many things that can enter into it.” On Tuesday, Kansas City went with Tim Collins against Jason Kipnis, lefty against lefty, and Kipnis was able to drop a double down the line. Michael Brantley eventually came to the plate against Collins with the bases loaded, and Francona knew that Brantley was 0-for-10 against Collins. “What I was thrilled to see was he never struck out against him,” Francona said. Which meant Francona could expect contact, which he got with a sacrifice fly to medium right to score the game-winning run. In Monday’s matchup, Shaw threw a good inside pitch to Hosmer, but he fought it off to hit the classic bloop single to drive in the game-tying run. Sometimes managing moves raise eyes, but usually there’s a reason. And sometimes the most logical of moves just don’t work out.
7) Mark Reynolds promised there’d be stretches like this, and he wasn’t joking. In fact, when it was mentioned to Reynolds that he joked about a tough stretch early in the season, Reynolds said, “I wasn’t joking.” He also doesn’t mess around when he gets into this kind of a funk. His last 14 days he’s hitting .171 with 20 strikeouts in 41 at-bats. In April, he hit .301, in May .218 and in June heading into Wednesday’s game .145. Clearly this man was not joking.
8) Measuring the tough and not-so-tough parts of the schedule does have its shortcomings. Kansas City, for instance, arrived in town as a team with a losing record, but the Royals also arrived in Cleveland having won 11-of-13. They started Tuesday’s game with a team ERA of 3.35, best in the American League. Weak part of schedule? Hardly.
9) Francona admitted that Vinnie Pestano’s issues this season might have been caused by his appearing in the World Baseball Classic in the spring. Not because Francona didn’t think Pestano should have skipped it — “If he got selected I’d tell him to do it again, because it’s an unbelievable honor,” Francona said — but because he rushed himself to get ready early in spring training. Francona remembered Pestano’s last outing in spring, when he “was amped up and threw great.” But it was too early. “He wasn’t ready to do that, and that’s our concern,” Francona said. “And it happens to every team. That’s why you have spring training. Your body is not ready to pitch playoff-type innings. So yeah, we do worry, but every team does.” Pestano has spent time on the disabled list with an injured shoulder, and has been inconsistent in the closer’s role. With Chris Perez’s five-runs-and-three-home-runs-with-the-wind-blowing-in in Akron Tuesday night, the team’s closer’s role remains in a jumble. It’s an odd thing with relief pitchers; they go great for two, three years, but then struggle. This might be that kind of season for the Indians' bullpen, which would be a problem because the bullpen was a given strength when the season began.
