Indians can't cool Yanks' hot bats in G4 loss By Jordan ...cleveland.indians.mlb.com/documents/1/0/8/... · homer off Bryan Shaw in the sixth. MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Out in front:

Indians can't cool Yanks' hot bats in G4 loss By Jordan Bastian and Bryan Hoch / MLB.com | 7:24 AM ET + 697 COMMENTS NEW YORK -- The Yankees have now faced the prospect of their season ending three times in a week, gaining confidence with each victory. These "Baby Bombers" have found a way to play their best with everything on the line, and now they believe that the Indians could be exactly where they want them. Luis Severino struck out nine over seven strong innings, Aaron Judge mashed a two-run double and Gary Sanchez homered as the Yankees rolled to a 7-3 win in Game 4 of the American League Division Series presented by Doosan on Monday night at Yankee Stadium. "We know what type of team we have here," Judge said. "We're a team that battles and keeps fighting. We never waver no matter what the situation or where we're at in the season. We're just going to keep battling." The win evened the best-of-five series at 2-2, forcing a winner-take-all Game 5 on Wednesday night at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Ace Corey Kluber will start for the Tribe, while the Yanks are set to counter with lefty CC Sabathia. "We know we're facing a great pitcher, but there's a ton of confidence in that room," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "They pick each other up and grind out at-bats, and pitchers pick each other up and make big pitches. So it should be a lot of fun on Wednesday." • Shop for postseason gear: Indians | Yankees Indians starter Trevor Bauer had silenced the Yankees in the ALDS opener, firing 6 2/3 scoreless frames, but Game 4 was a different story as manager Terry Francona brought the right-hander back on short rest. Bauer lasted just 1 2/3 innings this time, with the Yanks patiently building up his pitch count before striking for four unearned runs. • On short rest, Bauer can't replicate G1 gem "The whole night, we made it hard on ourselves to win," Francona said. "We kept trying, but we kept shooting ourselves in the foot. We can't not finish plays or, you know, not make plays. It just makes it really difficult." The first of two key errors by third baseman Giovanny Urshela opened the door as Todd Frazier smashed an RBI double, Aaron Hicks stroked a run-scoring single and Judge ripped his first hit of the ALDS. Including a 1-0 loss in Sunday's Game 3, the Indians did not lead at any time during their visit to the Bronx, and they are 3-16 in their past 19 chances to close out a postseason series. • Indians pay heavy price with 4 costly errors "I don't think any of us were going into this thinking we were going to win every single game," Indians center fielder Jason Kipnis said. "I don't think we went into this thinking there'd be no adversity, no part of the process that we had to overcome. We know this is the playoffs. Every team that's left is still good. Everyone comes to play. "That being said, we were either tight or flat, whatever you want to label it these last two games. But you also tip the caps to the Yankees. They played well." Severino had vowed to produce a different result than in the AL Wild Card Game, when he lasted just one-third of an inning against the Twins. Monday's performance was more in line with what the All-Star right-hander showed all year, as he permitted three runs on just four hits in a performance that prompted serenades from the crowd of 47,316. • Looking back on the best Severino reactions in Game 4 "I was feeling great. The location on my pitches was great," said Severino, who became the youngest Yankees starter to notch a postseason victory since Dave Righetti in 1981. "Of course I heard the stadium calling my name. I just want to go over there, try to have fun and help the team win." Carlos Santana put the Tribe on the board in the fourth with a two-run homer that landed in Monument Park. Roberto Perez trimmed the deficit further with a solo shot off Severino in the fifth, but Frazier scored on a Brett Gardner sacrifice fly and Sanchez cracked his second postseason homer off Bryan Shaw in the sixth. MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Out in front: The Yankees capitalized on a sloppy second inning for the Indians, producing four two-out hits that sent Bauer to the showers. Urshela was smoked in the left ankle by Starlin Castro's one-out liner, and with Frazier batting, Castro advanced to second base on Perez's passed ball. Frazier then jumped on a 3-1 curveball from Bauer, lacing it down the left-field line for the Yanks' first big hit of the evening. More > "Any time a team like Cleveland makes a mistake, you've got to capitalize," Judge said. "With their lineup, their pitching staff, you've got to capitalize on mistakes." Case dismissed: Indians pitchers had vowed not to let Judge beat them, feeding the rookie slugger a steady diet of breaking balls to hold him hitless with nine strikeouts in his first 11 ALDS at-bats. On the eighth pitch of his at-bat against Bauer, Judge got a 96.3-mph fastball he could drive, connecting for a two-run double down the left-field line to give the Yankees a 5-0 lead at the time. Judge also struck out four times, the second time in the series he has done so. "He's been patient and he continues to be patient," Girardi said. "They're making a lot of good pitches on him, there's no doubt about it. But he's maintaining his strike zone, and when he gets a pitch to hit, a lot of times, he's able to hit it. That is a huge hit." Test that arm: The Yanks have been waiting for an opportunity to exploit Kipnis' relative inexperience in center field, and they rolled the dice in the fifth inning for an important insurance run. With Frazier at third base and one out, Gardner lifted a fly ball to shallow center field. Frazier tagged up immediately, restoring New York's three-run lead as he slid past Perez and just ahead of Kipnis' throw. "I talked to the other outfielders," Kipnis said. "It's one of those ones that's tough, just being the high one that you have to kind of wait under, that you can't really build the momentum to get behind the throw. But, no, you're not going to hear me make an excuse or anything like that. I'd like to make the play, and throw him out just for our defense, for our pitchers and for the game. But, he was safe. "It's a new position. But, I think you guys have been Statcasting me enough. I'm not going to start second-guessing myself. I go out there and play and let my instincts take over. I'm not going to sit here and overthink stuff." • Kahnle earned his first save in more than a year, maybe the biggest of his life Tommy, can you hear me? Dellin Betances' control problems resurfaced with two walks to start the eighth inning, as he threw eight of 12 pitches out of the strike zone before yielding to Tommy Kahnle. Acquired in July to bolster the bullpen, Kahnle enjoyed his most important outing for the Yankees thus far, striking out Kipnis, getting Jose Ramirez to fly out and fanning Jay Bruce to hold the four-run lead. More > Kahnle converts six-out save

Kahnle converts six-out save Tommy Kahnle strikes out Lonnie Chisenhall to end the game, completing the six-out save and forcing a Game 5 in the ALDS "You always have to have it in the back of your mind that one day you might be on a team that is in this situation," Kahnle said. "My whole life, I've been waiting for this moment." QUOTABLES "I thought my stuff was better than Game 1 tonight. Velo was up, curveball had more depth to it. I located pretty well. Just a couple little things went their way instead of mine. Double lands right on the line. Check swing that I thought he probably went. Umpire didn't see it the same way. Just as a team, we didn't play the greatest defense tonight, too. Little things in baseball games that beat you." -- Bauer More >> "It kind of got [in front of] the board. I missed it. It was a backed-up breaking ball, so I missed it on the scoreboard. Those things happen. There's no excuses. We've just got to get ready for Game 5." -- Perez, on the passed ball SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS Michael Brantley's seventh-inning single off Severino was the first hit by a designated hitter for either team in this ALDS. Designated hitters had been 0-for-26 to that point. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that far exceeded the previous record, which had been 18 such hitless at-bats between the Yanks and Twins in the 2004 ALDS. WHAT'S NEXT Indians: Francona set up his rotation so that Kluber (18-4, 2.25 ERA in 2017) could return on normal rest for a Game 5 scenario. Now, the Tribe hopes that decision pays off. Kluber will take the mound in a win-or-go-home contest against the Yankees at 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Kluber allowed six runs in 3 2/3 innings in an uncharacteristically rough outing in Game 2 on Friday. Yankees: After throwing 77 pitches in Game 2, Sabathia (14-5, 3.69 ERA in 2017) will return to the mound at Progressive Field on Wednesday for Game 5. Sabathia had been cruising when he was lifted with a five-run lead, having retired 12 of the last 13 hitters. Girardi selected the 37-year-old lefty over Sonny Gray, who started Game 1. Tribe's postseason fate lies with Kluber, Tito By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com | @MLBastian | 1:17 AM ET + 2 COMMENTS NEW YORK -- Trevor Bauer stood on a small portable platform in the middle of the visitors' clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, making it easier for the large pack of reporters to circle him Monday night. As Bauer answered questions, Indians ace Corey Kluber sat unbothered at his locker, lacing up his dress shoes for the trip back to Cleveland. Kluber and his teammates had hoped to be uncorking champagne bottles in that clubhouse, but a 7-3 loss to the Yankees in Game 4 of the American League Division Series presented by Doosan delayed any celebration. If Cleveland is going to clinch and move on to the AL Championship Series presented by Camping World, it will be back home at Progressive Field, and it will be with Kluber on the mound, just as manager Terry Francona planned. "It's hard to imagine giving it to somebody better," Francona said. Francona was hit with some criticism before the ALDS began when it was announced that Bauer, not Kluber, would start Game 1 of this best-of-five series against the Yanks. Kluber started Game 2, and the manager had his well-thought-out reasons. If a Game 4 was necessary, Bauer was the best-equipped starter to bounce back on short rest. Then, if a Game 5 scenario arose, the Tribe would have its ace and AL Cy Young Award favorite going on normal rest. As the Indians now prepare for Game 5, which is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday in Cleveland, there is an additional storyline that was unexpected. In his Game 2 start against New York on Friday, Kluber struggled mightily with his command and allowed six runs in 2 2/3 innings. The Tribe is counting on that being a one-outing outlier and not a sign that the right-hander's incredible run has hit an ill-timed snag. Kluber said he has spent the past several days poring over video and studying how the Yankees' hitters approached him in that game in Cleveland. Asked if he identified an issue in need of addressing, Kluber cracked a slight smirk. "Mm hmm," Kluber replied. The ace had no words to offer on that topic. That, of course, was true to Kluber's character. The pitcher is a man of few words, but of intense preparation. His mannerisms both on the mound and behind the scenes are robotic. With Kluber leading the way, Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway has said his staff has become one of the best in baseball at keeping their emotions in check. Outfielder Jason Kipnis, who has known Kluber for several years, laughed when asked what the pitcher is like to be around before big games. "Same way he is on small games and the same way he's going to lunch," Kipnis quipped. "Stoic. Monotonous. Very routine-oriented. You know what? He'll be the first to tell you. I don't think he's going to go into this start looking to change everything he's done just because they got to him the first game. • Shop for Indians postseason gear "What he does works. I think he's just going to be sharper. I think he's going to have a game plan. He's going to adjust accordingly. I think he's going to be ready." That was the whole idea. During the season, when Kluber went 18-4 with a Major League-best 2.25 ERA, he turned in a 1.67 ERA in the 17 starts he made on a normal five-day schedule. Kluber told Francona he did not care when he was scheduled to pitch in this ALDS -- he even said he was willing to come out of the bullpen, if necessary -- but the righty's comfort with that routine played a role in how the rotation was aligned. In Game 3 in New York on Sunday night, Carlos Carrasco was brilliant on the mound, but Cleveland dropped a 1-0 decision. During Game 4, Bauer felt as strong as he did in his stellar Game 1 showing, but a handful of miscues by the Tribe's defense led to a heightened pitch count and an early exit. So here the Indians are, facing the Game 5 scenario that they planned for so many days ago. "We tried to set up for a five-game series with plans and contingency plans," Francona said. "There's been a lot of things that happened, and we go to Game 5. We're at home, and we have Kluber. We're looking forward to it. Kluber is prepared for the assignment.

"Regardless of whether it's ideal or not, it is what it is," Kluber said. "It's kind of the cards that you're dealt. But things shook out this way, so we'll go out there and try everything we can to win the ballgame." Francona's foresight leaves Tribe prepared By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com | @castrovince | 2:16 AM ET + 3 COMMENTS NEW YORK -- From the day Terry Francona announced his pitching plan for the American League Division Series presented by Doosan, his language was, by his standards, oddly conciliatory. It is, after all, Francona's "you can't win today if you're thinking at about tomorrow" (or words to that effect) mantra that has been embraced so completely by his clubhouse. It has served as the backbone of the organizational success of the Tribe's Tito era, to say nothing of the AL-record 22-game winning streak this season. So it was unusual last week to hear Francona talk about how holding Corey Kluber back until Game 2 against the Yankees made sense because it kept the AL Cy Young Award favorite on regular rest for a potential Game 5. Naturally, a team has to think ahead about all potential outcomes in a best-of-five set (as Kluber so eloquently put it, "You don't want to get caught with your pants down"). But to publicly prioritize the back end of the series and not the front was odd talk from Tito. "Not that you go into a game thinking you're going to lose," Francona said. "But if you do, you have your ace coming back. The biggest thing was keeping him on his five-day [routine]." • Shop for Indians postseason gear Whether Kluber's extra day of rest before Game 2 was a culprit in his uncharacteristic struggles against the Yankees is anybody's guess. But in the wake of the error-prone pileup that was a 7-3 loss in Game 4 on Monday night at Yankee Stadium, the Indians got what they planned for now: It's Kluber, on four days' rest, in Game 5 at 8 p.m. on Wednesday night at Progressive Field. And he's either going to help the Yanks encroach rare historical terrain, or he's going to stop them in their tracks, as intended. "It's hard to imagine giving [the ball] to somebody better," Francona said. The Indians are, frankly, fortunate to be in this position. If not for Yankees manager Joe Girardi's instantly infamous non-challenge of a phantom hit-by-pitch of Lonnie Chisenhall in the sixth inning of Game 2 -- the one that immediately preceded the grand slam that still stands as Francisco Lindor's only hit in this series -- this thing might be over by now. Lindor's 352-foot fly ball in Game 3 wouldn't have been out in the majority of Major League parks, and it wasn't out in Yankee Stadium, where the so-called "short porch" looks shorter still when 6-foot-7 right fielder Aaron Judge is standing in front of it. And if the Yanks didn't already have the momentum going into Game 4, the Tribe's inability to make accurate throws pushed them right along on their path. While Cleveland's pitching plan looked brilliant after Bauer's gem in Game 1, the real wart was revealed Monday. The Indians used their starters on short rest out of necessity in their injury-riddled run to Game 7 of the World Series last year, and they went 1-4 in those games. Their starters, including Bauer, had a 6.75 ERA in those games. In other words, it didn't work particularly well, and in the long history of teams desperately going against rest convention on the season's biggest stage, it doesn't work all that often. It definitely didn't work for Bauer in Game 4, in which he was unable to pitch through the defensive foibles taking place around him. Take all of the above in conjunction with what they did against Kluber in Game 2 (six runs on seven hits with two homers in 2 2/3 innings), and the Yankees have every reason to be confident going into the culmination. Perhaps in a year in which external expectations were a tempered with a younger Yanks team, you could say they're playing with house money. But there's still a lot of experience on that roster, including unexpected Game 5 starter CC Sabathia. Kluber is going to have to be on top of his game -- something he clearly wasn't in Game 2. "You could tell right from the beginning that he was fighting it," Francona said of that outing. "'I thought, and [pitching coach Mickey Callaway] agreed, he had been fighting it the last couple [outings]. He had been getting under some balls. The last lineup with the White Sox, it was against some younger guys. I think we felt like maybe under some different circumstances he might have given up some runs that game. I think he did, too." Kluber indicated he's identified a mechanical flaw causing the command problem. It's also worth noting that his past three trips to the mound came after extra rest. For the season, Kluber's ERA and OPS+ marks were markedly worse on five and six days' rest than with the typical four. "Sometimes if you're not feeling good and you have things to iron out, the extra day works out well," Kluber said. "And sometimes when you're on a roll, you don't want the extra day. I think that if you go out there and don't pitch well and blame it on having an extra day, it's just a cop-out." There are no cop-outs now. Only Kluber. On regular rest. In a Game 5 that brings us back to the Tito thesis in a weird way. You can't win today if you're thinking about tomorrow? That's more true than ever. Because if the Indians don't win the Game 5 they prepared for all along, there is no tomorrow. Francona on Encarnacion return for G5: 'I hope' By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com | @MLBastian | 1:05 AM ET + 1 COMMENT NEW YORK -- The crutches that have been leaning against Edwin Encarnacion's locker over the past few days have been an unsettling visual for the Indians. Cleveland handed the slugger the largest free-agent contract in franchise history with the October stage in mind, and a freak right ankle injury has robbed the club of any heroics he might provide. Throughout Monday's 7-3 loss to the Yankees in Game 4 of the American League Division Series presented by Doosan, Encarnacion could be spotted on the top step of the visitors' dugout, wearing a gray playoff-themed sweatshirt and cheering on his teammates. For two games, the Tribe has played with a 24-man roster. Two losses later, the best-of-five series is tied, with Game 5 set for 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday at Progressive Field. Encarnacion's availability for that game remains unknown. "I don't know yet. How do you know?" Indians manager Terry Francona said. "I would hope so. I hope."

In the first inning of Game 2 on Friday, Encarnacion rolled his right ankle badly while retreating to second base. The big slugger tumbled to the ground and immediately called for help, and he had to be helped off the field. Initially, the injury looked bad enough to wonder if Encarnacion's postseason had come to an unfortunate end. Then, the Indians announced that it was a sprained ankle, and they made no move to place him on the disabled list. Yandy Diaz traveled with the Tribe to New York as a kind of insurance policy if Encarnacion showed no progress, but the day-to-day status stuck over the past 48 hours. A move to the DL would make Encarnacion ineligible for the AL Championship Series presented by Camping World. That would be a big blow to the Indians, and Francona said the feedback from the medical staff makes it seem possible that the slugger might be recovered by the next round. "Or we wouldn't be doing this," Francona said. "It's not perfect, but I think that we're making the right decision." Advancing to the ALCS has proved difficult without Encarnacion's bat in the cleanup spot. Over the past two losses, the Indians have scored three runs combined on two swings. Carlos Santana (two-run home run) and Roberto Perez (solo shot) each went deep on Monday, following a shutout loss on Sunday. Cleveland's hitters have 25 strikeouts across the past two games, and they have struck out 36 times in the past three games. "He's one of our leaders," Perez said of Encarnacion. "He's a big bat. He's been huge for us the whole year, and I think he'll be ready for Game 5, hopefully." The Indians also felt that Michael Brantley could slot in as the DH in the interim, even though the outfielder is also coming off a right ankle issue. Brantley's injury kept him sidelined for most of August and September, and he only had three at-bats in the final two regular-season games. Still, Francona felt confident that Brantley, even if shaking off some offensive rust, could be a weapon for the ALDS roster. Brantley went 0-for-5 with two strikeouts and three groundouts after replacing Encarnacion in the lineup in Game 2. During Cleveland's 1-0 loss in Game 3 on Sunday, Brantley went 0-for-2 with a walk while serving as the Indians' No. 7 hitter. In Monday's defeat, Brantley came through with a single in the seventh, which ended an 0-for-26 drought for both teams' DHs in the series. The veteran finished the game 1-for-4 with two strikeouts. "It's pretty obvious that he's not like midseason locked in," Francona said. "I still think he competes and he's intelligent. I'd bet you he'll find a way to help us win, whether he lays a bunt down or fires one into left or fights one off. There's a lot of belief in him, and I know it's not easy. He hasn't played very much." Over the offseason, the Indians signed Encarnacion to a three-year contract worth $60 million, and he backed up that deal with an impressive showing this season. In 157 games as Cleveland's primary DH, Encarnacion hit .258 with 38 home runs, 104 walks, 107 RBIs and an .881 OPS. It marked his sixth consecutive season with 30 or more home runs, and his 38 shots were the most by a Tribe hitter since 2006 (Travis Hafner, 42). "He drives in a lot of runs," Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor said. "When Edwin is back, he's going to help us." In the eighth inning of Game 3, Francona could have used that kind of offensive firepower, but Encarnacion was deemed unavailable. The manager used Lonnie Chisenhall and Yan Gomes as pinch-hitters, but the maneuvering did not pan out and the Yanks eked out the win. On Monday, when New York jumped out to an early lead and held on, Encarnacion again remained idle. "To not have Edwin, it hurt us," Francona said. "To just write him off, if we could move on, that would be tough to do." Indians pay heavy price with 4 costly errors By Jason Beck / MLB.com | @beckjason | 1:00 AM ET + 1 COMMENT NEW YORK -- The second-inning mound visit from Indians manager Terry Francona was to pull starter Trevor Bauer. But as long as Francona was out there, he was going to send a message to third baseman Giovanny Urshela, whose error earlier in the inning set up the Yankees' commanding four-run rally. As the infielders lingered around the mound for the pitching change, Francona gave Urshela a pat on the chest to let him know he still had faith in him. So did Urshela's teammates, notably shortstop Francisco Lindor. "He's a big part of the team," Lindor said, "and he's extremely good at third base." An inning later, Urshela committed his second error. It was that kind of night for the Indians, who will face the Yanks in a winner-take-all Game 5 on Wednesday night at Progressive Field. "It's just something that's part of the game," Urshela said through an interpreter, "and you always try to give your best." It would be shocking if the Indians had another night like Monday, when four errors -- all in the infield -- led to six unearned runs. No team had yielded that many unearned runs in a postseason game since the Tigers had six in Game 1 of the 2014 ALDS against the Orioles at Camden Yards. Only 14 times has a team allowed six or more unearned runs in a postseason game; not surprisingly, that team lost 13 times. The only exception was the 1912 Giants, against the Red Sox in Game 2 of the World Series, which ended in a 6-6 tie in a game called due to darkness. "The whole night, we made it hard on ourselves to win," Francona said. "We kept trying, but we kept shooting ourselves in the foot. We can't not finish plays or, you know, not make plays. It just makes it really difficult." Francona, Bauer on Game 4 Francona, Bauer on Game 4 Terry Francona and Trevor Bauer discuss the decision behind having Bauer start in a potential series-clinching Game 4 following a 1-0 loss The first error was arguably the most difficult play, a low, sinking line drive in the second inning off the bat of Starlin Castro with a 102.6-mph exit velocity, according to Statcast™. Urshela put his glove out, but the ball dipped under his glove and struck his left shin, sending him to the ground as Castro reached base. "I saw the ball coming," Urshela said, "and then it fell and dropped a little bit, and so I couldn't reach it with my glove." Four Yankees runs came across in that inning, all with two out, making Urshela's error particularly costly. "You could say one thing led to another," center fielder Jason Kipnis said. The next inning, Castro came around to score on another Urshela error, this one a high throw to first on a Brett Gardner two-out grounder. Studio 42: Miscues cost Tribe

Studio 42: Miscues cost Tribe The MLB Tonight crew heads to Studio 42 to analyze the Cleveland Indians' sloppy defense in their Game 4 loss against the Yankees Urshela fielded Gardner's ball cleanly, but he looked to second for the forceout, only to find nobody covering. "He looked at second," Francona said, "but [Jose Ramirez] was playing so far in the hole, and he just didn't move his feet." Urshela turned and fired across the infield, but it forced first baseman Carlos Santana to take his foot off the bag. "It was a miscommunication between me and [Ramirez]," Urshela said, "and then, I wanted to throw it to first, but I felt I was a little rushed." By contrast, the next errant throw to first was so far in the dirt that Santana would have needed to summon his old catching skills to block it. Danny Salazar had plenty of time after fielding Todd Frazier's dribbler leading off the fifth inning, but Salazar's throw rolled past Santana and into foul territory as Frazier strolled into second. Frazier scored on Gardner's sacrifice fly, challenging Jason Kipnis' arm in shallow center field. It wasn't an error, but it was a surprise play. "I talked to the other outfielders," Kipnis said. "It's one of those ones that's tough, just being the high one that you have to kind of wait under, that you can't really build the momentum to get behind the throw." One more error, this one from Santana on a ball that got past him leading off the seventh, didn't result in another run, but it rounded out the night. The four errors tied a 22-year-old Indians record for a postseason game, set in Game 5 of the 1995 AL Championship Series. The Tribe hadn't committed four errors in any game that counted since May 30, 2016, against the Rangers. This is a team that won with defense, compiling just 76 errors in the regular season, fewest in the AL and second fewest in the Majors to the Marlins. "You can't be perfect every game," Lindor said. "You hope and you work and you practice, and you try to be perfect." The Indians don't need to be perfect in Game 5, just better. Yanks' adjustments lead to early exit for Bauer By David Adler / MLB.com | 2:47 AM ET + 5 COMMENTS NEW YORK -- Their backs to the wall again Monday night, the Yankees needed to get to Trevor Bauer. They got him early, then rode the wave to a series-evening 7-3 win in the American League Division Series presented by Doosan, forcing a winner-take-all Game 5 on Wednesday in Cleveland. Four days ago, the Indians right-hander had held the Yankees hitless for 5 1/3 innings and shut them out for 6 2/3 in the series opener in Cleveland; now, in Game 4, he took the mound in the Bronx with a chance to send them home. But with Bauer pitching on short rest, the Yanks scored four times to chase him in the second inning. And when the Bronx Bombers go up early in their home park -- especially in a playoff game, with a raucous crowd packed into a sold-out stadium -- they're a tough team to beat. Bauer allowed four unearned runs in the second on four hits -- doubles from Todd Frazier and Aaron Judge, and singles by Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner, all with two outs. Judge dealt the final blow -- a full-count, two-run double into the left-field corner off a 96.3-mph fastball that Bauer left up and over the inside part of the plate. "That was huge," Judge said. "Having Bauer on the ropes right there -- you've got to knock in those runs and get him out of the game." Judge had struggled against Bauer in the series. He'd struck out in all four of his at-bats against him, and he was having all sorts of trouble handling Bauer's knuckle-curve, a pitch Bauer uses heavily and in big spots. But the Yankees weren't fooled by the curveball like they were in Game 1. Judge laid off as Bauer spiked three into the dirt. He fouled off the one curve Bauer kept in the zone with two strikes. When Bauer finally came with a payoff-pitch fastball, Judge was ready. In knocking Bauer out of Game 4, the Yankees' approach against his curve -- which he threw 22 times in his 1 2/3 innings, more than any other pitch -- might have made the difference. Where the Yanks chased in Game 1, they laid off in Game 4. When Bauer threw it for strikes, they ripped it. • Shop for Indians postseason gear "I think a curveball is a tough pitch to locate, but he's one of the best at doing it," Gardner said. "For us, it's a pitch that we think it's his best pitch, and we know he's gonna throw it. It's just a matter of keeping him on the plate and staying aggressive within the zone." "Sometimes he goes to that curveball a lot," said Frazier, who drove in the game's first run with an RBI double off the knuckle-curve, hooked just fair onto the chalk of the foul line in the left-field corner. "You don't want to guess at pitches, but you kind of slow yourself down and realize maybe you can foul the fastball off and hopefully he keeps throwing those curveballs for strikes." The Yankees connected for seven hard-hit balls off Bauer -- contact with exit velocity exceeding 95 mph, according to Statcast™. In fact, every batted ball the Yanks had against Bauer reached the hard-hit threshold. Frazier's 96.4-mph double and Gardner's 99.4-mph single came off Bauer's curve, as did Starlin Castro's 102.6-mph liner that third baseman Giovanny Urshela misplayed it into an error. "He threw a lot of pitches in the inning, and I thought he was starting to go to his breaking ball too much," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "It looked to me like they started to hunt it, like they knew he was going to throw it. He left a couple up, and those are the ones that hurt him." Bauer, for his part, said he thought his pitches were sharper than in his first start of the ALDS, and that he didn't get some breaks of the game -- Frazier's double finding the line, Gardner's single getting through the middle and into center field. "I thought my stuff was better than Game 1 tonight," Bauer said. "[Velocity] was up. curveball had more depth to it. I located pretty well. Just a couple little things went their way instead of mine." But the exit velocities show the Yankees were squaring up. And their hitters seemed to see a difference: Castro, for one, said he thought immediately that Bauer's curveball was off. "Before I faced him, when I saw on TV when he faced Judge and [Gary Sanchez], I saw it right away," Castro said. "Especially when I hit -- right away, the first pitch was a curveball. I didn't see the hard spin it had before. I don't know what it was, but his curve was not the same thing." Rested Tribe ace Kluber gets call for decisive G5 By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 12:47 AM ET + 6 COMMENTS

CLEVELAND -- The chants started in the eighth inning Monday night as Yankees fans felt their 7-3 victory over the Indians in Game 4 was in hand. "We want Klu-ber! We want Klu-ber!" Corey Kluber, in turn, would like another chance at the Yanks. He has had plenty of time to mull it over. With a Game 5 in Cleveland to decide their American League Division Series presented by Doosan, everybody gets their wish Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on FS1 at Progressive Field. This is why Indians manager Terry Francona started Kluber in Game 2, to have him not only available for Game 5, but fresh. He was just hoping not to need him. The saving grace for a potentially panicked Tribe fan base is Kluber, the AL Cy Young Award favorite, who is set up to pitch under the scenario in which he tends to be his best. "Regardless of whether it's ideal or not, it is what it is," Kluber said. "It's kind of the cards that you're dealt. But things shook out this way, so we'll go out there and try everything we can to win the ballgame." • Shop for Tribe postseason gear Kluber's numbers on regular four days' rest show he's a creature of habit. He went 11-3 with a 1.67 ERA this season on his standard rest, allowing just 70 hits over 124 innings with 16 walks and 159 strikeouts. Kluber's numbers on extra rest are solid, with a 7-1 record and a 3.16 ERA, but it clearly doesn't compare. Kluber's struggles in Game 2 came on five days' rest after his regular-season finale. He gave up six runs on seven hits over 2 2/3 innings Friday night at Progressive Field, statistically his worst start of the season. Five of the runs came on homers from Gary Sanchez and Aaron Hicks. The Indians rallied to win in 13 innings, but Kluber clearly wasn't happy after the game. "It definitely gives us some confidence going in," Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner said. "We've got a good idea of the stuff that he has, and he's a great pitcher. Maybe a Cy Young winner. I know it'll be a tough battle, but we've got a great group of guys to go up against him and give him some tough at-bats." Kluber, in turn, took a close look at his last outing to try to figure out any mechanical issue, any flaw that might have explained his struggles. "I've been preparing since my last start," he said. "You don't want to be kind of caught with your pants down." On the flip side, Kluber's short-rest efforts last postseason were mixed. He took the loss in Game 4 of last year's AL Championship Series with two runs over five innings despite seven strikeouts, tossed six innings of one-run ball for the win in Game 4 of the World Series, then struggled in a deciding Game 7, with four runs allowed in as many innings on six hits. All of those were on three days' rest. Granted, there is no normal in the postseason. But when Francona saw a chance to line up Kluber for his standard rest and still have him start a potential Game 5, he took it. "He just feels more comfortable when he gets comfortable, like in his routine, in his delivery," Francona said. "He feels more comfortable staying on his day, I think, because we have a tendency and we probably need to always check on our guys. "When there's the ability to give a guy an extra day, we always go to him first, because it can't just be one guy. We go to him and we're like, 'Hey, how are ya feeling?' Because there are times I think during this season when he said, 'I'll take a day.' So we always ask. I think sometimes it irritates him, but I'd rather do that than not ask and miss something." Kluber insists he has a lot left. With Cleveland's postseason hopes on the line, he hopes to deliver it. "Everything's still right there for us," he said. Tribe looking for Lindor, Ramirez to set table By Joe Trezza / MLB.com | 1:45 AM ET + 0 COMMENTS NEW YORK -- The frustration finally fell over Francisco Lindor's face, a rare sight for the usually smiling shortstop. Both hands clasped the helmet he brought to his feet in disgust. Scraped of context, the angst spurred by Lindor's hard lineout in the fourth could've said a lot about the Indians' surprisingly sloppy 7-3 loss on Monday night in Game 4 of the American League Division Series presented by Doosan, where little went their way at Yankee Stadium. But it more specifically gave face to the struggles of Lindor, who has cooled off considerably since his dramatic grand slam in Game 2 on Friday night. "We can't win if we don't score," Lindor said. "It's a little tough when you have people on base and you want to get the job done, but it's part of the game. None of us are perfect. You have to stay positive, stay happy." • Shop for Indians postseason gear By and large, that's what the Indians are trying to do heading into Wednesday night's winner-take-all Game 5 at Progressive Field. They're happy to be going home, so much so that they cleared out of the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium in record time. Happy to put a four-error, 14-strikeout night behind them, and happy to have ace Corey Kluber on the hill in the next game. What would make them happiest would be a win, and getting the top of the lineup going could go a long way toward that happening. Lindor is 1-for-11 this series, and 0-for-9 since tying Game 2 in grand fashion. Cleveland second baseman Jose Ramirez is 2-for-17. Those two made up the best double-play duo east of Houston during the regular season, and if the Tribe wants to move on to face the Astros in the AL Championship Series presented by Camping World, they'll need them to deliver against the Yankees in Game 5. "What we ultimately care about is when it's over, that we're one run better than them, however we do it," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "But it makes it easier when the guys up top are setting the tone." When they didn't in New York, and Cleveland's offense stalled, Masahiro Tanaka and a duo of flamethrowing righties combined to strike out 25 Indians in Games 3 and 4. The Tribe managed three runs over 18 innings, all on two swings on Monday against Luis Severino. Outside of that, the offense went 7-for-59 across two games, and 2-for-29 in Game 4. Lindor and Ramirez combined to go 1-for-15 over Games 3 and 4, which Cleveland played without slugger Edwin Encarnacion looming behind them. "He drives in a lot of runs," Lindor said. "But the guys that are here, [Michael Brantley] and [Jay Bruce], they are doing a great job. We haven't been able to get on base for them."

Brantley and Bruce combined to go 2-for-13 in New York. But to Lindor's point, a good chunk of the Indians' offense in Game 4 came from Carlos Santana, who hit between them in the middle of the order. Santana's first homer of the series came in Game 2 against Yankees starter CC Sabathia, who will face the Indians in Game 5. That'll force the switch-hitting Santana, Lindor and Ramirez to flip over to the right side, and that might be the break the Tribe's offense needs. All three have been excellent in the past against Sabathia. Santana is 11-for-21 (.524) in his career against Sabathia. Lindor is 5-for-11 (.454). Ramirez is 4-for-10 (.400). While Santana and Ramirez sport fairly even platoon splits, Lindor was a considerably better right-handed hitter this season, adding nearly 50 points to his average and 75 points of OPS from that side. "Nobody cares about what I did in the past, to be honest. Everyone is looking forward to seeing what we can do in the future," Lindor said, smiling again. Santana's 2-run shot not enough for Indians By Jason Beck / MLB.com | @beckjason | October 9th, 2017 + 0 COMMENTS NEW YORK -- After a nightmarish first few innings Monday in Game 4 of the American League Division Series presented by Doosan, the Indians showed signs of life against the Yankees in the fourth inning when Carlos Santana hit a two-run homer to straightaway center field at Yankee Stadium. However, the Tribe fell, 7-3, as the Yanks forced a decisive Game 5 on Wednesday night at Progressive Field. Santana's first extra-base hit of the series completed a two-out rally that broke up the dominance of Yankees starter Luis Severino, who retired 11 of the first 12 batters he faced before Jay Bruce worked out of an 0-2 count by fouling off three two-strike pitches en route to a nine-pitch, two-out walk. That extended the inning for Santana, who was seemingly waiting for Severino to throw a slider with his 2-1 pitch. Severino left it over the plate, allowing Santana to center it with a 104.1-mph exit velocity, according to Statcast™. The drive traveled a projected 421 feet toward Monument Park beyond the center-field fence. Nine of Cleveland's first 15 runs in this series scored via a home run. Santana, meanwhile, has a pair of two-run hits, his home run following up a two-run single off CC Sabathia in Game 2. Jason Beck has been a reporter for MLB.com since 2002. Read Beck's Blog, follow him on Twitter @beckjason and Facebook. This story was Tribe aiming to rewrite history in Game 5 By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com | 1:25 AM ET + 7 COMMENTS When this American League Division Series presented by Doosan progressed from Progressive Field, the math, the momentum, the magic -- all of these things were assembled in obstruction of the Yankees. The Yanks had just given up Game 2 in epic fashion, and an Indians team that had not only completed a classic comeback but had won 35 of its previous 39 baseball games needed only to go to the Big Apple and seal the deal. But with that deal decidedly unsealed, and with the Yankees riding high after their Bronx rebirth, it's impossible to know what to expect out of Game 5 of the ALDS (on FS1), at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Progressive Field, where Corey Kluber will oppose CC Sabathia. Full Game Coverage That's what we love about it. Kluber, a presumed AL Cy Young Award favorite in his prime, vs. Sabathia, a former AL Cy Young Award winner in his back pages, might look like a mismatch. But isn't that what we thought going into Game 2, before Kluber got clobbered and Sabathia stepped up with 5 1/3 effective innings against his old squad? "It will be a great matchup," Yanks left fielder Brett Gardner said. "I feel great about our chances with CC on the mound. Every time he goes out, he's a big-game pitcher and always has been." You might not be surprised to hear the Tribe feels much the same about Kluber, who, notably, will be making this start on regular rest, as opposed to the extra rest he rode into his Game 2 clunker. "What we've come to expect out of Corey is excellence," right fielder Jay Bruce said. "I think he expects it out of himself. The other day, baseball happened. He didn't throw eight shutout [innings] and strike out everyone like he usually does. But he'll be ready to go, and I couldn't ask for a better guy to be out on the mound." Without giving specifics, Kluber said he's identified an issue that caused command problems in Game 2, and he's been mentally prepping for Game 5 all along. "You don't want to be kind of caught with your pants down," he said. It might seem that returning home, where they'll be wearing white pants, is advantage enough for Cleveland. But did you know that home teams are just 13-17 in all Game 5 scenarios in the Division Series, including just a 6-14 mark over the past 15 seasons (including the Nationals losing to the Dodgers last year)? And returning home certainly didn't do the Indians any favors when they completed their surrender of a 3-1 advantage in last year's World Series against the Cubs. So hey, you might look at it the other way and assume the Yankees will ride their good vibes from Games 3 and 4 right on into the AL Championship Series presented by Camping World against the Astros. But we have pretty recent evidence to suggest "vibes" are not exactly an accurate indicator of anything. In other words, take everything you might assume about this game and toss it into Lake Erie. In a winner-take-all situation, especially, anything goes. The Indians avoided using Andrew Miller in Game 4 and likewise the Yanks with Aroldis Chapman. It's all hands on deck as both clubs try to get to the ALCS. Cleveland clearly needs to get its lineup going. With Edwin Encarnacion unavailable for Games 3 and 4 because of a sprained right ankle suffered in Game 2 (his status for Game 5 is still uncertain), the short bench and the lack of big hits from a banged-up roster in which team

MVP Jose Ramirez has struggled and Lonnie Chisenhall (right calf) and Michael Brantley (right ankle) still aren't completely back to 100 percent has caught up to the club. "You're going to have ups and downs throughout the season," said Francisco Lindor, whose Game 2 grand slam is his only hit in this series, "and you just try to battle and grind, pitch after pitch." The pressure is on a Tribe team that was the class of the AL this year and has spent all season awaiting its shot at redemption in the World Series. The Yankees, on the other hand, were unexpected entrants into October (relative to preseason prognostications, anyway) and seem to have been enlivened by the experience of fighting for their postseason lives in the AL Wild Card Game against the Twins, and when faced with 2-0 and 2-1 deficits in this ALDS. "We know we're facing a great pitcher," Yanks manager Joe Girardi said. "But there's a lot of confidence in that room, and they pick each other up, and they grind out at-bats, and pitchers pick each other up and make big pitches." The biggest pitches of this ALDS await. Strike all assumptions about this series. All that matters is what's ahead. Anthony Castrovince has be Yankees 7, Indians 3: 14 Walk-Off Thoughts on setting up Game 5, the mood in the clubhouse, momentum, Trevor Bauer

By Ryan Lewis

Here are 14 Walk-Off Thoughts on the Indians’ ALDS Game 4 loss to the New York Yankees Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

1. As Cody Allen scraped gum off the bottom of his boots before leaving the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium Monday night, the mood around him was of frustration but not panic. The Indians had a chance to wrap up this series in New York, and they failed to do so twice. The series now returns to Cleveland for a winner-take-all game 5.

2. The Indians were obviously in a similar spot before Game 7. It isn’t unfamiliar, nor was it entirely unexpected, at least the facet of facing some adversity or being in a tight spot eventually during their postseason run. The Indians knew they weren’t likely going to just skate through the postseason. They were going to get their boots dirty eventually. Now, they’ll clean up and prepare for Game 5.

3. Allen: “We’ve been in big games before. Unfortunately, we came into New York and we didn’t quite play the baseball that we needed to play. Yesterday was a very well-pitched game on both sides, a very well-played game. Today was a little sloppy. We’ll have a day to regroup but we’ve got Klubes going. We wouldn’t want anybody else going. It’s going to be all-hands on deck. Cookie is available. Miller’s fresh, ready to go. Everybody’s ready to go. These are the games, the do-or-die baseball, playing in the backyard, front yard, you want, so you just show up and try to play.”

4. Jason Kipnis didn’t have to pick anything off his shoes before leaving the clubhouse Monday night, but he echoed the sentiment, saying, “You know what? I don’t think any of us were going into this thinking we were going to win every single game. I don’t think we went into this thinking there’d be no adversity, no part of the process that we had to overcome. We know this is the playoffs. Every team that’s left is still good. Everyone comes to play and I think, that being said, we were either tight or flat, whatever you want to label it these last two games. But you also tip the caps to the Yankees. They played well. And I know we’re very excited to go back home, and we’re very excited the way we’re lined up. I know Kluber’s been waiting to get back on the mound. Miller got the night off. Cody will be able to go another inning. We’ll be on full throttle when we come into Game 5. And I think being at home gives us our routines that we’re more used to, to get ready for a game.”

5. The storylines will pretty much write themselves—Corey Kluber will take the mound opposite CC Sabathia to determine who advances to face the Astros in the ALCS. If asked at the beginning of the season if the Indians would accept having a Game 5 at home and with Kluber on the mound, it would be hard to pass that up. Jay Bruce was asked if the Indians felt like they were in the driver’s seat with their ace ready to go.

6. Bruce: “He’s a hell of a driver…. Yeah, absolutely. I know the regular season doesn’t really matter, but we earned the right to play Game 5 at home. That’s something we’re going to embrace.”

7. The story of the night was the Indians’ defense. They committed four errors and gave up six unearned runs. Two of them belonged to the normally sure-handed Giovanny Urshela at third base, who at times has played Gold Glove-level defense at the hot corner. He’s been an asset all season and part of the reason why the Indians wanted to put Kipnis in the center field since the infield was playing so well together. On Monday night, it just wasn’t there. His error in the second was particularly costly, as it helped to lead to a four-run inning while the Yankees pounced on an opening given to them. That inning also included a double that hit the chalk and a potential check-swing call that if reversed—Trevor Bauer had already started his walk to the dugout—it would have limited it to a one-run inning.

8. Francisco Lindor had some words of encouragement for Urshela. Lindor: “Yeah, for sure. He’s going to help us win. He’s a big part of our team, and he’s extremely good at third base. He made a couple mistakes today, but that’s part of the game. We have to keep him up and let him know he’ll be OK and we still have a chance of winning the game and to believe in himself, no matter what happens.”

9. Indians manager Terry Francona: “The first ball was a hooking live drive that attacked his shin. The next one, you know, he looked at second, but Jose was playing so far in the hole and he just didn’t move his feet. He threw it high. Very unlike him. But, you know, the whole night, we made it hard on ourselves to win. We kept trying, but we kept shooting ourselves in the foot. We can’t not finish plays or, you know, not make plays. It just makes it really difficult.”

10. Bauer couldn’t escape the second inning Monday night, but he thought he pitched better than he did in his stellar Game 1 performance. That’s hard to justify based on the results, though Bauer doesn’t pay much attention to that—he looks more-so at what he can control. For example, Bauer wasn’t really helped by Urshela’s first error, or that Frazier’s ball landed on the chalk instead of an inch or two to the left, or that he might have had Hicks for strike three. He might have a valid point. It was the defense that did the Indians in Monday night.

11. Bauer: “I thought my stuff was better than Game 1 tonight. Velo was up. curveball had more depth to it. I located pretty well. Just a couple little things went their way instead of mine. Double lands right on the line. Check swing that I thought he probably went. Umpire didn’t see it the same way. Just as a team we didn’t play the greatest defense tonight, too. Little things in baseball games that beat you.”

12. Francona often talks about momentum as something that’s only up to the next day’s starting pitcher. You can have great momentum until someone comes in firing darts and throws six scoreless. Like Masahiro Tanaka, for example, who beat the Indians in Game 3 after they took the first two games. Allen, for one, agrees with that sentiment.

13. Allen: Yeah. We had all the momentum in the world and Masahiro Tanaka comes out here and pitches an unbelievable game. You tip your cap to him, he threw the ball incredible. So did Cookie. Momentum shift right there. So I’m sure Kluber is geared up and ready to go, [he’ll] be right there waiting.”

14. So, Game 5 will get started at 8:08 Wednesday night in Cleveland. Few things are better than postseason baseball, especially do-or-die games, the ones Allen dreamed of playing in as a kid. See you then.

Akron Beacon Journal LOADED: 10.10.2017

Indians notebook: Outfielder Brandon Guyer to have wrist surgery; Francisco Lindor jokes with Aaron Ju dge

By Ryan Lewis

NEW YORK: Indians outfielder Brandon Guyer will undergo surgery to repair the extensor tendon in his left wrist.

Guyer was left off the American League Division Series roster and missed the last two-plus weeks of the regular season after he aggravated his wrist. He also was placed on the disabled list in May with a left wrist sprain. The surgery will be performed Dr. Don Sheridan in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Wednesday.

Guyer’s 2017 season was riddled with injuries and frustration. He was able to appear in only 70 games and make 192 plate appearances, hitting .236 with a .654 OPS as he battled wrist and neck injuries. A trade acquisition at the 2016 deadline, Guyer could never get his swing going in his first full season with the Indians.

No timetable for Guyer’s return has been set in terms of his readiness for spring training. Guyer is under contract through next season with a base salary of $2.75 million. His deal also has a club option valued at $3 million for the 2019 season that includes a $250,000 buyout.

MVP connection

Aaron Judge’s thievery of Francisco Lindor in Game 3 will be one of the bigger highlights of the ALDS between the Indians and Yankees, with one Most Valuable Player candidate robbing another of what could have been the hit to end the series altogether.

Lindor joked with Judge after the Yankees right fielder took a potential two-run home run away from the Indians shortstop. Both young stars could end up in the top five in MVP voting, and Judge will be the runaway winner of the AL Rookie of the Year.

“I told him I don’t have 50-some,” Lindor said. “I don’t have 52 home runs, I need those. He said I already got one in the postseason, so that was enough.”

Missing the original

Yankees fans know Indians manager Terry Francona all too well from his time with the Boston Red Sox, which included a comeback from a 3-0 deficit to the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS and two World Series Rings. So, when he was asked a question about comparing the original Yankee Stadium and the new, state-of-the-art behemoth that opened in 2009, he joked that he figured the reporter was just trying to get him into trouble.

The new Yankee Stadium mirrors the House That Ruth Built, which opened in 1923, but it doesn’t have quite the same aura to Francona.

“I was a big fan of the old one. It was just so much personality,” Francona said. “You swallow a little asbestos, but that’s not the end of the world, is it? You stand out there for the anthem, and by the time the anthem was over, people were just berating you.

“Now you look sometimes in the lower bowl and people aren’t really there. Now, it’s a gorgeous stadium, and the clubhouses are wonderful. I just thought the other place had an unbelievable amount of personality.”

It’s certainly still one of the loudest stadiums in baseball, able to seat 48,000-plus fans.

Plutko recovering

Indians pitcher Adam Plutko underwent surgical intervention in Dallas on Monday to repair a tear in the labrum of his right hip. The surgery was performed by Dr. Bill Robertson. Plutko is expected to return to baseball activity in four-to-six months.


ALDS Game 4/Yankees 7, Indians 3: Costly errors help Yankees extend series to Game 5

By Ryan Lewis

NEW YORK: The Indians and Yankees are back to square one, and an anticipated celebration in the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium has been put on ice.

A couple of defensive miscues and a ball that landed fair by no more than an inch or two led to a disastrous second inning for the Indians, who played one of their worst defensive games in recent memory and lost to the New York Yankees 7-3 in Game 4 of the American League Division Series on Monday night.

It evens the series 2-2 after the Indians traveled to New York holding a 2-0 series lead and sets up a decisive Game 5 Wednesday night in Cleveland. Corey Kluber will take the mound for the Indians and CC Sabathia will start for the Yankees.

Trevor Bauer, who started Game 4 for the Indians on short rest, couldn’t escape the second inning, though he didn’t get much help from the defense behind him.

With one out in the bottom of the second, Starlin Castro lined a ball to the normally sure-handed Giovanny Urshela at third base, who instead had it hit off his shin for an error. A passed ball on Roberto Perez, one of the better defensive catchers in the game, then gave Castro second base.

With two outs, Todd Frazier made it costly, lining a ball that landed on the left-field line, sending chalk into the air, to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Bauer then worked Aaron Hicks to a 1-2 count and threw a curveball below the zone. Hicks checked his swing, though Bauer believed he

had failed to hold up for what would have been strike three and the end of the inning. It was ruled that Hicks had checked his swing, and the at-bat continued. The next pitch was lined by Hicks into center field to score Frazier.

Brett Gardner sent a dribbler of a single back up the middle to set up Aaron Judge, who delivered the haymaker in the inning by lining a two-run double that one-hopped the wall in left field. It put the Yankees ahead 4-0 and ended Bauer’s night.

Urshela’s puzzlingly rough night wasn’t over, though. In the bottom of the third, two walks and a double off Mike Clevinger loaded the bases with two outs for Gardner. Clevinger induced a routine grounder to Urshela, who looked to second before turning to first and firing his throw high enough to pull Carlos Santana off the base, allowing the fifth unearned run of the game to score.

The Indians chipped away against Yankees starter Luis Severino using the long ball. In the fourth inning, Santana drilled a two-run homer to center field and an inning later, Roberto Perez followed with a solo shot to right field to make it 5-3.

That was as close as the Indians would get to pulling off the second five-run comeback this series. In the sixth, a throwing error by pitcher Danny Salazar eventually led to a sacrifice fly on which Frazier took advantage of Jason Kipnis’ arm in center field. Gardner hit a shallow fly ball but Kipnis’ throw was too late to get the sliding Frazier for the sixth unearned run of the game. The Indians finished with four errors in the game. An inning later, Gary Sanchez hit a solo home run off Bryan Shaw to push the Yankees’ lead to 7-3.

And with all of it, the Yankees kept their season alive and staved off elimination to force Game 5 in Cleveland.


Yankees 1, Indians 0: 16 Walk-Off Thoughts on Andre w Miller’s thought process, the splitter that could n’t be hit, setting up Game 4 with Trevor Bauer

By Ryan Lewis

Here are 16 Walk-Off Thoughts after the Indians’ 1-0 loss to the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the American League Division Series Sunday night.

1. To a fairly large extent, one pitch from Andrew Miller and one type of pitch from Masahiro Tanaka stand as key reasons as to why this series is still alive for at least one more day. For Miller, it was one errant fastball. For Tanaka, it was a splitter that nobody could hit.

2. Miller defused a bases-loaded jam in the sixth inning only to watch Greg Bird ignite the sellout Yankee Stadium crowd by launching an errant fastball—both in location and sequencing—to the second deck in right field an inning later. Miller said it was a missed location—it was supposed to be on the outside edge of the plate, and instead caught too much of the middle—but he more-so regretted the decision to throw a fastball at all.

3. Miller started off Greg Bird, a lefty, with a slider off the plate. Bird didn’t bite. The second pitch was another slider that was fouled off. Miller called that pitch, and not the home run ball, his most poorly located pitch of the night.

4. So, after those two sliders, one in which he didn’t chase and one he fouled off, Miller came back with a fastball, and Bird was waiting for it. Combine that with a missed location, and it’s a big reason why the Yankees’ visiting clubhouse doesn’t currently smell like champagne.

5. Miller: “I knew when it hit his bat that it was trouble. When it left my hand, I thought I had a good thought process behind what I was trying to do. My game isn’t trying to be too fine. I felt like the ball came out of my hand good, it had good velocity. It certainly could’ve been a better pitch, but I think was I was trying to do was just wrong in that situation and I paid dearly for it.”

6. On the other side, Tanaka was dominant, and it was largely due to a lethal splitter that Indians hitters couldn’t lay off. Tanaka was hammering the bottom part of the zone and then mixing in that splitter, which not only looks like a fastball until the last second but also isn’t too below being the same velocity. By the time your bat can get through the zone, a strike at the knees is now a ball in the dirt.

7. Jay Bruce: “He was right at the bottom of the zone all night. He never gave in. I just couldn’t get him up enough. He pitched right at the bottom of the zone all night. That’s as good as I’ve seen him. He pitched at the bottom the zone all night. It looked like it had enough height to take a good swing at and the bottom fell out of it. I think we all knew going in that if he was going to have success, that was going to be how he’d do it. He executed well tonight. … Yeah. Tonight was good as I’ve seen him. He was throwing it 90 miles per hour, just a couple miles per hour off his fastball. It had depth. A lot of them looked like strikes the whole way, had enough depth to get under the zone, and a lot of swing and misses.”

8. Francisco Lindor got ahold of one, though. That was the pitch that he almost hit out, which very well might have ended the series if not for Aaron Judge, the power-forward-sized right fielder. That was the Indians’ chance, but it came up just short.

9. Francisco Lindor: “It was very effective. It was a pitch that I tried to make the adjustment. You saw I got a good one to hit. I made it, it didn’t go out. Probably the game. First at-bat, he got me. Second at-bat he made me break my bat. Exactly what he wants. He’s a good pitcher. He’s in the big leagues for a reason. He executed today and hats off to him.”

10. Lindor joked with Judge about his thievery of a would-be home run (and another major moment to add to Lindor’s growing collection), saying, “I told him I don’t have 50-some. I don’t have 52 home runs, I need those. He said I already got one in the postseason, so that was enough.”

11. One of the only consolations from Sunday night’s loss is that Aroldis Chapman ended up throwing 34 pitches. The Indians, meanwhile, wanted to get Miller out of the game as soon as possible once they were trailing. He threw only 12 pitches. With a chance to close out the series and an off day coming up on Tuesday, Miller will likely see a heavy workload in game 4.

12. Indians manager Terry Francona: “Well, one, you’re trying to win. But, two, figured that once they go to Chapman, he has to get five outs, and if you’re not going to win, second best is trying to make them use their bullpen while we don’t. And that’s kind of the strategy. Once Andrew gave up the run, we tried to get him out and keep the score right where it was.”

13. The Indians announced after the game that Trevor Bauer will be starting Game 4 on three days’ rest. It also means that Josh Tomlin and Danny Salazar could potentially be available out of the bullpen if needed with Corey Kluber set to throw Game 5 Wednesday in Cleveland if the Yankees can survive yet again.

14. Bauer having a proverbial rubber arm is well known. He always wants the ball and can throw as much as any starter, a key reason as to why he threw Game 1, since Francona knew he’d be able to come back for Game 4. Bauer wishes he could throw on three days’ rest more often.

15. Bauer: “Yeah, I consider this normal rest for me. I enjoy pitching on short, I guess, technical definition of short. But if I could draw it out, personally, this is how I’d pitch every time. Take my normal two days’ recovery after my start and then do my day before routine today, and then roll it out there tomorrow. So I’m feeling very confident where I’m at.”

16. So the series is extended to Monday night, at least. Trevor Bauer will take the mound opposite Luis Severino in an effort to close out the Yankees without having to return to Cleveland for Game 5. Winning Game 4 also sets up Kluber to throw Game 1 in the ALCS, the perfect scenario for the Indians. First pitch is at 7:08. See you then.


ALDS Game 3/Yankees 1, Indians 0: Greg Bird’s home ru n lifts Yankees to win, forces Game 4 Monday night

By Ryan Lewis

NEW YORK: In a pitcher’s duel with the New York Yankees’ playoff life on the line, it was the Indians who blinked first in a 1-0 loss in Game 3 of the American League Division Series Sunday night at Yankee Stadium.

It extends the series, which the Indians lead 2-1, to Game 4 on Monday night in New York. Game 1 winner Trevor Bauer will start for the Indians against Yankees right-hander Luis Severino.

A decisive Game 5, if necessary, would be Wednesday in Cleveland.

Indians starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco and Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka were both masterful, shutting down two of the top offenses in baseball. It wasn’t until the seventh, after the Yankees finally got Carrasco out of the game, that either side broke through.

With Andrew Miller on the mound after defusing a bases-loaded situation in the sixth, Greg Bird ignited the sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium by launching a solo home run to the upper deck in right field, a prodigious shot equal to the gravity of the dire situation in which the Yankees found themselves Sunday night while facing elimination.

Tanaka tossed seven scoreless innings before the Yankees gave the ball to David Robertson for two batters and then Aroldis Chapman for a five-out save. The Indians threatened in the ninth but came up short. Jason Kipnis and Jose Ramirez each singled to put the tying and go-ahead runs on base. After Jay Bruce struck out, Carlos Santana drove a ball to the gap in right-center field, but it was easily caught by Aaron Hicks to end the game and extend the series.

Carrasco and Tanaka began the duel nearly answering each other pitch-for-pitch. Through three innings, Tanaka had allowed a hit but had faced the minimum. Carrasco had allowed two base-runners but not a hit. Both had four strikeouts.

Both pitchers ended their respective fourth inning of work with a strikeout to strand a runner. In Tanaka’s case, it left Kipnis on third base after he tripled to right field with one out. In Carrasco’s, he left Didi Gregorius on first following a two-out single. And both bounced off the mound, flashing some emotion as they walked back to the dugout in a showcase of postseason pitching at its height.

Both sides came close to breaking the scoreless deadlock in the sixth inning, but to no avail. In the top of the sixth, with Roberto Perez on first after he opened the inning with a single, Francisco Lindor got ahold of a Tanaka pitch and sent it toward the wall in right field, notorious as a short porch. Aaron Judge, who stands 6-foot-7, tracked it back to the warning track and then leaped to make the catch, robbing Lindor of what would have been a go-ahead, two-run home run, one Most Valuable Player candidate robbing another of a major October moment.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Yankees finally pushed a runner into scoring position for the first time, eventually forcing Carrasco’s exit. After Brett Gardner grounded into a 6-3 double play, Judge drew a walk, Gary Sanchez singled and Gregorius walked to load the bases with two outs, setting up the biggest at-bat to that point.

Indians manager Terry Francona turned to Miller, who induced Starlin Castro into a harmless pop up to shallow left field. The next batter Miller faced — Bird in the seventh — did him and the Indians in with his monster home run.

Carrasco threw 5⅔ innings, allowed only three hits and one walk and struck out seven in his postseason debut. Carrasco missed out on the 2016 run to the World Series, a key piece missing to the heart of the pitching staff. Finally with a chance to pitch in October, he certainly held his own but couldn’t find the needed run support to end the series with a sweep.


Indians report: Michael Brantley eases back into st arting lineup as Edwin Encarnacion remains day-to-da y

By Ryan Lewis

NEW YORK: The Indians are having to keep a close eye on two key pieces to the middle of their lineup.

One, Michael Brantley, has been attempting to find his swing on the fly as he’s continued his comeback from a sprained ankle that kept him out for more than a month. Another, Edwin Encarnacion, remains day-to-day with the same injury, which he sustained in the Indians’ 9-8, 13-inning win over the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the American League Division Series on Friday night in Cleveland.

Both continue to warrant daily updates and check-ins as their availability progresses. Brantley was inserted back into the starting lineup for Sunday night’s Game 3 in New York, which might have happened regardless but was made easier by Encarnacion’s injury, which left the designated hitter spot unoccupied.

Brantley was slotted seventh in the lineup, in part to ease him back into things. He was able to partake in baseball activities to keep his swing timing in check while he was on the disabled list, but he still hasn’t logged many at-bats since returning the last weekend of the regular season.

In effect, the Indians are trying to allow Brantley to have an impact without throwing him into the fire all at once.

“We kind of put him in there and we’re trying to have, ultimately, the best lineup to win the game,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “But, you also want to have balance. I just think it was fair to him. [Jose] Ramirez is hitting really good hitting third. Jay [Bruce] is doing [well].

“I just thought it was a place where we could break up the right-handers and not put so much glare on him, because he really hasn’t played that much. But you put him in the seven hole, I bet ya there’s not too many managers that would complain about having a guy like that come up.”

Whatever Brantley can do, it’ll be more than he was able to do a season ago when he missed all of October. He’s still not in left field and he’s still not in the middle of the order, but the Indians welcome the chance that he finds his swing.

“It’s not ideal. I think he’d say that,” Francona said. “But if anybody can find his swing, it’s Brantley. There’s not very many moving parts. You say simple swing, I don’t think that’s probably the right term because he puts in a lot of work, but there’s not a lot of moving parts. And he can fend balls off if he needs to. He can fight for himself.”

On Encarnacion, the Indians might be fortunate that he’s only day-to-day, based on the initial appearance of his injury and that he had to be helped off the field.

Because Encarnacion remains day-to-day, the Indians haven’t yet had to make a roster move. If they do end up needing to do so, it’s likely that Yandy Diaz will take his place. The Indians also have had Abraham Almonte staying ready in Cleveland as well.


Indians’ decision to pay Jay Bruce results in two-w ay victory over vaunted Yankees

Marla Ridenour

CLEVELAND: The Indians’ biggest victory over the New York Yankees this season seemed to come Friday night with a press-box rattling, frenzy-inducing 9-8, 13-inning walk-off win in Game 2 of the American League Division Series.

But the postseason-altering triumph really occurred on Aug. 9 and it happened behind closed doors, not in the madhouse Progressive Field resembled not that many hours ago.

The Indians’ willingness to pay the $3.7 million remaining on Jay Bruce’s $13 million contract when the Yankees balked has thus far been the difference in the ALDS and could dramatically impact the Indians’ World Series chances.

Outspending the Yankees for a 30-year-old slugging right fielder deserves as much of a celebration as the one Yan Gomes’ 13th-inning RBI single wrought.

Keeping the soon-to-be free agent would be worthy of fireworks, although that’s an issue for another day.

Already on the plus side of the ledger when that decision comes is Bruce’s seamless transition into the clubhouse, his appreciation for his teammates’ resilient nature and joy with which they play the game, not to mention his playoff performance thus far.

While most of the New York media were ripping manager Joe Girardi for his failure to challenge Lonnie Chisenhall being hit by a pitch one batter before Francisco Lindor’s sixth-inning grand slam, one saw the bigger picture. Frank Isola of the New York Daily News tweeted, “New York gifted Jay Bruce to the Indians just like we gifted J.R. Smith to the Cavs. You’re welcome Cleveland.”

The Yankees wanted Bruce in August, but were only willing to give the Mets a couple of prospects. Indians owner Paul Dolan put up the cash, just as he had when the Tribe signed designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion to a three-year, $60 million contract in January.

After Bruce hit a two-run home run in the fourth inning of Game 1 Thursday, the Indians reminded the Twitterverse how the Tribe got him.

“Jay Bruce is on our team because our owner wrote a check that competitors for Jay wouldn’t,” the Indians tweeted.

They retweeted the message after Bruce’s solo home run in the top of the eighth Friday tied the game 8-8 as the Tribe rallied from an 8-3 deficit going into the bottom of the sixth.

Bruce could become even more of a vital cog in the lineup after Encarnacion sprained his right ankle in the first inning of Game 2 attempting to get back to second base. Encarnacion’s bad luck gives Indians fans even more reason to cheer the victory over the Yankees for Bruce. He won’t have to carry the load, but he could move into the cleanup spot.

“He’s been a really potent bat,” Indians manager Terry Francona said of Bruce before Friday’s game. “When you put a hitter of that magnitude in the lineup, it’s not just the numbers. It’s the guys in front, the guys behind, and they kind of elongate your lineup.”

While Mike Napoli took Cleveland by storm with 34 home runs in 2016, he batted only .173 in the postseason with one home run and three RBI in 15 games. The Indians’ loss to the Chicago Cubs in Game 7 of the World Series can largely be attributed to the injury-ravaged pitching staff running out of gas, but more pop from Napoli would have helped.

Bruce already has two home runs, four RBI and three runs scored in his first nine at-bats with the Indians in the ALDS. He hit just .191 from Aug. 25 until the end of the regular season, but has bounced back with a vengeance against the Yankees, his home run on Friday going to the opposite field.

That one made him the fourth Indian to homer in consecutive postseason games, joining Jim Thome, Albert Belle and Juan Gonzalez, the last to do it in Games 3 and 4 of the 2001 ALDS against the Seattle Mariners. Bruce helped the Indians record the largest comeback in their playoff history.

“Really with everything I do I’m pretty boring on the field,” Bruce said Friday. “But emotion overtook me when I rounded second base and saw the guys in the dugout. You understood at that moment what it took to get back in the game and have the opportunity to win.”

Francona said the Indians have a very welcoming clubhouse, which helped Bruce’s transition. So, too, did the fact that he’d been traded before, leaving Cincinnati in August 2016 after playing more than nine years with the Reds. He’s one of five Indians on the playoff roster who live in Texas.

But Bruce knows it didn’t have to be this way.

“I’m very, very fortunate to be here,” Bruce said after Game 1. “I couldn’t have fallen into a better situation. Obviously, when you’re in trade rumors, it’s usually a contender. For whatever reason, I ended up here. This has been a blast so far. This team welcomed me with open arms. And for the transition to be so seamless, I can’t imagine that happens every time.”

Whatever reason is really 3.7 million reasons. The fact that the Indians paid and the Yankees didn’t reflects well on the their personnel analysts and bodes well for the future. Dolan realizes that the core of the roster is locked up through 2020 and he must go all out to end the franchise’s 69-year championship drought.

This isn’t laying out millions for free agents Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn, then diving back into the rabbit hole after being burned. This is spending money to make money. This is a front office commitment fans have long awaited. This is a series of smart decisions by president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti and General Manager Mike Chernoff not seen since the days of John Hart.

Signing Bruce and watching him beat the vaunted Yankees in business as well as on the field makes it even more satisfying.


Quick hits from Cleveland Indians before Game 4 of A LDS: Guyer needs surgery on wrist

By Paul Hoynes,

NEW YORK -- Quick hits from Monday's interview room before Game 4 of the ALDS between the Indians and Yankees at Yankee Stadium:

1. This is the time of year players start heading to surgery to get injuries from the regular season repaired. Such is the case with outfielder Brandon Guyer and right-hander Adam Plu8tko.

Guyer will undergo surgery on Wednesday in Scottsdale, Ariz. to repair a damaged extensor tendon in his right wrist. The Indians said his recovery time will be determined after the surgery.

The operation will be performed by Dr. Don Sheridan.

Plutko underwent surgery on Monday to repair a tear in the labrum of his right hip. Plutko will be out four to six months before returning to full baseball activities.

Guyer, a valuable hitter in the Tribe's drive to Game 7 of the World Series in 2016, was limited to 70 games this year because of his wrist injury. This year he hit .236 (39-for-165) with two homers and 20 RBI.

Plutko was promoted several times to the Indians this season, but never pitched for the big league cliub. He went 7-12 with a 5.90 ERA in 24 games, including 22 starts, at Class AAA Columbus.

2. Francona said DH Edwin Encarnacion (right ankle) may be available to pinch hit Monday night.

"We're working toward that," said Francona. "If you see him strolling up to the plate, that means he's available."

3. The Indians, if they advance to the ALCS, believe Encarnacion will be available. If they felt otherwise, they would have replaced him on the ALDS roster.

Encarnacion sprained his right ankle in Game 2 at Progressive Field. It's no secret that the Indians miss Encarnacion's presence in the middle of the lineup. To say nothing of the 38 homers and 107 RBI he posted during the regular season.

"We still have a long lineup," said Jason Kipnis, who dealt with a sprained ankle in the World Series last year. "In comes Michael Brantley, in comes other options that can fill in for him.

"You don't replace a guy like Edwin, but we have a faily deep lineup. We have many other ways to create runs."

4. In the eighth inning Sunday night, Francona met Brantley behind home plate before replacing him with a pinch-runner. He wanted to see if Brantley felt he could steal second base against Aroldis Chapman, who was coming into the game after Brantley drew a walk against David Robertson.

Brantley, playing on a sore right ankle, said he wasn't sure so Francona replaced him with Greg Allen.

"I didn't want to put him in a position where he had to score from first on a double and he can't," said Francona.

Brantley, who had three big-league at-bats between Aug. 8 and the end of the regular season, is 0-for-7 with a walk since replacing the injured Encarnacion.

"It's pretty obvious that he's not mid-season locked in," said Francona. "I still think he competes and he's intelligent. I bet he'll find away to help us win. There's a lot of belief in him.

"I know it's not easy, but he hasn't played a lot."

Mind games won't work on Trevor Bauer

5. The Yankees believed, before this series started, that they could get inside Trevor Bauer's head. That was before he pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings against them in Game 1.

When asked about that, Kipnis said, "I don't think there's any room in there left. I think he's got enough of his own self in there. There's no room for other people's thoughts. . .Don't underestimate or don't take his quirkiness or mannerisms for vulnerability. He's set in his ways, and he's gaining confidence this year with the way he's pitching."

Bauer will start Game 4 on Monday night on three days' rest.

Cleveland Plain Dealer LOADED: 10.10.2017

Kenny Lofton likes Bradley Zimmer in center field -- the 1995 Indians on the 2017 Tribe

By Paul Hoynes

NEW YORK - When Baby Boomer Indians fans think of the perfect leadoff hitter-center fielder they think of one player - Kenny Lofton.

Lofton played parts of 10 seasons with the Indians, making three different tours on the shores of Lake Erie. He was the spark that ignited perhaps the best offense in franchise history. Lofton, in a five-year stretch from 1992 through 1996, won four Gold Gloves, went to three All-Star Games, led the AL in steals five times and the big leagues three times. In his spare time, he finished second in the AL Rookie of the Year balloting in 1992.

In 1995, for a team that won 100 games in a strike-shortened 144-game season, Lofton hit .310 (148-for-481) and scored 93 runs in 118 games. He led the AL with 54 steals and 13 triples, went to the All-Star Game and won his third of four straight Gold Gloves.

Lofton has watched the 2017 Indians from afar this year. They are the first Cleveland team since 1995 to win 100 games. One of the biggest differences between those Indians and this year's edition is that they don't have a full-time center fielder. They entered Game 4 of the AL Division Series against the Yankees on Monday night with second baseman Jason Kipnis playing center field.

BAL@CLE: Kenny Lofton robs homer with amazing catch

Asked about the late-season transition Kipnis is trying to make, Lofton said, "When you're a good athlete, you're going to have opportunities like that. Then again, it takes a knack to play center field. It's a very unique situation.

"You have to be on your toes 24/7 playing that position. Over a period of time, certain things will come out that show you whether or not you're a center fielder."

Lofton talked about the center fielder being in control of the outfield.

"You have to show you're in control," said Lofton. "When I played center field, I knew I was in control. Everybody in the outfield knew I was in control. Everybody in the infield knew I was in control. You have to have that understanding no matter what."

During the regular season, the Indians had eight players start games in center field: Greg Allen (five), Abraham Almonte (eight), Lonnie Chisenhall (19), Austin Jackson (38), Kipnis (11), Tyler Naquin (seven), Daniel Robertson (one) and Bradley Zimmer (73).

The 6-5, 220-pound Zimmer is the player who caught Lofton's attention. He is expected to miss the entire postseason because of a broken left hand suffered in September.

"He has speed," said Lofton. "He can flat out go. He needs some experience and time. He's the center fielder of the future for the Cleveland Indians, I feel, but I don't think he's going to leadoff. "

Zimmer, who led the Indians with 17 steals in 18 chances, batted leadoff in 17 games during the regular season.

"Just put him down in the batting order, take some pressure off him, and let him play," said Lofton.

Better Bradley Zimmer Catch? - Which is Bradley Zimmer's better diving catch: his g

Lofton, like most of the 1995 position players interviewed for this series, said this year's Indians have the edge in pitching, while the 1995 club was better offensively.

"I'd say the starting pitching this year is better or maybe deeper," said Lofton, 50. "Our offense was way better. The 1995 team was the best offensive team in the history of the Indians, I can say that myself.

"We had pitchers like Dennis Martinez, Orel Hershiser and Charlie Nagy, they knew the offense had their backs. Hershiser and Martinez weren't at their peak, but they were smart and knew how to win. If they didn't have it going that day, the offense would pick them up.

"I don't know if this team has that offensive pick me up. That's the kind of offense we had."

The 1995 Indians ended a 41-year postseason drought in Cleveland. They made it to the World Series before losing to Atlanta in six games.

Lofton feels the 2017 Indians have a chance to go one step farther than his 1995 club.

"They've definitely got a shot," he said. "They definitely got a shot. They just can't go into a funk. But they've got the pitching staff to give that offense a chance to score enough runs to win."


Cleveland Indians Pregame Scribbles: Putting Terry F rancona's plan to test -- Terry Pluto

By Terry Pluto,

NEW YORK, N.Y -- Scribbles in my notebook as the Cleveland Indians prepare for Game 4 against the New York Yankees:

1. This is the game that really tests Terry Francona's theory of his first-round pitching rotation. The manager surprised most people by starting Trevor Bauer rather than Corey Kluber in the opener. The idea was that if the series lasted more than three games, he had Bauer (Game 4) and Kluber (Game 5) ready if needed.

2. The Tribe received two brilliant starts in the first three games, and one clunker. Who'd ever guess the clunker would belong to Kluber? Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer have not allowed a run in 12 1/3 innings. Carrasco delivered exactly what the Tribe needed in New York on Sunday with his 5 2/3 scoreless innings. He kept a Yankee crowd ready to rock the Bronx very quiet.

3. Bauer wanted desperately to pitch this game. He has no concern about "short rest," meaning three days off between starts instead of the usual four. Maybe it will fail, but Francona is correct when he believes Bauer is the one pitcher on the staff best trained and physically able to start on three days of rest.

4. Many in the media (and in baseball) have mocked some of Bauer's strange training techniques. Other than the drone injury, he's never been hurt. He's willing to pitch in relief between starts. He knew many in the media (including me) and most fans wanted Kluber to start the opener. He took the mound in Progressive Field and threw the game of his life.

5. The Indians believe the 26-year-old Bauer has matured to the point of becoming a big-game pitcher. Counting the regular season, he has allowed only two runs in 19 2/3 innings vs. the Yankees this season. Maybe Francona's plan unravels, but I like Bauer in this game. He was 10-1 with a 2.60 ERA after the All-Star break.

6. The Indians and Kluber insist he was healthy in Game 2. He was whacked around for six runs in 2 2/3 innings, the shortest and worst start of his Major League career. Kluber took a lot of time between pitches. He walked only one, but was often behind in the count. Maybe it just was a bad game, but he looked nothing like the pitcher who was 16-2 with a 1.64 ERA after June 1.

7. I know, Andrew Miller gave up what turned out to be the game-winning homer to Greg Bird in the seventh inning. Miller entered the game with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth. He faced Starlin Castro, who popped out to end the inning.

8. Bird had never faced Miller in his career until these playoffs. In Game 1, Bird struck out. In Game 2, he lined out to third base. Then he homered off a 95 mph fastball that was right down the middle. The count was 1-and-1. After the game, Miller was second-guessing himself, wishing he had thrown a slider -- his best pitch.

9. Bird is a lefty hitter. Miller is one of the game's premier lefty relievers. In the regular season, lefties were 10-for-61 (.164) vs. Miller. He had allowed only one homer to a lefty. Then again, righties batted only .136 with two HR vs. Miller.

10. Miller has been battling tendinitis in his knee late in the season. He is supposed to be healthy. He has pitched three times in the last four days. It's only three innings, so we'll see how he is tonight. And odds are, he'll pitch again.

11. Tyler Olson didn't allow a run in 20 innings with the Tribe in the regular season. In the playoffs, he's pitched twice, 1 2/3 innings with no runs and two strikeouts.

12. Jason Kipnis is 4-for-14 (.286) with a triple and has played well in centerfield. Kipnis in the outfield is something the Tribe must consider in 2018.

13. We'll see if Michael Brantley swings better tonight. But he's 0-for-7 with two strikeouts and has not hit the ball hard. The Indians need him with Edwin Encarnacion (ankle) probably out again tonight. But Brantley hurt his ankle on August 8. He didn't play until three at bats in the final two regular season games. There is a reason he looks rusty.

14. Curious to see if the Yankees use Aroldis Chapman tonight. The lefty doesn't like to pitch more than one inning. He went 1 2/3 vs. the Tribe on Sunday. He threw 34 pitches, his second-highest total this season. And many were at least 100 mph.

15. Joe Smith has looked good for the Tribe, 1 2/3 scoreless innings with three strikeouts.

16. Jay Bruce showed Tribe fans why he sometimes has games that make you groan. He fanned four times Sunday. But he's also the kind of power hitter who can hit one into the right field seats tonight.

17. Francisco Lindor has the dramatic Game 2 grand slam in this series. He also was robbed of a homer by Aaron Judge in Game 3. But he's 1-for-11 with five strikeouts. His swing looks very big, like it did early in the season when he struggled at times.

18. Yankee starter Luis Severino is 2-1 with a 2.49 ERA in his career vs. the Tribe. The 23-year-old has an average 97 mph fastball. He was shelled in the wild card game against the Minnesota Twins, not surviving the first inning. But Severino is big time. He was 14-6 with a 2.98 ERA this season.


Cleveland Indians feel they're still in the ALDS 'd river's seat' despite losing Game 3 to Yankees

By Paul Hoynes,

NEW YORK - How many chances will the Indians give the New York Yankees to come back and beat them in the AL Division Series?

They're at one and counting after Sunday night's 1-0 loss at Yankee Stadium.

"It's frustrating because you don't like to lose games, but we're still in the driver's seat," said Jay Bruce. "It was a great game, all in all. Well pitched. One swing of the bat beat us."

The Indians still lead the best-of-five series, 2-1, with Trevor Bauer taking the mound at Yankee Stadium on Monday night in Game 4 on short rest. He'll be facing New York's Luis Severino with rain in the forecast.

The one swing that decided the game belonged to Greg Bird, who hit a 96 mph fastball from Andrew Miller to start the seventh inning. Bird's homer saved the Yankees from elimination for the second time this postseason after they advanced to the ALDS by beating the Twins in the winner-take-all wild card game

"Momentum is unreal in these games," said Miller. "That's the reality of it. Inning to inning, run to run, it's never over until you're jumping up and down and moving on to the next round. You hate to give them a chance and unfortunately I did tonight."

It was only the fourth homer Miller has allowed this season and just the second to a left-handed hitter.

Miller entered the game with the bases loaded in the sixth in relief of Carlos Carrasco, who threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings. He retired Starlin Castro and came out to start the seventh, but Bird changed the game with a leadoff homer into the second deck in right field on a 1-1 fastball.

In the postseason last year Miller pitched the second most innings on the Indians staff next to No.1 starter Corey Kluber. He didn't allow a run until the World Series.

This year he's been dealing with a sore right knee that put him on the disabled list twice in August. He said the knee was not an issue on Sunday night.

"You come out and attack and stay true to the game plan, yourself, all that stuff," said Miller. "I felt good. I felt like I went out there and threw the ball for the most part where I wanted to, had a pretty good chance. I just threw the wrong pitch in the wrong spot.

"It stinks. I'm the guy who lost the game. I lost a playoff game. But like I said, I feel good about the way I'm throwing the ball."

The first time Miller came off the disabled list on Aug. 17, his knee wasn't ready and he was placed back on the DL. The Indians activated him again on Sept. 13 and he's responded well.

"I made a pretty big mistake (Sunday), but it was one swing of the bat," said Miller. "I'll be ready on Monday night."

The Indians still have confidence in Miller. So much so that Carrasco and catcher Roberto Perez said they basically pitched around Didi Gregorius to load the bases with two out in the sixth inning because they knew Miller was warmed and ready to come into the game. So they created a bases-loaded situation in a scoreless game because they had Miller in the bullpen.

Yeah, that sounds like confidence.

There was another swing of the bat Sunday night that could have changed the game. Francisco Lindor was robbed of a two-run homer by Yankee right fielder Aaron Judge in the sixth inning. He hit a Masahiro Tanaka pitch off the end of the bat. It cleared the wall, but not the 6-7 Judge.

"Of course we wanted to win the game," said Lindor. "We wanted to get it done. But as far as the game goes, you're not going to win every game. We've just got to make sure we bounce back and try to do it on Monday. If we don't do it then, we'll try to do it when we play again (Wednesday) at Progressive Field).

"We're one win away."

Lindor told Judge after his home-run saving catch, "I told him I don't have 52 home runs, I need those. He said, you already have one in the postseason and that's enough."

Judge, a rookie, led the AL with 52 homers this year. In the ALDS, he's 0-for-10 with four walks and eight strikeouts.


Cleveland Indians and their fans in pressure game -- Terry Pluto

By Terry Pluto,

NEW YORK -- The Cleveland Indians came into the season and playoffs as favorites to return to the World Series.

That's a new experience for them.

In his five years as Tribe manager, I don't think Terry Francona and his team have faced a situation with this much pressure.

That will be the situation when Corey Kluber starts for the Tribe against the New York Yankees on Wednesday to determine the winner of the American League Division Series.

The Tribe had a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series when it shifted to the Bronx. Two games later, it's tied after New York beat the Indians, 7-3, Monday night.

Now, it's on to Game 5 in Cleveland.

"We're at home," said Francona. "And we have Kluber ... We're looking forward to it."

Kluber truly was Mr. October in 2016. He had a 4-1 record with a 1.63 ERA in the postseason.

After June 1 this season, he had a 16-2 record and a 1.64 ERA.

"It's hard to imagine giving it (the start) to anyone better," said Francona.

But Kluber had the worst start of his Major League in Game 2, six runs in 2 2/3 innings.

"We know we're facing a great pitcher (Kluber)," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi. "But there is a lot of confidence in that room."

REASON TO WORRY?

If you're a Tribe fan, it's easy to be worried. The Yankees are a young team on the rise. They are extremely tough in the Bronx, with an American League-best 51-30 record at home.

So it's not a big surprise this has become a tight series.

But the Indians were the American League's best team with a 102-60 record ... and that epic 22-game winning streak.

They had a commanding 2-0 lead in this series. Now, everything has changed.

"We've gotten it back to 2-2," said Girardi. "It's a completely different feeling. We've got a shot now."

It will be very hard for Tribe fans to digest their favorite team being knocked out in the first round of the playoffs after all the joy of the regular season.

This is different than the 2016 World Series, where the Tribe lost in seven games to the Chicago Cubs. It was hard to completely comprehend how the Indians even made it that far.

But this is different. This Tribe team is so much better and healthier than a year ago.

The hitters seem anxious. The Tribe is batting .173 with 46 strikeouts in four games.

Jose Ramirez is usually poised and makes contact at the bat. He's 2-for-17 with seven strikeouts.

Some others struggling: Michael Brantley (1-for-11), Francisco Lindor (1-for-14), and Gio Urshela (1-for-9).

UPON FURTHER REVIEW

Boy, was I wrong.

You can say the same thing for Francona, who decided to start Trevor Bauer in Monday's game in Yankee Stadium.

Bauer was starting on three days of rest, instead of the usual four given to most pitchers.

The Indians and Bauer believed he could do it. He has pitched on three days rest before. He even said he prefers it.

Bauer called it "normal" for him.

"If he had his way, he'd probably do this (pitch on three days rest) all year," Francona said before the game.

The manager also explained, "When we were aligning our pitching for the series, this is one of the reason we did what we did ... I don't think it bothers Trevor at all."

Bauer had a 10-1 record and 2.60 ERA after the All-Star break. In three starts against the Yankees this season, his ERA was 0.92.

But on this humid Monday night with a game-time temperature of 77 degrees, Bauer was gone after 55 pitches in 1 2/3 innings.

Francona didn't think the short rest was a factor.

"His velocity was the same or better than the other day (Game 1)," he said.

After two innings, New York had a 4-0 lead. The box score shows the four runs he allowed were unearned.

Third baseman Urshela was charged with an error when a sinking line drive hit him in the foot. MLB.com clocked the liner at 102.6 mph. Error or not, the ball was a sizzler.

"The ball was a hooking line drive that attacked his shin," said Bauer.

Bauer gave up two runs when Aaron Judge belted a 97-mph fastball to left field for a double. His average fastball for the night was 95 mph, so velocity was not the issue. His normal fastball was 93.7 mph.

Bauer had trouble with his slow curve, the pitched that frustrated the Yankees in Game 1. This time, he hung it ... and sometimes, the Yankee batters refused to chase it when it dropped below the strike zone.

A LOUSY GAME

For the Tribe, this was a dismal performance.

They made four errors, three were embarrassing. Urshela and pitcher Danny Salazar made wild throws to first on easy ground balls.

First baseman Carlos Santana failed to come up with a ground ball right at him.

"We made it hard on ourselves to win," said Francona. "We kept shooting ourselves in the foot."

And throwing the ball around the stadium.

The Indians had only two errors in the first three postseason games. The Tribe had the fewest errors in the American League during the regular season.

At the plate, they struck out 11 times. The last four outs of the game were whiffs, almost as if they just wanted to get this mess over.

So who knows what was up with the Tribe on this night, but they better leave that approach in the Bronx.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Yankees will hand the ball to C.C. Sabathia, who was very good in Game 2 against the Tribe.

The 37-year-old lefty allowed two earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. When he was pulled -- seemingly prematurely -- the Yankees had an 8-3 lead.

The Tribe came back to win, 9-8, in 13 innings.

So a former Tribe Cy Young Award winner (Sabathia, 2007) will face the last Tribe pitcher to win the Cy Young (Kluber, 2014).

Now, it's up to Kluber and the rest to make sure this season stays alive.

Did losing to New York, 1-0, in Game 3 impact the Tribe -- and change the momentum of the series?

"If you're asking me if it could, I'm sure (one game) could," said Francona. "It won't. If one game changes our confidence level, then we weren't as good as I thought we were. So I say ... no. Our guys will be just fine."


ALDS Game 5 question: Have Cleveland Indians, Corey Kluber run out of victories and time?

By Paul Hoynes

NEW YORK - What the Indians have done since late August is hard to understand and harder to appreciate. They've played 41 games and won 35 of them.

Included in that stretch is a AL record 22-game winning streak from Aug. 24 through Sept. 14. The 22-game streak is the longest in the big leagues in over 100 years.

And now they've lost two straight games. Two straight losses to a big-league team is nothing. It's a bad weekend or a split in a four-game series.

But it's a lot more than nothing in the postseason. That's the predicament the Indians have put themselves in by losing Games 3 and 4 of the ALDS to the Yankees on Sunday and Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

It is the first time they've lost consecutive games since Aug. 22 and Aug. 23. The last time they lost three straight was July 30 through Aug. 2. If that three-game losing streak repeats itself Wednesday night in Game 5 at Progressive Field, the Indians are shutting down for the winter.

They came to Yankee Stadium with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series. One win is all they needed to advance to the AL Champion Series. They are still looking for.

They lost Sunday's game, 1-0, to a Greg Bird homer in the seventh inning. It was a good postseason game.

On Monday, they lost, 7-3, in a game where all their flaws were on display. Yes, a team that won 102 games in the regular season, the most in the AL, has flaws.

For starters there was the convoluted decision to start Trevor Bauer on short rest in Game 4 when starters Mike Clevinger, Danny Salazar and Josh Tomlin were in the bullpen and could have been prepped to make the start on full rest. As it was all three ended up pitching in the game anyway.

Asked if he regretted giving the ball to Bauer, Francona said, "No. I wasn't happy with the outcome of the game, but we don't ever just throw stuff at the wall and hope that it sticks. We try to have a good reason for it. I think we owe that to the players.

"I think we felt really good about Trevor starting. I know Trevor felt real good about it. I know out team did."

Bauer lasted 1 2/3 innings. He allowed four runs, none of which were earned and left trailing, 4-0. He said he had better stuff than he did in Game 1 when he threw 6 2/3 scoreless innings. But he didn't have better results and that's what the postseason is about. You win and move forward. Or you lose and go home.

Defensively, the Indians played great baseball during the regular season. Monday night, they made four errors and did a lot of things good teams don't do. The four errors tied a postseason franchise record.

Third baseman Giovanny Urshela made two errors that led to five unearned runs. Urshela is a good defender, sometimes bordering on great, but on Monday night the stage was too big for him.

The Indians have gotten by with a patchwork outfield all season. It hurt them Monday night. Give Jason Kipnis credit from moving from second base to center field. It takes moxie and talent to do it so this late in the season with so much at stake following Bradley Zimmer's broken left hand.

In the fifth inning Kipnis caught a sacrifice fly from Brett Gardner when he should have let right fielder Jay Bruce, who has better arm, handle it. Todd Frazier scored on the plate to give the Yankees a 6-3 lead.

Offensively, the lineup looks like a collection of odds and ends instead of the smooth collection of hitters it resembled for much of the season. Cleanup hitter Edwin Encarnacion has not played since Game 2 when he sprained his right ankle. Jay Bruce and Carlos Santana are overexposed without him.

At the bottom of the lineup, they have Urshela, a non-entity with the bat. Michael Brantley and Lonnie Chisenhall are in spring training mode because of injuries. When catcher Roberto Perez and Yan Gomes are Francona's anchors in the last three or four spots in the lineup, that is not a good sign.

The top and middle of the lineup are struggling as well. MVP candidate Jose Ramirez struck out three times in 78 plate appearances during the 22-game winning streak. He's struck out seven times in 17 at-bats in the ALDS with just two hits.

Leadoff hitter Francisco Lindor has one hit in the ALDS. It was a big one, a grand slam, to help the Indians rally to victory in Game 2, but the Yankees have done a great job against him and Ramirez. What Indians pitchers have done to Aaron Judge and Didi Gregorius, the Yankees have done to Lindor and Ramirez.

Game 5 is Wednesday night. It will be Cy Young candidate Corey Kluber against the Yankee veteran CC Sabathia in a rematch of Game 2. Kluber, an 18-game winner, has been a non-factor in a series that he was primed for following a strong regular season.

Then the team's decision makers decided to give Bauer the Game 1 start and Kluber slipped through the cracks, if that's possible.

But all that can change on Wednesday's night.

"I can't imagine giving the ball to somebody better," said Francona, of Kluber starting Game 5. "We tried to set up a five-game series with plans, contingency plans. . .a lot of things have happened. So we go to Game 5, we're at home and we have Kluber. We're looking forward to it."


Indians-Yankees ALDS: Tribe needs return of MVP-can didate Jose Ramirez, ASAP

By Dennis Manoloff

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The New York Yankees defeated the Cleveland Indians, 7-3, in Game 4 of an ALDS on Monday night at Yankee Stadium. Deciding Game 5 is Wednesday at Progressive Field.

Here are DMan's quick thoughts:

Flush it: The Indians did not deserve to win Game 4. Too many physical errors, mental mistakes, bad pitches and ugly at-bats.

Paging Mr. Lapara: Even if the Indians get past the Yankees, they probably won't continue advancing if second baseman Jose Ramirez doesn't return to his MVP form. Ramirez went 0-for-4 in Game 4 and is 2-for-17 with one walk and zero extra-base hits in the series.

High-energy Ramirez is too eager in the box. He is offering at off-speed pitches he normally takes for balls and "jumping'' at pitches in the zone, the latter leading to ineffective swings.

Your move, Tribe fans: The Yankee Stadium crowds for Games 3-4 were loud -- really loud -- with all sorts of chants. And that is how it sounded on FS1 telecasts; the in-person experience no doubt was that much more intense.

I don't think Indians players, as a collective, were intimidated by the atmosphere. Check that: I'm 99 44/100 percent sure they weren't. But they didn't appear comfortable in the surroundings -- unlike, as three examples, the body language last postseason at Fenway Park in Boston, Rogers Centre in Toronto and Wrigley Field in Chicago.

The Yankees absolutely, positively fed off their crowd -- especially starting pitchers Masahiro Tanaka (Game 3) and Luis Severino (Game 4). Tanaka was superb in a 1-0 victory Sunday.

Thankfully for the Indians, there won't be another Indians at Yankees postseason game in 2017.

Game 5 should be wild. I never tell people how to spend their money, so I'll put it thusly: I hope each Indians fan who owns a ticket for Game 5 is the same person who goes through the entry gate with the ticket.

Strange evening: From one perspective, Indians right-hander Trevor Bauer had a nightmarish start. He gave up four runs on four hits in 1 2/3 innings. He walked two and struck out three. He threw 55 pitches.

The Yankees managed one walk in a scoreless first inning before erupting in the second. Bauer appeared to be in a pitcher's rope-a-dope in the second, running on fumes, perhaps the result of three days' rest since his dominant Game 1 start.

From another perspective, though, Bauer did not deserve his fate and had plenty of juice. None of the runs was earned, after all.

With none on and one out in the second, Starlin Castro lined to third, where Giovanny Urshela essentially whiffed on the catch. The ball caromed off Urshela's left calf for a single. While it is true that Castro pounced on a hanging 0-1 curve and the batted ball hooked, the play needed to be made. It correctly was ruled an error.

Chase Headley struck out looking, meaning it could have been a 1-2-3 inning. I don't know how long Bauer would have lasted, but it should have been longer than five outs.

With Todd Frazier batting, Castro advanced to second on a passed ball. Frazier drove in Castro with a double to left (3-1 curve at knees).

Bauer got ahead of lefty Aaron Hicks, 1-2, and threw a wicked curve in the dirt. Hicks' offered to the extent that his bat basically was parallel to the front of the plate. Bauer and catcher Roberto Perez thought Hicks swung, but the plate and third-base umpires disagreed. Hicks socked the next pitch, a hanging curve, into right-center for an RBI single.

If the 50-50 call had gone his way, Bauer would have been out of the inning with just one run allowed. Maybe he settles in from that point.

Brett Gardner got on top of a fastball and grounded a single into right-center, Hicks stopping at third. Gardner stole second.

Righty slugger Aaron Judge stepped in. Here is the pitch sequence in the AB:

79 curve called strike; 80 curve called strike; 82 curve in dirt away (Gardner "steals" second uncontested); 82 curve in dirt; (Perez visits mound); 98 fastball foul; 81 curve foul (hanger); 81 curve in dirt; (Perez visits mound); 99 fastball (inside edge at belt), two-run double to left.

Bauer executed the pitch seemingly to perfection; a 99-mph fastball on the inside edge at the belt made sense because it followed two 81-mph curves. The pitch and location would have retired most hitters, including Judge on select nights. Bauer simply got beat. Tip of the helmet to Judge for pulling in the hands and getting barrel to a tough pitch.


Cleveland Indians lose Game 4 to Yankees, 7-3, to se t stage for Game 5 elimination game on Wednesday

By Paul Hoynes,

NEW YORK - The American League Division Series is returning to Cleveland, and from an Indians point of view everything rests in the right hand of a forgotten man: Corey Kluber.

How could Kluber, favored to win the AL Cy Young award this offseason, be forgotten in a postseason series?

Well, it depends on how you want to look at things following the Indians' 7-3 loss to the Yankees on Monday night in Game 4 at Yankee Stadium.

The Indians, who say Kluber is healthy, made the decision to start Trevor Bauer in Game 1 over their staff ace. Game 1 produced a 4-0 victory, so that worked fine. Kluber started Game 2 and was terrible, but the Indians still came away with a 9-8 win in 13 innings.

They went to Yankee Stadium possessing three chances to win one game, and Kluber's name was rarely mentioned because the whole idea of starting him in Game 2 was to make sure he had his full rest if there was a Game 5. The Indians lost Game 3 on Sunday, 1-0, and lost again Monday. So not only have them lost the elimination hammer, they face elimination themselves on Wednesday night in Game 5.

If this sounds familiar, it should. It's the same situation they were in the last year in the World Series against the Cubs. They had a 3-1 lead with three chances to win one game and didn't get it done. They were pitching-short then. This time around they appeared to be pitching-rich.

Carlos Carrasco started Game 3 and threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings in a no-decision. But Game 4 is the game that will be remembered by Indians fans in this series. The Indians made the decision to start Bauer on short rest. They had starters Mike Clevinger, Josh Tomlin and Danny Salazar in the bullpen, but went with Bauer because they felt he could bounce back without a problem."

A big problem arose in the second inning when Bauer threw 36 pitches and the Yankees scored four unearned runs. He should have been out of the inning, but the first of two errors by third baseman Giovanny Urshela, along with a passed ball by Roberto Perez, made sure he wouldn't see the third inning.

Still, Bauer (1-1) had a chance to save himself, but he allowed an RBI double to Todd Frazier that hit chalk far down the left field line. Starlin Castro, who reached on a liner off Urshela's ankle and took second on Perez's passed ball, scored for a 1-0 lead. Aaron Hicks followed with a

single to make it 2-0, but he may have caught a break when third-base umpire Vic Carapazza didn't call him out a check-swing appeal by Perez.

The inning spun away from Bauer as Brett Gardner singled Hicks to third. Up came Aaron Judge, hitless for the series. Judge, with first base open, lined a 3-2 pitch to left field for a double and a 4-0 lead. Bauer was replaced by Joe Smith after an intentional walk to shortstop Didi Gregorius.

"Overall, it didn't work out very well," said manager Terry Francona. "I thought he came out of the chute with real good stuff. The velocity was the same or better than his first start and he had a real good breaking ball off the bat.

"In the second, when we gave up four runs, he threw a lot of pitches. I thought he started to go to his breaking ball too much. It looked to me like they started to hunt it."

The Yankees made it 5-0 in the third on another unearned run thanks to Urshela's second error. Urshela, with the bases loaded and two out, made a high throw to first on Gardner's grounder as Castro scored.

"The first base was a hooking line drive that attacked his shin," said Francona. "The next one he looked to second base, but Jose Ramirez was playing deep in the hole, and he just didn't move his feet on the throw to first.

"The whole night we made it hard on ourselves to win."

The Indians tried to slug their way back into the game. Carlos Santana hit a two-run homer off Severino in the fourth to make it 5-2. Perez homered in the fifth to make it 5-3.

But the Tribe's defense, which ended the regular season tied for the top fielding percentage in the league, kept making mistakes.

Frazier started the fifth with a bouncer in front of the mound. Salazar, who came on in the third, bounced his throw past Santana as Frazier went to second on the Tribe's third error of the night. He advanced to third on a grounder by Hicks and scored on a sacrifice fly to Jason Kipnis in right center for a 6-3 lead. Kipnis probably should have let the strong-armed Jay Bruce make the catch and throw.

The Yankees made it 7-3 on Gary Sanchez's homer off Bryan Shaw in the sixth. It was the first earned run of the game allowed by a Tribe pitcher.

The Indians were charged with their fourth error of the seventh when Santana had a bad-hop grounder by Hicks go off his wrist. Hicks reached second, but did not score. The last time the Indians made four errors in a game was May 30, 2016 in a 9-2 loss to Texas.

Rookie Luis Severino (1-0), who lasted just one-third of an inning in the Yankees' wild-card win over the Twins, held the Indians to three runs on four hits in seven innings. He struck out nine. It was his second win in three starts against the Indians this season.

What it means

The last three times the Indians have faced elimination in the postseason - World Series 2016, ALCS 2007 and ALDS 2001 - they've been eliminated.

The pitches

Bauer threw 55 pitches, 33 (60 percent) for strikes. Severino threw 113 pitches, 76 (67 percent) for strikes.

Thanks for coming

The Indians and Yankees drew a sellout crowd of 47,316 to Yankee Stadium on Monday night. First pitch was at 7:09 with a temperature of 74 degrees. A light rain was falling.

Next

Kluber (18-4, 2.25) is scheduled to face Yankee left-hander CC Sabathia (14-5, 3.69) in a rematch of Game 2 at Progressive Field. Fox Sports 1 will carry the game that will start at 8:08 p.m.

In Game 2, Kluber allowed six runs on seven hits in 2 2/3 innings. Sabathia allowed four runs, two earned, in 5 1/3 innings.


Indians picked the wrong week to give up winning ev ery game NEW YORK -- To paraphrase Lloyd Bridges' character in the movie "Airplane," the Cleveland Indians picked the wrong week to give up winning every game. After rolling into the postseason with 33 wins in 37 games, the Indians were tagged as postseason favorites by the Las Vegas oddsmakers and lots of media wise guys. They justified everyone's faith during the Ohio portion of the American League Division Series, riding the excellent pitching of Trevor Bauer and a Francisco Lindor-fueled comeback to take a 2-0 series lead back to Yankee Stadium over the weekend. Maybe the law of averages finally caught up with the Tribe. Every team is due to have a bad game once every two months or so. The New York leg of the series wasn't kind to the Indians' comfort level or self-esteem. After suffering a tough 1-0 loss in Game 3, the Tribe turned in a sloppy, distracted performance while going down 7-3 in Game 4 on Monday night. Cleveland's hitters struck out 14 times. The defense committed four errors leading to six unearned runs. And in a rare departure from the norm, manager Terry Francona's decision to bring Bauer back on short rest against Yankees ace Luis Severino didn't yield much in the way of positive results. The result: Cleveland's first two-game losing streak since the Tribe dropped back-to-back games to the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 22-23.

"You could say one thing led to another," center fielder Jason Kipnis said. "It's hard to win a ballgame when you dig a hole that deep by giving away runs and at-bats and not making adjustments [at the plate]. "I don't think any of us went into this thinking we were going to win every single game. This is the playoffs. Every team that's left is still good. Everyone comes to play. That said, we were either tight or flat or whatever you want to label it these two days. Now we're very excited to go back home. We'll be at full throttle coming into Game 5." The Indians prided themselves on their improved fielding this season and considered it a major component of their success. Baseball Info Solutions ranked Cleveland's 56 defensive runs saved as the fourth-best total in the majors behind Tampa Bay, Boston and the Dodgers in 2017. But a succession of misplays and indignities contributed to the Indians' undoing against the Yankees. The six unearned runs allowed by Cleveland were one short of the MLB postseason record shared by four teams -- most recently the Oakland A's in the 2002 ALDS against Minnesota. "We don't do that very often," Bauer said. "We make other teams beat us, and I think we contributed to beating ourselves tonight. It's a very different game if you take out a couple of plays." There wasn't much good to take away for Indians manager Terry Francona after their Game 4 ALDS loss. Kathy Willens/AP Photo There were several culprits in this mess of a game: Giovanny Urshela, who is in the lineup at third base almost exclusively because of his glove, made two errors that led to five unearned runs for New York. In the second inning, Starlin Castro hit a bolt that dipped below Urshela's glove and struck him in the shin. Urshela received an error on a tough scoring decision, then had to take a break to limp around the infield until the pain subsided. Lindor, who has assumed the role of team counselor/cheerleader/comforting sage at age 23, took Urshela aside during the game and preached positive thinking to help get him through the night. "He's going to help again," Lindor said. "He's a big part of our team, and he's extremely good at third base. He made a couple of mistakes today, but that's part of the game. I just tried to keep him up and let him know we were OK. We still had a chance to win the game. And I told him to believe in himself. No matter what happens, the ball is going to going to come find you." Jay Bruce, who had struck out four times in Game 3, missed a cutoff man and spent half the night listening to "Jay Bruce sucks!" chants from the always-welcoming fans in the Bronx. And Kipnis, who has made an admirable transition from second base to center field in the postseason, failed to get enough oomph on his throw to cut down Todd Frazier on a fly ball to shallow center field in the fifth. The final indignity was delivered via a classic rock staple when first baseman Carlos Santana failed to corral a hot shot by Aaron Hicks and the PA system at Yankee Stadium played "I'm Only Human" by the Human League. The Indians' offense is sufficiently tenuous at the moment that any mistakes are going to be magnified. Cleanup hitter Edwin Encarnacion is listed as day-to-day with an ankle injury, but he's still wearing a boot and walking with the aid of crutches, and he hasn't played since an awkward and painful stumble over the second-base bag in Game 2. The Indians miss Encarnacion's patience and quick-strike power and the threat he presents each time around the order in the cleanup spot. Michael Brantley, pressed into service after missing most of August and September with an ankle injury, looks like a guy who's in the midst of spring training in October. And the dynamic young double play combination of Lindor and Jose Ramirez is hitting a combined .097 (3-for-31) with 12 strikeouts. Lindor's grand slam off the Progressive Field foul pole against Chad Green in Game 2 was his only hit of the series. The Indians struck out 25 times in the two Yankee Stadium games against Masahiro Tanaka, Severino and the New York bullpen. This from a Cleveland lineup that amassed only 1,153 regular-season strikeouts -- second fewest in the majors behind the Houston Astros. "I've probably had 15 of those," said Lindor, who has logged only five. Maybe it's a good thing that the Indians don't have much time to dwell on their deficiencies. They've been good enough for an extended period to chalk it up as just a lousy road trip rather than allow negative thoughts to creep into their heads. "We have a way of bouncing back," Kipnis said. "We always have. You don't have our kind of record over the last two months without learning how to bounce back after a tough time or dealing with adversity. "Teams are holding home court right now. Hopefully it continues." Giovanny Urshela (and the rest of the Indians' defe nse) falters on baseball's holy ground Zack Meisel 5 hours ago NEW YORK — There was one rule at the softball field in Giovanny Urshela’s neighborhood in Cartagena, Colombia: No home runs. Line drives were acceptable, but any long fly would risk shattering a window of a house beyond the outfield. Urshela cared more about defense, anyway. The field was covered with little ditches. Urshela never knew when he might step in one and twist an ankle, or when a bouncing baseball would skip off of one and carom in another direction.

His neighbors would tell him that he was blessed with good hands, that he was born to scoop up a baseball. Travis Fryman, a former Gold Glove winner, echoed that praise years later when he managed him in the minors. Urshela figured if he could field balls on that poorly manicured terrain, he could field anything, anywhere. He finally met his match Monday night at Yankee Stadium, with an opportunistic (and boisterous) crowd ready to pounce at the sight of any blooper. Urshela wasn’t the lone culprit in the Tribe’s anti-Emanskian showcase. The Indians allowed 35 unearned runs in 162 regular-season games. They allowed six unearned runs in a nightmarish first five innings of Game 4, en route to a 7-3 loss. “Baseball, baseball,” Francisco Lindor explained. “You can’t be perfect every day.” Urshela will receive the brunt of the attention for the Indians’ gaffe-happy gloves, as his miscue on a line drive — the baseball ricocheted off his left shin, leaving a mark — set the table for the Yankees’ four-run second inning. The Indians made a conscious effort to lift Urshela’s spirits. Lindor consoled his infield mate to ensure his confidence didn’t dip. When Terry Francona executed a pitching change in the third, after an Urshela throwing error, the manager patted the third baseman on the chest. “Very unlike him,” Francona said. Urshela seemed to take it hard, too. For the first time this season, he relied upon the team interpreter for his postgame interview. Typically jovial and relaxed, he made little eye contact, and after a two-minute session, he retreated to his locker and sat with his head down. This is a guy who often peers up at the scoreboard to watch replays of his fielding gems. He still isn’t sure how he initiated that double play on a bunt attempt in San Francisco in July. He praises his instincts and natural ability when reflecting on his jump throw to the plate from foul territory against the Yankees in early August. That one earned him a standing ovation at Progressive Field. He marvels at the throw to second he made from his belly against the Tigers in mid-September. He couldn’t quit smiling after he corralled a slow chopper with his right hand and threw to first while sliding on the grass in July. That glove convinced Urshela to follow in the footsteps of his older brother and cousin and pursue baseball, instead of playing soccer as his dad had preferred. Urshela’s defensive prowess also factored into the Indians’ decision to shift Jason Kipnis to center field once Bradley Zimmer suffered a broken hand last month. At the same time, Francona hasn’t been shy about pinch hitting for the third baseman, who owns a .587 OPS in 148 big-league games. So, a glove-first player who is a liability at the plate cannot afford to falter with said glove on the grand stage. Roberto Perez permitted a Trevor Bauer curveball to glance off his mitt and travel toward the backstop. Danny Salazar tossed a hopeless throw past Carlos Santana at first base. Santana misjudged a sharp hop on a grounder sent his direction. Even Yan Gomes heaved a warmup throw to center field after he entered at catcher. “The whole night, we made it hard on ourselves to win,” Francona said. “We kept trying, but we kept shooting ourselves in the foot.” Urshela is supposed to be as automatic as anyone. When speaking with The Athletic a few weeks ago, Fryman recalled the defensive development Urshela made during his ascent through the Indians’ farm system. “He likes to play with his hands a little upright at third and sometimes that’ll get him in trouble.” “Shifting and aggressive infield position has become more prominent and that’s been a learning curve.” “He always liked to play shallow at third.” Ultimately, Fryman convinced Urshela to play a bit deeper, which increased his range and improved his reaction time. Urshela made brief cameos at second base and shortstop late in the season, which exposed him to previously foreign spots on the infield. “Gio is special,” said Fryman, who captured the AL Gold Glove Award with the Indians in 2000. “I love watching him.” The scene Monday night at Yankee Stadium was probably a bit painful to observe for anyone with a rooting interest in the Indians. The Yankees scored seven runs despite recording only eight hits. The Indians tallied as many errors (four) as base knocks. And now, the Indians’ season will hang in the balance Wednesday night, thanks to a rare dearth of reliable defense for a club that ranked third in the AL in defensive runs saved. “That’s part of the game,” Urshela said. “Always keep your head up and just keep moving forward.” After all, the infield in Cleveland is much more forgiving than that softball field in Colombia. Rosenthal: Sabathia comes full circle, back in Clev eland with so much at stake Ken Rosenthal NEW YORK — The men in uniform never consider the bigger picture, never project beyond the moment in front of them, certainly never think in poetic terms. To the players, coaches and managers, only one narrative matters: The score of the next day’s game. And yet, something special will take place Wednesday night in Game 5 of American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians, something only baseball can offer, something that is indeed almost poetic, if you consider the arc of CC Sabathia’s career. Sabathia, who will start for the Yankees, was the Indians’ first-round pick in 1998, the 20th overall selection out of Vallejo (Calif.) High at 17 years old. He won the American League Cy Young Award in 2007, the year the Indians took a three-games-to-one-lead in the AL Championship Series, only to get their hearts broken by the Boston Red Sox. Now, 10 years later, he will try to break the Indians’ hearts, and the heart of the manager who beat him in ‘07, Terry Francona. The game will take place in Cleveland, his former city, which last experienced a World Series title in 1948. And with Sabathia’s contract expiring, it might be the last time he pitches for the Yankees, the team he joined as a free agent in ‘09. Sabathia, 37, was not made available to the media after the Yankees tied the Division Series on Monday night with a resounding 7-3 victory over the Indians. He and the Indians’ Game 5 starter, Cy Young favorite Corey Kluber, will hold separate news conferences Tuesday in Cleveland. It would be a shock if Sabathia grew emotional, or even nostalgic. He acknowledged before his Game 2 start at the ballpark formerly known as Jacobs Field, “I kind of grew up here,” and he spoke of happy memories. But his reflection pretty much ended there.

As Yankees left fielder Brett Gardner pointed out, Game 2 — the crazy, say-it-ain’t-so, you-didn’t-challenge-Joe game — could have been Sabathia’s last start for the franchise, too. Gardner, the only Yankee who has been with the team longer than Sabathia, was asked if he liked the idea of his longtime teammate starting the decisive Game 5. “I don’t like it. I love it. He’s a big-game pitcher. He’s pitched in a lot of big situations, a whole lot bigger than this, as big of a deal as this is going to be. He’ll be calm, cool and collected, ready to go. I have no doubt about that.” Sabathia was quite good in Game 2, allowing four runs (two earned) in 5 1/3 innings, but retiring 12 of his final 13 hitters before manager Joe Girardi removed him after 77 pitches, one of many decisions by Girardi that prompted second-guessing. Girardi could have chosen right-hander Sonny Gray, the Yankees’ hotshot trade acquisition, to start Game 5. But Gray lasted only 3 1/3 innings in the first game of the series, a 4-0 Indians victory. Girardi opted for Sabathia’s experience over Gray’s superior stuff, retaining the option of using Gray out of the bullpen. It’s amazing Sabathia still engenders such trust nearly two decades after the Indians drafted him and nearly one decade after he was baseball’s most wanted man. In July 2008, the Indians traded Sabathia to the Milwaukee Brewers for three prospects who proved to be duds and a player to be named who turned out to be All-Star Michael Brantley. Sabathia led the Brewers to their first postseason appearance in 26 years, and then he signed with the Yankees as a free agent for seven years and $161 million. The Yankees won the World Series in his first year with the club. He was ALCS MVP. Even within the last two years, Sabathia has experienced quite a journey. He entered alcohol rehabilitation on Oct. 6, 2015, the eve of the Yankees’ wild-card loss to the Houston Astros. Less than two months ago he considered retirement after leaving a start in Toronto with significant pain in his right knee. The thought was fleeting — Sabathia returned 11 days later after receiving a cortisone shot and proceeded to pitch brilliantly, posting a 2.91 ERA in his final eight regular-season starts. Now he is set for one last hurrah — or maybe not. Either way, his end with the Yankees probably is near, and Girardi spoke before Game 2 about how much the Yankees will miss Sabathia if this indeed is his final run with the club. “I think CC's effect in the clubhouse is as big as anyone I've ever been around,” Girardi said. “And part of it stems from the way he fights on the field and how much respect our players have from him, seeing what he goes through on a daily basis to be prepared to pitch and how he gives you everything he's got whenever he goes out there . . . What do you want from your athletes? You want that fierce competitor in CC. “The other thing that CC is great at is making sure that everyone is included and making sure that it is a great clubhouse. [He] is the guy that, when you have off days and you're in a city, he gets 20 or 25 guys together, and they go to a sporting event. Who gets the suite? CC. I mean, that’s who he is.” Tuesday’s off day in Cleveland is likely to be less entertaining, as both teams brace for the drama on Wednesday night. From Kluber, who will seek redemption for his rocky start in Game 2, to the rest of the Indians, who want to extend their magical season. From Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge, who is stuck in a 1-for-15, 12-strikeout sinkhole, to the rest of the Baby Bombers and their veteran teammates, who are hell-bent on restoring their franchise to glory ahead of schedule. So much figures to happen in Game 5. So much always does in winner-take-all games. But front and center will be Sabathia, trying to defeat his former team in what might be his final act for his current one. If the men in uniform cannot fully savor the moment, we can. CC Sabathia is coming full circle, bringing it all back home. Starting 9: Indians are ahead of the curve in putti ng analytics to work Travis Sawchik 23 hours ago 1. One reason why the Indians are one win away from a return to the American League Championship Series? They’ve been out front in riding some of the game’s most important trends. 2. Launch angle has become part of the game's vernacular this season as more and more hitters pore over Statcast data to better understand how to optimize performance. And for many hitters, improving performance has included more often getting batted balls off the ground and into the air. Consider the Indians' collective rank in launch angle by year in the Statcast era: 2015 – 10.1 degrees (17th in MLB) 2016 – 12.6 degrees (5th in MLB) 2017 – 12.1 degrees (8th in MLB) The Indians, as a team, made a significant jump last year and have remained relatively steady this year in regard to being one of the better teams at lifting the ball in the air. Not only are line drives and fly balls more valuable than ground balls, but they are particularly valuable as the ball has played differently since the second half of 2015. The ball has traveled farther as FiveThirtyEight and Athletic contributor Rob Arthur discovered. The Indians are one of the teams taking advantage of baseball’s home-run jet stream, perhaps what is a juiced ball. Consider that of the five teams to hit the fewest home runs this year, only the Red Sox (ranked 27th) are in the postseason. Power is key. The Indians hit 1,607 fly balls in the regular season, the fourth-greatest total in the majors. The Indians ranked sixth in fly balls last year (1,566). 3. Jay Bruce is one of the players to benefit in today’s game by shifting toward a more fly-ball oriented, unconventional approach: trying to pull pitches and drive them into the air. It’s been working this postseason as he’s hit two homers, a double and a sac fly in the ALDS. His home-run Thursday night … And the game-tying shot Friday that electrified Progressive Field. (It wasn’t pulled but it was launched a long way in the air to the opposite field, reminiscent of a Jim Thome homer.) Bruce was an excellent addition by the front office at the deadline. He had reinvented himself after poor 2014 and 2015 seasons. The Indians bet on the swing and approach changes having staying power, and it was a wise decision. 4. Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez have also dramatically changed their batted-ball profile. Lindor cut his ground-ball rate from 49.2 percent in 2016 to 39.2 percent this season. He raised his fly-ball rate by a whopping 14 points, from 28.4 percent to 42.8 percent. While not as dramatic, Ramirez launched more balls into the air than he hit on the ground for the first time since he was in Low A ball in 2012. Lindor, Ramirez and Bruce are among the Indians riding the fly-ball wave, and it’s helped the Indians become a more potent and efficient offensive team.

5. Power and home runs are particularly important in the playoffs when it is harder to string hits and baserunners together as Jeff Sullivan noted recently at FanGraphs. Wrote Sullivan: “In the playoffs, it might seem like you want to make contact, but the downside there is that it’s particularly difficult to string baserunners together. Pitchers and defenses are far less forgiving. Thus, there’s something to be said for just trying for homers, because a homer is a run, and it can happen at any moment. It’s true that, to hit a home run, you need to make contact first. Yet without the home run, playoff scoring is nearly impossible. This month, you’re going to hear talk about the need for fundamentals, but, more than that, winning teams will need to slug.” 6. The other big trend the Indians have ridden to their advantage is the breaking ball. Major-league pitchers are throwing their breaking balls more and more and relying less upon their fastballs, a trend the Indians really began last postseason against the Blue Jays. The Indians threw the fewest fastballs in the majors in 2017 (40.1 percent). The league average is 49.7 percent. The Indians are an outlier … and for good reason. 7. As was published here last week, the Indians are the best breaking ball team on record. This trend was evident in Trevor Bauer’s Game 1 gem when he threw 35 curveballs and paired the big-breaking pitch with his fastball, which he kept up in the zone to create a tunneling effect. Bauer no-hit the Yankees into the sixth inning. Leaning on his curveball, his best pitch, allowed Bauer to turn his season around and pitch with more and more confidence as has been noted here on numerous occasions. His focus and composure were excellent in his Game 1 start. Moreover, Bauer is a competitor and Terry Francona said he trusted him in the situations. The human element is still crucial in decision-making. 8. A left-on-left homer against Andrew Miller is a rare event: it has happened just five times in the past three seasons. 9. The Indians' bench is thin on offensive weapons particularly with Brandon Guyer not able to quickly recover from his wrist injury. Michael Brantley’s health and timing are in question from the left side. It makes Edwin Encarnacion apparently avoiding serious injury Friday a big deal. STAT OF THE WEEK: 1.004 Francisco Lindor’s OPS in high-leverage, or clutch, situations this season. He posted a .766 OPS in low-leverage situations, and a .912 OPS in medium leverage situations. While the idea of a player being a clutch performer has largely been dismissed by the sabermetric community, Lindor might be an exception. Lindor was excellent last postseason. He was at his best in high-leverage moments this regular season. And it’s harder to have a more “clutch” swing than he produced Friday night. HE SAID IT “It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, the way we were down and came back. But Rajai's home run (against the Cubs), I almost cried. Game 7 of the World Series, that's a little different.” — Francisco Lindor on his Friday grand slam. HE SAID IT II “I screwed up. It’s hard. It's a hard day for me. But I've got to move forward, and we'll be ready to go tomorrow.” — Joe Girardi on electing not to challenge the apparently missed call by the umpire on the Lonnie Chisenhall hit by pitch Friday night. After the game, Girardi said he did not want to disrupt the rhythm of his pitcher by challenging, bizarre given the situation. HE SAID IT III “It’s not like I look at last year and say, ‘Oh, I learned this specific thing.’ It’s more a comfortability with the surroundings and the environment, knowing that the crowd’s going to be into it. So when I’m in the bullpen and they’re announcing the starting lineups, I’m playing catch, it’s super easy to get excited and amped up. Your heart starts beating pretty quickly. You have an adrenaline rush and it’s pretty easy to let that get out of control. Maybe you throw a lot harder in the bullpen than normal. Maybe you’re more focused on the crowd noise than you are normally. So knowing those things were going to happen going into the game, I was a little bit more prepared to deal with them as they occurred.” — Bauer on learning from last year’s postseason experience. ALDS: Yankees 7, Indians 3: Sloppy Tribe allows New York to even series at two games apiece Mike Fitzpatrick | The Associated PressPublished on Oct. 9, 2017 | Updated 1:28 a. m. NEW YORK — Luis Severino, Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees are headed back to Cleveland for a decisive Game 5 — thanks to plenty of help from the Indians. Severino rebounded from his playoff debacle, Judge delivered a big hit and the Yankees took advantage of shoddy defense by Cleveland to beat the Indians 7-3 Monday night and even their AL Division Series at two games apiece. “We’ve got a shot now,” said New York manager Joe Girardi, harshly criticized for his Game 2 decisions. “So it’s a totally different feeling than it was the other day, and these guys have picked me up.” Gary Sanchez homered and a slumping Judge laced an early two-run double for his only hit of the series to go with 12 strikeouts in 15 at-bats. Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer struggled on three days’ rest and was chased in the second inning. But it was on the wet Yankee Stadium field where the Indians really flopped, committing a season-high four errors that marked a franchise record for a postseason game and led to six unearned runs. The defending AL champions made only 76 errors all season, the lowest total in the league. “The whole night, we made it hard on ourselves to win,” manager Terry Francona said.

After preventing a three-game sweep with a 1-0 win Sunday night, the wild-card Yankees will start CC Sabathia against his original team in Game 5 on Wednesday. Indians ace Corey Kluber gets the ball in a rematch from Game 2, when he was hit hard by New York. “It’s hard to imagine giving it to somebody better,” Francona said. “We’re looking forward to it.” The winner faces Houston in the AL Championship Series after the Astros finished off Boston in four games Monday to win their ALDS. “We’ve got a young team and they’re hungry,” Severino said. Simply taking two in a row to send the series back to Cleveland was no small feat for the Yankees. The last time the Indians lost consecutive games was Aug. 22-23 at home against Boston, just before starting their AL-record 22-game winning streak. From that point on, Cleveland had gone 35-4 before arriving in the Bronx for Game 3 of the ALDS. Minus injured slugger Edwin Encarnacion, the Indians have scored three runs in two games since. Severino got only one out in the wild-card game against Minnesota last Tuesday, but was bailed out by his teammates as New York advanced with an 8-4 victory. This time, the 23-year-old ace was determined to come through, and he did. “I think he was able to relax a lot more. He was able to control his adrenaline,” Girardi said. “He was able to channel things down and make his pitch, as opposed to just trying to power his way through it.” Handed an early 5-0 lead and showing lots of emotion on the mound, the fired-up righty struck out nine in seven innings. With the crowd of 47,316 chanting his name, Severino threw 113 pitches and gave up four hits — including Carlos Santana’s two-run homer and Roberto Perez’s solo shot. “I told him after the game, he grew up a lot today,” Girardi said. Tommy Kahnle relieved a wild Dellin Betances in the eighth and got six straight outs — five on strikeouts — for his first save of the season as New York improved to 3-0 when facing playoff elimination this year. “There’s a lot of confidence in that room,” Girardi said. Sanchez hit his second home run of the series off Bryan Shaw in the sixth to make it 7-3. A rainy day in the Big Apple prevented both teams from taking batting practice on the field. But the tarp was pulled and play started right on time, with fans in hooded ponchos bunched below the overhangs seeking cover from a heavy drizzle. Showers dissipated in the bottom of the first, though a few puddles remained on the slick warning track all night. The first of two costly errors by normally sure-handed third baseman Giovanny Urshela, a .224 hitter in the lineup for his defense, was a painful one. Starlin Castro’s sinking line drive in the second struck him just above the left ankle and caromed away. Shaken up, Urshela was checked by a trainer but stayed in the game. With two outs, Todd Frazier pulled a 78 mph curve to deep left and it landed smack on the foul line for an RBI double. A frustrated Bauer gestured with his hand when he didn’t get a strike-three call on a checked swing by Aaron Hicks, who soon singled home a run. Brett Gardner singled and, after a mound visit from Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway, Judge had a gritty at-bat. The rookie slugger was 0 for 11 with nine strikeouts in the series before fighting back from 0-2 to a full count and lining a two-run double to the left-field wall on one hop. “Just had to grind it out,” Judge said. After pulling in at second base, he clapped and pointed to the Yankees dugout. Bauer managed only five outs after tossing two-hit ball with eight strikeouts over 6 2/3 innings during a 4-0 win in the series opener last Thursday. All four runs he allowed were unearned. “I thought my stuff was better than Game 1,” Bauer said. “Just a couple of little things went their way instead of mine.” Urshela’s two-out throwing error with the bases loaded in the third made it 5-0. Frazier reached on pitcher Danny Salazar’s two-base throwing error to start the fifth. He scored on Gardner’s shallow sacrifice fly to center fielder Jason Kipnis, a second baseman moved to the outfield late this season. Kipnis began the year on the disabled list with a shoulder problem.

“As a team, we didn’t play the greatest defense tonight,” Bauer said. Trainer’s room Indians: Encarnacion sat out again after leaving Game 2 with a sprained right ankle. Before the game, Francona said the team hoped Encarnacion would be available to pinch-hit. ... OF Brandon Guyer is scheduled for surgery Wednesday in Arizona to repair a tendon in his left wrist, ending any chances of him playing in this postseason. Up next Indians: A favorite to win his second Cy Young Award next month, Kluber went 18-4 with a 2.25 ERA and 265 strikeouts this season. Those impressive numbers included a 2-0 mark with a 1.59 ERA against New York that left him 5-1 with a 1.80 ERA in seven career regular-season starts vs. the Yankees. But they got to him in Game 2 last Friday for six runs and seven hits over 2 2/3 innings. Yankees: If they don’t win Game 5, it could be Sabathia’s final outing for the Yankees. The 37-year-old lefty was 14-5 with a 3.69 ERA this season and can become a free agent after the World Series. He was removed with an 8-3 cushion in Game 2 at Cleveland after only 77 pitches. New York’s vaunted bullpen squandered the lead and the Yankees lost 9-8 in 13 innings. It’s all up to Kluber in Game 5 to save the season f or the Indians | Jeff Schudel By Jeff Schudel, The News-Herald & The Morning Journal The Indians are in trouble. There is no other way to describe their situation after losing twice in Yankee Stadium to make the ALDS a one-game showdown on Oct. 11 at Progressive Field. The Tribe faces the prospect of losing three straight postseason games with the chance to clinch for the second consecutive time. It happened in the World Series last year and now all the momentum in this series is with New York after the Yankees won Game 4, 7-3, on Oct. 9 to deadlock the ALDS at 2-2. “Let up just once, you’re finished,” Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor said before the ALDS began. “Once you see the finish line, make sure you go across it. Don’t relax.” The good news for the Indians is manager Terry Francona has something in his back pocket that Yankees manager Joe Girardi doesn’t — likely 2017 Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber. Game 5 will be a Game 2 rematch of Kluber and CC Sabathia for the Yankees. This is exactly why Francona held Kluber back until the second game of the series. He had enough foresight to know the match with the Yankees could go the distance, and if it did, he would want his ace on the mound. If the Indians won in three or four games, Francona would have Kluber rested for the ALCS opener on Oct. 13. Kluber allowed six runs in 2 2/3 innings in Game 2. He gave up a two-run homer to Gary Sanchez in the first inning and a three-run homer to Aaron Hicks in the third. Kluber never lost two straight starts in the 2017 regular season. He lost only one decision after July 4. When Kluber lost to the Red Sox Aug. 23, he responded in his next start by allowing two runs over eight innings in a 6-2 victory over — wait for it — the Yankees on Aug. 28. No matter how Game 5 ends, Francona should not be criticized for saving Kluber for the Indians’ most important game of the season so far. By contrast, the Twitter world had a field day ripping the Tribe manager for starting Trevor Bauer in Game 4. Not wanting to pass judgment before the game began in case it worked, they waited until the move backfired miserably to jump on Francona and Bauer. Game 4 was the worst of the series for the Indians, and it wasn’t all because Bauer wasn’t sharp pitching on three days rest. The infield defense that was so superb all season deserted the Indians. Bauer seemed to lose his focus when it failed behind him. A fielding error by Giovanny Urshela, a passed ball that popped from the glove of catcher Roberto Perez, a double by Yankee third baseman Todd Frazier that landed on the chalk on the left field foul line and a checked swing by Aaron Hicks that didn’t go the Indians way unnerved Bauer. Hicks lined a sharp single to center and the Yankees were in business. The Yankees first six runs were unearned. A solo home run by Gary Sanchez off Bryan Shaw was the first run New York scored without the aid of an Indians error. It wasn’t just the defense that failed, either. Trailing 7-3, Yan Gomes and Lindor walked to start the eighth, but they were stranded. The Indians left 10 men on base. The home team has won each game in the Indians-Yankees series. The Indians will have that going for them in Game 5 at sold out Progressive Field.

The Indians are hopeful designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion will be ready for Game 5. He sprained his right ankle sliding back into second base in the first inning of Game 2 and missed both games in New York. But beyond doubt, Kluber provides the best hope for the Indians. He’s like a life preserver that can keep an entire team and fan base afloat. ALDS Game 4: Tito’s minutiae by Jordan Bastian Asked what he discussed with Michael Brantley on the field in the eighth, when Greg Allen took over as a pinch-runner: “I just wanted to see — Chapman is obviously good. There are some stolen bases against him. I actually just wanted to talk to him a little bit before I just did it, just in case he was like, ‘I can do this. I can steal this base.’ He wasn’t quite there. I didn’t want to put him in a position where now he has to score from first on a double and he can’t. So that was why. I know it looked a little irregular, but I just wanted to talk to him first.” On sending Allen, who is a good defender, into the game in the DH slot: “You can’t do everything. There’s just no way around it, especially when you’re a player short. I thought tying the game, we had to get it tied before we could do anything. To leave him on the bench, it just didn’t make sense. You have to get it tied first.” On making in-game decisions without worrying about fan reaction: “I always do what I think is right. I also feel like, when it’s over, if I don’t have an answer when somebody questioned me, shame on me. Now, somebody else may not agree with that, which is fine. But I’ll always do what I think is right. Last night is a good example. We had Perez up and if we don’t hit for him, we’re going to hit for Urshela. So, Chapman was going to be in the game anyway. Since he’s coming in, make him face a righty and make him get another out. That was the idea. It was not a great scenario either way, but that’s what I thought would help us the most.” On Brantley’s swings last few games: “It’s pretty obvious that he’s not like mid-season locked in. I still think he competes and he’s intelligent. I’d bet you he’ll find a way to help us win, whether he lays a bunt down or fires one into left or fights one off. There’s a lot of belief in him, and I know it’s not easy. He hasn’t played very much.” On playing one batter short: “It’s not perfect, but I think that we’re making the right decision, though. Because, to not have Edwin, it hurt us last night, so to just write him off, if we could move on, that would be tough to do.” Asked if team thinks Encarnacion would be ready for the ALCS, if Indians advance: “Oh, yeah. Or we wouldn’t be doing this. Asked if Encarnacion could play in a Game 5 scenario: “I don’t know yet. How do you know? We’re hoping that he’ll be able to pinch-hit tonight. That’s kind of where we’re at. I have no idea. I would hope so. I hope.” Asked if Encarnacion absolutely could not hit in the eighth inning in Game 3: “No. He wasn’t available. I knew that.” On Jose Ramirez’s at-bats so far this series: “When you’re not real comfortable, sometimes you get where you’re fighting your mechanics a little bit, and that guy [Tanaka] last night would be the last guy I’d want to face if you’re a left-hander. So, he’s gotten in a little bit of a habit where he’s closed off and he’s coming out of his legs a little bit. The one thing, one, he’s fought like hell in his at-bats, and he ended up getting that base hit. And we’ve all seen, when he gets hot, he gets hotter than anybody. I think that’s what I was trying to explain before the playoffs, when people were talking about peaking and things like that. Hitting’s not like a running back running through the middle. You can feel as good as you want physically, but if you’re not swinging the bat great, it’s not that you’re not ready, it’s not that you’re not prepared. It’s just sometimes hitting can be a little finicky.” On Joe Smith’s success against Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez so far: “I think he’s a pretty good matchup for any right-hander, really. He’s real intelligent. The game doesn’t speed up on him. He’ll get beat every once in a while, but it’s not going to be because he doesn’t know what to do. It’s kind of a good calming affect out there, and you know he’s loving being out there. I loved it the other night. I think we were talking about it the other day. That game, when he came off the mound the

other day, that was probably the funnest part of the game for me. The whole in-between innings, we were in there laughing and high-fiving. That’s the way baseball is supposed to be.” On whether pitching on short rest can be a mental obstacle: “As much as they make it. I would say there’s something physical to it. And I would also say, in my opinion, Trevor is the exception to the rule. And I really mean that. Regardless of who it was, we would certainly put on our best face, whatever, we always do. Whatever can be a negative, we turn into a positive. But Trevor, I don’t think that this will enter into the game one bit. Now, he might not pitch as good, he might pitch great, but I don’t think it’s going to be because of the 24 hours. I think he actually relishes this.” On trusting Tyler Olson enough to have him take over for Andrew Miller in a 1–0 game: “Yeah it’s been a cool story. We don’t, too often, send Mickey out there with a 1–1 count. But we wanted to buy him some time so we thought, once they scored, then we’re thinking, ‘OK, let’s try to piece this together where they don’t score any more, but let’s not make Andrew throw 10 or 15 more pitches.’ That’s 10 or 15 he can throw tonight. But Olson’s been — they brought in a pinch hitter. It’s kind of exciting moving forward because you know going into it next year you’ve got a reliable left-hander. Those aren’t easy to find.” On Masahiro Tanaka: “He was filthy last night. That was — sheesh. The hope was that somebody, like Frankie, almost… To make him throw that pitch with a little less conviction. But, because Judge is 7-feet-7…” On Tanaka’s splitter looking good right out of the hand: “It looks like his fastball, and then it’s just not there. I know he hasn’t been like that all the time this year, but when he is, it’s pretty good.”

Documents

Indians can't cool Yanks' hot bats in G4 loss By Jordan ...cleveland.indians.mlb.com/documents/1/0/8/... · homer off Bryan Shaw in the sixth. MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Out in front: