☆ 2016 ALCS ☆ Toronto Blue Jays vs CLEVELAND INDIANS ☆
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Maybe it was the layoff or the law of averages or the Laz Diaz strike zone or, you know, good pitching in big spots from Corey Kluber and Co. But the Blue Jays' bountiful bats of the American League Wild Card Game and the AL Division Series rounds were not in attendance for Game 1 of the AL Championship Series, and Toronto is counting on them to return in Game 2 today (4 p.m. ET on TBS, as well as Sportsnet and RDS in Canada).
"This game is not easy," Toronto slugger Edwin Encarnacion said. "We try to do the best we can do, especially when you've got runners in scoring position. You want to bring them in, but sometimes it doesn't happen. We're just going to try to get them [saturday]."
It's who the Blue Jays are going to go against that has become an interesting Game 2 storyline.
You'll remember, of course, that the way the Indians were initially constructed called for a Carlos Carrasco or, failing that, a Danny Salazar sighting in an October Game 2. But that was before Carrasco got hit in the right hand and Salazar suffered a right flexor strain, ravaging a once-great rotation.
Plan C was Trevor Bauer, but his drone hobby got the best of him in advance of Game 1, when he lacerated his right pinkie finger repairing his unmanned aircraft, necessitating 10 stitches and a bump back to Monday night's Game 3.
So, enter Josh Tomlin, whose rise up the ranks in the Tribe's rotation has been a rapid one that now pits him against 20-game winner J.A. Happ at a time when the Indians are trying to build a commanding edge that they can take with them through customs.
"It really doesn't affect me at all," Tomlin said. "It will be on my fifth day, I'll be on normal rest. When I found out I was going [saturday], I stuck to the game plan that I was going to do Monday and go out there and compete and win a game."
The pressure is on the Blue Jays to win this one, because while 18 of 46 Game 1 losers in the ALCS have gone on to win it, only three teams in 25 tries have fallen in an 0-2 hole and come back.
If we add in the National League component, it's just five teams in 46 tries in the LCS.
Toronto stranded seven runners in the first six innings Friday night, before Francisco Lindor broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the sixth. The Blue Jays relied on the home run to produce 46 percent of their offense in 2016, so it's no secret that they can thrive via the long ball. They'll need it to even things up in Game 2, and the good news is they will be facing Tomlin on the heels of the highest homer rate (1.9 per nine innings) of his career.
That said, Tomlin pitched in a tough Fenway environment of Game 3 of the ALDS and turned in five strong innings in which he allowed two runs on four hits, none of which cleared the wall. Happ, meanwhile, pitched around traffic in his Game 2 ALDS start against the Rangers, giving up nine hits and walking a batter, but only allowing one run in five innings.
Neither of these guys is going to light up the radar gun. Happ and Tomlin are a study in solid results with less-than-scintillating stuff.
"You learn how to pitch with whatever you have," Happ said.
The Indians are making the best of what they have left on their pitching staff, and that's why winning Game 1 with their ace -- indeed, their only truly bankable rotation weapon -- was so vital for them. In Game 2, all eyes will again be on their use (or lack thereof) of Andrew Miller out of the bullpen after his 31-pitch effort in Game 1 and with an off-day looming. Cleveland manager Terry Francona has deployed Miller as a cure-all, and that puts all the more emphasis on the need for Toronto to get good hacks off Tomlin early.
The Blue Jays will have a big extra hand on deck in their 'pen, with Francisco Liriano having served his mandatory time nursing the concussion suffered in the ALDS. At the same time, they were unsure of the status of second baseman Devon Travis, whose continued right knee issues prompted an early exit from Game 1 and an MRI exam.
For all the storylines that pervade a series, right now the only one that truly matters is whether Toronto will have better luck finding the big hit that evaded the club against Kluber. Tomlin is stingy on the walk front, but that also means he's in and around the zone, and the Blue Jays need to pounce on any and all mistakes.
"That's what playoff baseball comes down to," Toronto center fielder Kevin Pillar said. "Who is going to get the big hit?"
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10/15 4:05 PM - The Money Lines on today's game (vegasinsider.com)
905 Toronto open - 125 now concensus -126 - the road favorite today, close game
906 Cleveland open +115 now consensus +115
TOTAL RUNS - 8½ OVER/ UNDER, no Kluber today
Pitchers: (TOR) J.A. Happ (L) (CLE) Josh Tomlin
Overnight Pitching Change: Cleveland - J. Tomlin for T. Bauer | TV: TBS | PARTLY CLOUDY, WIND OUT TO CENTER 11-16, GUSTY. GAME TEMP 72, RH 57% HEAT INDEX 73 - A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN CLEVELAND!
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Asshole tbs annnouncers blame Toronto's lack of offensive production on the break between series instead of Cleveland pitching.
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Asshole tbs annnouncers blame Toronto's lack of offensive production on the break between series instead of Cleveland pitching.
Asshole tbs annnouncers blame Toronto's lack of offensive production on the break between series instead of Cleveland pitching.
Maybe they have to tear up their script AGAIN and start to say "Indians win".
But they were raving over Miller time, even Pedro.
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The Blue Jays are, after all, in a 2-0 hole in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series against the Indians, which means proper perspective is in order going into Game 3 at Rogers Centre (8 p.m. ET Monday on TBS, as well as Sportsnet and RDS in Canada). And as we dig deep into our encyclopedic knowledge of postseason's past, we go way, way back to find a plucky team that was actually in a 2-0 hole in a best-of-five and rallied to win the series:
The 2015 Toronto Blue Jays!
"We were here last year," said noted historian Troy Tulowitzki, who remembers last year's AL Division Series uprising against the Rangers. "There's no quit in us. ... We'll definitely make it interesting. I promise you that."
Plenty of factors align to make that promise sound anything but empty.
The Indians once again maximized the value of their home-field edge at the start of a series, and they stared down the Red Sox in Fenway Park in Game 3 of the ALDS. But the much-larger sample that is the regular season suggests they were simply not the same team on the road (notably, 1.5 fewer runs per game).
More meaningfully, in the context of this particular series, the Indians' formula of riding Andrew Miller for all he's worth will be complicated by the concept of three games in three days. Cleveland will also send Trevor Bauer out to the mound to oppose Marcus Stroman just days after his hobby of routine drone maintenance caused him to slice his right pinkie finger, necessitating 10 stitches and pushing him back from a Game 2 assignment. The Tribe is expectant that Bauer's finger will be a non-issue in this start, but there's no telling if the cut will open or otherwise harm his feel for his pitches and if the bullpen will be put to work early.
"[Friday night] they were going to put a couple more stitches in just to ensure the healing, and they decided not to," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "They thought even in a day's time, it was already progressing very well. I think he's going to be just fine."
It's still not out of the question that the Tribe could bring back Corey Kluber on short rest in Game 4 on Tuesday, especially if Bauer can't give them length in this one.
"There's a little bit of ambiguity there," Francona said. "Trevor with his finger, with [penciled-in Game 4 starter Mike] Clevinger not being stretched out ... I think we'll go game by game. And all of our pitchers are unbelievably cooperative, which is not shocking."
What's shocking, to some, is how punchless Toronto's bats were in Games 1 and 2.
Kluber danced around traffic in Game 1, and Josh Tomlin and his curveball tied them up in knots in Game 2. In both games, Miller zipped through the lineup with five strikeouts and Cody Allen nailed down the save. The Blue Jays, as a team, have compiled a .159 batting average with 25 strikeouts in 63 at-bats.
"History shows that we can hit the baseball," Russell Martin said. "It definitely would be nice to start doing that."
The Indians really aren't hitting, either. They're hitting .182 as a ballclub, but Francisco Lindor has come through with three huge RBIs -- a two-run homer that served as Game 1's only production and the go-ahead RBI single in Game 2. The Tribe will have a tough assignment against Stroman, who in two regular-season starts against Cleveland allowed just two runs with 15 strikeouts in 14 innings. But the Indians also believe they are due to break out, too.
"We've got five or six guys in the lineup who haven't even checked in yet," Jason Kipnis said. "The fact that we scraped out two wins, holding home field, with only a few guys swinging the bat well, is very encouraging."
》History is encouraging for the Indians, too. In the time that the LCS has been a best-of-seven, 24 of the 27 teams that have taken a 2-0 lead have advanced to the World Series.《
Even if you adjust those numbers to metric units with the move to Canada, it's a high percentage.
That said, the Blue Jays didn't get this far without a high amount of faith in their abilities, and they'll have a raucous Canadian crowd behind them in Game 3, as well as the knowledge that they've come back from worse.
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10/17 8:05 PM - Game 3 Money Line (vegasinsider.com)
951 Cleveland open +175 now concensus +170
952 Toronto open -200 now concensus -200 Toronto a big home favorite!
Total runs - 9 OVER/UNDER
Pitchers: (CLE) Trevor Bauer
(TOR) Marcus Stroman NOTES:
Open Line: Consists of the first betting line received from one of our Las Vegas or Online sportsbooks.
VI Consensus: Consists of the current betting line which occurs most frequently among our list of Las Vegas and Online sportsbooks.
All Game Times are Eastern Standard Time.
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Somehow I think that money line is a bit high for Toronto being that they've been stunned by this hot Indians team, Toronto can't be considered hot......but we'll see.
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....."And as we dig deep into our encyclopedic knowledge of postseason's past, we go way, way back to find a plucky team that was actually in a 2-0 hole in a best-of-five and rallied to win the series:".....Why does that article say a best of five?
It must refer back to when Toronto was in an 0-2 situation in a 5 game series and won.
Not the best analogy really except if Toronto sweeps at home they will be +1 going back to Cleveland and their home field advantage.
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This is the most important thing to remember going forward. .......
》History is encouraging for the Indians, too. In the time that the LCS has been a best-of-seven, 24 of the 27 teams that have taken a 2-0 lead have advanced to the World Series.《
Now they just have to close out the deal.
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