October 16, 2016

Playoff Prospectus

Terry Francona and The Funky Bunch

by Ashley Varela

Printer-friendly

Contact Author

In 1993, Mark Wahlberg released The Marky Mark Workout: Form ... Focus ... Fitness on VHS. The tape, which has a runtime of 70 minutes and can be purchased for $12 on Amazon, features a bare-chested, semi-popular rapper executing French curls, tricep pushdowns, and stiff-legged deadlifts in track pants and a backward ballcap. Around the 10-minute mark, a "Triple-Threat Superset" is preceded by some tasteful black-and-white footage, during which Marky Mark gazes into the camera and murmurs: “Finally got to the fun part, as you can see I’m hanging by the pool with some fly honeys.”

This is a thing that should not exist--and yet, inexplicably, for the cost of an upper-deck seat during a Sunday matinee at the Oakland Coliseum, you can own 70 minutes of footage that the present Mark Wahlberg probably wishes hadn’t been immortalized on tape (it’s of some consolation that I was not able to find evidence that the video made the jump to any DVD format).

Here, too, are the Cleveland Indians. They shouldn’t be here, bench-pressing Blue Jays hitters in the ALCS with a pitching staff that lacks a working Danny Salazar or Carlos Carrasco--and yet, inexplicably, with a fortitude and ease that flies in the face of their late-season setbacks, they swept through the ALDS in three games and hold a 2-0 lead in the Championship Series.

Josh Tomlin set the stage for another impressive run by Terry Francona’s bullpen, fashioning a run, two walks, and six strikeouts in 5 ⅔ innings. He reached for his curveball more than any other pitch, working it low in the zone for 18 strikes in 36 pitches:

The result? Two of six strikeouts were delivered via the curve, with more than a few of the Blue Jays left hanging before Tomlin went to his cutter to finish off the at-bat.

Backing Tomlin’s efforts: Carlos Santana’s 109.6 mph home run which, according to Statcast, was both Santana’s hardest-hit ball from the right side of the plate in 2016 and the second-hardest hit off of J.A. Happ this season.

Francisco Lindor, who provided some late-inning heroics during the first set of the ALCS, returned in the third inning with a game-winning RBI single to preserve Tomlin’s lead.

Tomlin exited in the sixth at 85 pitches, leaving right-hander Bryan Shaw to pick up the final out of the inning and pave the way for Andrew Miller’s second relief appearance in back-to-back nights. Miller, who has been the subject of some controversy over Francona’s bullpen management style, was as calm as he had appeared in Game 1 of the ALCS and even more impressive on his second go-around. He struck out five of six batters faced, tossing 1 ⅔ innings without allowing a runner and setting the table perfectly for closer Cody Allen.

Allen, who needed just 11 pitches to get through the ninth inning of Game 1 on Friday night, parsed out 13 pitches through the middle of the order. Edwin Encarnacion battled through seven pitches before going down on a knuckle curve, while Jose Bautista lasted just five pitches before he whiffed on a high fastball. Troy Tulowitzki, meanwhile, grabbed the first heater he saw and plunged it right into the heart of the outfield for the final out of the game.

It feels illogical to trust what the Indians have going right now, especially with a shallow rotation and their pattern of holding one-run leads in three of five playoff games this October. Underestimating them, however, hasn’t worked out too well for their opponents so far. With Trevor Bauer set to take Game 3 after healing from his drone-inflicted injury, the Blue Jays will need to get creative to avoid becoming the target of the Indians’ next postseason sweep.

Ashley Varela is an author of Baseball Prospectus. Follow @wcoastfangirl
Click here to see Ashley's other articles. You can contact Ashley by clicking here