Rant Alert - Hide the Women and Children and Don't Read Unless You Want to Be Further Depressed About Your Team

 If you are reading this you must like repeatedly hitting yourself on the hand with a hammer.

Because that is what it feels like watching the Guardians right now.

I was at Petco Park again tonight watching my favorite team. Indians' logo hat, red Guardians logo shirt, although it was cold enough you probably couldn't see it under my zipped up gray hoodie.

But a funny thing happened tonight.  I found that sometimes when you go to the game if you pay close attention there are things that you see that you don't see on TV.

Here is what I witnessed tonight, some of which some of you saw on TV, some of which I doubt if you did.

• After Ramirez popped out weakly to the first baseman to end the top of the first, he walked, LITERALLY WALKED,  as slow as he could back towards the 3rd base line.  He was walking so slowly  between Civale and homeplate that Civale literally had to stand on the mound and not start his warmups and wait for Ramirez to complete his snails-pace walk back towards the 3rd base line.  What is up with that? Is Ramirez just that clueless or is he just that inconsiderate that he was more concerned with himself than with letting his pitcher get ready for his start?  Note that the Guardians didn't exactly pop out of the dugout to bring Ramirez his equipment, either.  BTW, maybe totally coincidentally, Civale gave up a leadoff HR to Tatis Jr. after this occurred.
• Later in the game, I think it was after the top of the 6th after I think Kwan made the last out, no one came out of the dugout.  It seemed like forever until his teammates joined him on the field for the next half inning.  It was almost like they were having a team meeting in the dugout before they went back out to the field.  It was the weirdest thing I can remember at a ball game. Now maybe it was just me but my guess is I would notice if guys took a long time to take the field.  But I never remember seeing that before.
• Again, this may just be me but the Guardians throwing the ball around the horn after an out just looks weird to me.  It probably is that I don't remember how it goes but I thought the second baseman as supposed to be involved.  On at least a couple of occasions I think the ball stayed on the left side of the infield, going to Ramirez to Rosario to Ramirez and then throwing back to the mound or Ramiez throwing it out of play because the pitcher, while waiting for this all to happen, had already gotten a new baseball from the umpire.  Again, maybe I am reading too much into this stuff but it just seemed weird to me that the ball didn't go to Gimenez during this exchange.
• I also have to ask something that has been bothering me.  On TV in the dugout when the Guardians are batting it looks like Ramirez and Rosario are over in one corner of the dugout by themselves talking and maybe looking at a tablet watching videos.  I have seen this enough that it really bothers me that these two guys always seem to be off by themselves.  Almost like it is a clique.  Well, good teams don't have cliques and it seemed to me like last year they were all in this together picking each other up.  This year, not so much.    And I can't get that vision out of my head of Ramirez and Rosario always by themselves, talking JUST to each other.  You know, your team leaders should be with their teammates during the game, giving encouragement, talking to everyone. It just doesn't seem like that is happening this year.  But, agan, it could be just me.  But it makes you wonder if it is possible that Ramirez is exerting undo influence to keep his underperforming buddy in the lineup, doesn't it?  This is especially concerning to me when Rosario is not just a bad player right now, but is getting away with a lot of inexcusable stuff, like twice in this series making bonehead baserunning plays (hit by the ball killing a rally in the first inning of game 1 and getting caught off first base in the game tonight in the 9th when we were down 5).  That added to him making some really inept plays like the play he made up the middle tn game 1 that he botched so badly it looked like he just threw the ball behind him instead of to second base.  Yet he still plays!!!
• When Zunino allowed Tatis Jr. to steal 3rd and then couldn't block the ball to keep him from scoring, I really was beside myself.  Then Hentges allowed the HR to Soto and was removed.  But I couldn't get it out of my head that this is like the 1000th time this year that I have seen Zunino screw up a simple block of a pitch in a high leverage situation (2-0 at the time).  It was irrelevant whether Soto hit a HR, Zunino should have blocked the ball.
• Then in the 7th the Guardians loaded the bases.  I applaud Gimenez for taking a walk with runners on first and third with two outs and Straw on deck.  Maybe he thought Francona was going to hit for Straw.  Maybe he trusted Straw to come through like he rarely ever has done so far. Or maybe he just knew he could draw a walk and didn't want to be the one who screwed up the scoring opportunity, so he took the easy way out and passed on the responsibility to the next guy.  Whatever.  He did the right thing by taking what was given to him.  
• Then Francona did not hit for Straw.  And Straw proceeded to put up the most weak-ass at bat you could imagine in a situation where the Guardians really needed a spark.   In fact he likely should have been called out on the pitch before he lunged weakly at the pitch that struck him out.
• So we come to the 8th and Arias draws a walk with one out.  Game probably out of reach because, well, it was 4-0 and  The Guardians barely had a pulse at that point.  As I know has been documented elsewhere, Francona fails to pinch hit Freeman for Zunino.  Was Francona just trying to let the .179 hitting Zunino redeem himself for this bad hitting and bad defense the entire game/season/decade/century or was he just so clueless he forgot that he actually had a legitimate hitter Tyler Freeman on the bench and TWO backup catchers waiting to replace Zunino?  Not sure but suffice it to say that Zunino did the worst possible thing: hit into a double play to take whatever little hope the Guardians had left at that point and kill it, dead as a door nail. 
• After the game Francona, as he always seems to do, belttles every writer (except for those asked by Cleveland Guardians employee Andre Knott) who asks him a legitimate question after something that happened in the game, this time apparently giving Paul Hoynes a dirty look and a stupid answer when Hoynes asked why he didn't pinch hit for Straw with the bases loaded.  He probably would have given the same inane answer if asked why he didn't pinch hit Freeman for Zunino in the 8th but after Hoynes was seared by Francona's gaze, no one had the balls to ask the follow-on question about Zunino in the 8th. 
• So, back to the game itself.  After the top of the 8th the pain is almost over and all I had to do was endure the bottom of the 8th.  Curry comes on and gives up a HR to Cruz and gets the next two outs.  Then he walks Tatis who, with a 5-0 lead against a hapless opponent who has never scored 5 runs in the 9th this season and hasn't even scored 5 runs in one game and 8 innings of this series, proceeds to steal second base just to rub a little salt in the wound.  Now I have had to endure Tatis, Soto and Mercado hotdogging it for almost two games right now, especially Tatis, but this was just the last straw.  I mean really, you jerk, padding your stats when the game is really out of reach?  Really?  That is just bush league but, you know what, you ARE bush league so what should I expect.  Then, as if I hadn't had to endure enough, there was Rosario's bonehead baserunning play in the 9th.  It made me want to hide my Guardians' hat, don my souvenir Padres Hawaiian and slink out before anyone knew I was a fan of the other team.

I have to say that I think Francona has lost this team.  He has lost it because his veterans have no accountability, just like when he lost his job in Boston.  He has lost the team because he constantly gives veterans chances and doesn't seem to hold them accountable for their bad play by benching them.  He has lost this team by being probably the worst manager in baseball as far as knowing which plays to challenge.   And, finally, he has lost this team's confidence in him by not giving rookies a chance when his veterans continue to suck and NOT be leaders on this team.   Hey, Francona has earned a lot of street cred with the fans in Cleveland and so he should, based on what he has done.  But everything I saw tonight tells me he needs to start acting like a manager and holding guys accountable, not JUST for bad play but for bad chemistry, as well.  In my opinion he isn't doing that and is, from what I can see, allowing bad chemistry to fester on his team.  

Again, maybe I am wrong but what I saw tonight and what I have seen a lot of this season is embarrassing to the Cleveland baseball franchise and embarrassing to the lifelong fans of the Cleveland Indians/Guardians.

Now I could end this by saying we are not alone in this embarrassment and how it must be embarrassing to San Diego fans to have a losing record with a $255+ million payroll this year.  You can actually hear it in their voices as they 'root' for their team (at least the fans who are there to root for the whole team, not just Tatis, Soto and Machado), imploring their underperforming players to, well, stop underperforming.    But I won't do that as that would just be sour grapes and if you ask their fans they would just say "Well, we're obviously good enough to kick your team's butt" to which I would have to respond "Yeah, with our manager and our players, who can't do that?".