Hit or go home

Well, that didn't go so well!   So now we are on to game 5.

We will be at home.   We will have the AL Cy Young award winner on the mound.    Miller and Allen will be rested.  While nothing is ever a lock, this gives us a great chance to win, right?

The only problem is in baseball there are no style points.   The one with the most runs wins and no matter how well your team pitches, if it doesn't score runs you don't win.

Just look at the Nationals yesterday.  Scherzer has a no-hitter through 6 innings.   The only problem is that his team could only muster 3 hits and 1 run for the entire game.   It left his great pitching performance vulnerable to any hiccup and the bullpen with the same vulnerability.  The end result is that the Cubs got a run in the 7th and one in the 8th to win 2-1.

If the Yankees needed a blueprint of how to beat a Cy Young award winner at his best, there you have it.   Just make sure the other team's offense sucks.  Just like in Game 3.

The post-season is about performance and, usually, performance above what is seen in the regular season, even if only for short spurts (insert Jay Bruce in games 1 and 2).

We have a bunch of holes in our lineup.   DH, C, 3B.   That is the given.   The issue is that Lindor isn't hitting and Ramirez isn't hitting.   Without those two there is a chance we won't be able to score any runs.  Another 5 feet on Lindor's drive in the second game and we might not be having this conversation...but the problem would still exist as that would have given Lindor only two hits in 3 games at that point.   We need to hit better.   We need to find a way.  People need to get it done.  Heck, Kyle Schwarber hadn't played almost the whole season and he came back to help the Cubs win last year.  We need some of that plus our main guys need to hit.  

No matter how well we pitch we need to score some runs.  I mean, if I am Francona I am even considering putting my backup catcher as my DH.  That's how bad the hitting situation is.  I mean Encarnacion on one leg is better than Brantley whose only hit  this series was on a meatball over the middle of the plate with the Indians behind by 4 and could give the illusion he has found his stroke.  Hmmmm?!?

So, the formula for winning is obviously to have Kluber be Kluber and the bullpen to be in shutdown mode.   But we need to hit.  Lindor and Ramirez need big games.   We need to get about 6 hits and some runs/RBIs out of Jackson, Bruce, Santana and Kipnis and we need to get game 2-like production out of our DH, C, 3B (probably 4 times on base, good small ball and no double plays in 12 plate appearances).

I have never been as at ease about a crucial game as I am about this one.  Not because I think we have it in the bag, because that is not what I think.   The reason I am at ease is that the formula for winning this game is simple: just hit....or go home for the winter.  No matter how the Indians pitch, if they don't hit, it doesn't matter.  Just ask Max Scherzer.