Thoughts from Game 3 and thinking about Game 4

Look, this is baseball.   Francona talks about being able to survive the ups and downs of the playoffs. 

I was reading Tom Verduzzo's (sp?) column about how Indians fans should be aware of what chokers the Indians are as they have lost 16 of 20 elimination games in the playoffs over the years.   Well, I have been drinking the Francona koolaid and I am not fazed by that attempt at baiting Indians fans or giving Yankees fans hope...or trying to get people to watch to up the ratings. 

Last night's game does give us some things to talk about.   Here are a few:

1. Michael Brantley is lost.   Mark McGwire, late in his career, was having lower extremity problems and said something like: 'I have no base.  You can't hit without a base.'  By that he meant if you are having leg/foot problems you can't generate any power.   What's left is rolling over a lot of balls and being late of pitches that you would normally hit.  Brantley is put in an unusual situation.   He wants to play and the Indians need him to be productive.  This isn't working.   Time to hope Encarnacion comes back...but with a bum ankle he has no base either.

2. Regarding Encarnacion, I said that in the playoffs you can survive two holes in your lineup and, with the Indians' pitching, maybe even three nearly automatic outs.   But 4 or more guys who can't hit in the playoff environment leads to what you saw last night.  In the 9-8 game our lower hitters actually helped out and they were productive in the 4-0 game, in terms of getting on base.    Right now we have Urshela, our catcher and our DH as unproductive.  We could survive that IF Ramirez was being Ramirez.  But he isn't.   He currently looks like the current version of Michael Brantley.  If there has been a goat so far in this series it is Ramirez.  He really needs to pick it up for the rest of the playoffs or the rest of the playoffs won't be that long.

3. Jay Bruce has been effective but what you see is what you get.   Don't expect him to hit more than .250 in the playoffs with some power.   I would like to see him walk some and be more selective.  The way he and Ramirez were flailing at Tanaka's dirtballs was more like I would have expected out of Yandy Diaz, that is, out of a rookie.  

Regarding tonight's game, it will be interesting.  Severino has had a great year.  I don't expect his night tonight to end like his playoff game against Minnesota so Bauer needs to be on.  As far as Bauer, I don't think he is blowing smoke about the short rest.   I think he really does have the ability, maybe more than any other pitcher on the Indians' roster, of being effective on short rest.   Still, he has never done it so there is some fear that he might not be as in control as he was in Game 1.  And,no, Mr. Verduzzo, that isn't because of any predisposition to the Indians losing elimination games.  It's just because he hasn't done it before.   But, as usual, I trust in Tito.  I would rather have Bauer starting than Tomlin, especially against the Yankees.  And I don't know what happened to Salazar, although I expect to see him eat innings tonight if the game gets ugly for the Indians early.

This is playoff baseball.   As Livingston said in the Plain Dealer today, there will be angst.   As Francona said, he tries to set his team up to handle that angst and think towards the next game. 

What the Indians have accomplished this season gives me peace.  It really does, just like last year's 7 game loss in the WS left me peaceful on what the Indians accomplished.  After this series, after this season, I will still have that peace and still be a diehard Indians' fan.  Nothing will change.  Go Tribe!