Game 7
By
Well, that was amazing. I think this is an excellent summary:
They shouldn’t beat themselves up over it too much, though. Yes, the Indians did, technically speaking, blow a 3-1 lead in the World Series, but it never felt like they had a handle on it the way the Warriors should’ve had a handle on the Cavs. They weren’t the favorites coming into the Fall Classic and, I’d argue, their 3-1 lead never felt quite as secure as most 3-1 leads happen to be. The Indians didn’t blow it. The Cubs won it.
The central issue: the Indians had three starters. Maybe things would’ve been different if Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar were healthy and available, but they weren’t. That meant that Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer and Josh Tomlin had to handle it all. Kluber did his part in two starts and the other two did what they could, but it all fell to Kluber once again on this night and it was a bridge too far. He looked gassed from the get-go in Game 7, even if he lasted four innings. He probably should’ve been lifted earlier than he was. But Andrew Miller — the proxy for that fourth starter the Indians never had — wasn’t sharp either. If you go with Corey Kluber and Andrew Miller and the opposition still puts half a dozen on you, it just wasn’t meant to be.
Yes, they almost salavaged it. They pulled off an improbable comeback. The scored two runs off of Jon Lester, one earned, and two off of Aroldis Chapman, but those were gifts from Joe Maddon, really. Kyle Hendricks should’ve still been in the game when Lester was called. Chapman should’ve been better rested in this game — he was overused in Game 6 — or else he should’ve been yanked once it became obvious that he was out of gas. That Maddon didn’t trust his starter and put too much weight on his closer was a self-inflicted wound. Wounds which the Indians should never have been able to take advantage of. This game should not have been as close as it was.
Well, not just the pitching. The Cubs also have an amazing middle of the order — Rizzo, Bryant and Zobrist are the three best hitters in the series, Schwarber may very well be #4, and given the chance to win the game they did it. (I can’t be the only person who thought that Cleveland needed to get to Chapman in the bottom of the ninth.) The intentional walks didn’t help — Francona’s a great manager, but like Maddon this wasn’t his best work — but that’s just a tough order to get through.
Indeed, I need to think about this more, but I think you can make a case that this is the best team since the ’98 Yankees. It’s a statement against interest, but if you look at the quality of the talent and not just the win total/performance in the given year, I’d take them over the ’01 Mariners. (I can’t honestly say that the Yankees team that beat the Ms senseless in the playoffs had an inferior roster even if they finished 20 games behind them in that particular regular season.) Anyway, it’s a hell of a team; I wasn’t rooting for them but they deserved to win. And if they had to win at lest it was a historically good game.
…and, yes, we’re probably going to be stuck with this team for a while.