CLEVELAND -- Young players can bring a lot of benefits to a roster, including drive and energy. But the downfalls that come with the inexperience have really started to show in the Indians’ last week of games.
After leaving the bases loaded on five separate occasions over the last two days, the Indians once again struggled to push some runs across the plate in their 3-2 loss to the Astros Saturday evening at Progressive Field, despite a tremendous effort from their bullpen, which tossed four scoreless frames. The defeat extended the club’s losing streak to a season-high five games.
“They take a lot of pride in being available,” Indians manager Terry Francona said of his relievers. “And that means a lot to us right now. We’re going through a challenging time, but when we do it together and we have guys pulling in the same direction, it sure makes it a lot better.”
During this skid, the Indians have combined to hit just .121 with runners in scoring position, including 1-for-8 on Saturday. The team was on the heels of stranding a season-high 15 batters on base the night before, and when Francona was asked why he thought this was the case, he explained how youth could be playing a role.
“I think there’s probably multiple reasons,” Francona said. “Some of it is inexperience and not understanding the pitcher’s in a bind, and we start to expand to get overly aggressive. They’re looking at our lineup and you got a veteran pitcher that’s navigating his way pretty smartly, too. So different reasons.”
On average, a typical team in MLB has a collective chase rate of 27.2%. Entering Saturday, the Indians had posted a chase rate of 28.6%, which ranked 10th in the Majors. But that number starts to increase as runners get on. With runners in scoring position, the team posted a 31.4% chase rate entering Saturday’s contest, proving Francona’s point that hitters have tended to expand their strike zones in those high-leverage situations.
And for a roster that’s been forced to get even younger as the season has gone on due to injuries to key veteran players, snapping this skid against Astros righty Jake Odorizzi, who boasted an MLB-leading 15-inning scoreless streak entering his outing, wasn’t the easiest task. The Indians were able to plate two runs (one earned) against Odorizzi, but he limited the offense to four hits in six innings, while the Houston bullpen didn’t permit a hit the rest of the night.
“[Odorizzi] can elevate his fastball and then he can [use his] cutter, slider, breaking ball, whatever,” Francona said. “He kind of shapes it a little different. And then he throws a splitter to the lefty. A pretty good veteran pitcher. We knew coming in, even in his limited innings, there [were] a lot fewer hits than innings coming in. I mean, he’s a pretty good pitcher.”
The Indians had run into their fair share of bad luck at the plate this year, especially during the first few weeks of the season. But what’s been different about this stretch is their expected batting average (xBA, based on exit velocities and launch angles) hasn’t been as high as they’ve been used to.
Entering Saturday, the team owned a .229 collective batting average on the year with a .244 xBA. Over the last four games, the Indians posted a .213 average with a .221 xBA. And when there have been runners in scoring position during this skid, the club’s .134 xBA is just slightly higher than its .120 average. But Cleveland is remaining optimistic, knowing that timely hitting can be a switch that flips back on at any time.
“I wouldn’t say the offense is struggling,” starter Eli Morgan said. “I mean, they put up [12] hits [on Friday]. Timely hitting is something that comes and goes. I would say it’s more unlucky than the offense not being there. They’ve been there for us all year. They’ll continue to hit. It’s the game of baseball. You’ll have your days. Today was one of them. But no, I don’t feel any extra pressure with our offense. They’ve done a great job for us all year.”