J/C
Cleveland Indians' 'Zombie Baseball' turns them into a dead team walkin'Thursday, September 06, 2012
By Paul Hoynes, The Plain Dealer
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Could it have moved to a different team? The Yankees, perhaps.
The Indians just won a three-game series against the Tigers and are 3-2 in September. The Yankees, meanwhile, have been run down and cornered in the American League East.
Or is Zombie Baseball strictly an Indians curse? And has it disappeared into the mist and darkness with its mission accomplished?
Hard to say, but for 33 games in 36 days, it lived and festered in Chief Wahoo's soul. When it fled -- and no one really knows if it's gone for good -- it left a season in ruin and a franchise in as vulnerable a state as when Dick and Dave Jacobs purchased it in 1986.
"It's over with," catcher Lou Marson said of the stretch of terrible baseball. "We have to put it in the past, but it definitely wrecked our season."
On July 26, Carlos Santana and Travis Hafner hit consecutive home runs off Detroit's Justin Verlander to erase a 3-1 deficit on the way to a 5-3 victory. The Indians were 50-49 and 3 1/2 games out of first place in the AL Central.
Then the trap door opened and the Indians dropped through it. Zombie Baseball -- mindless in the field, on the mound and at the plate -- took over.
The Indians lost 28 of the next 33 games through Aug. 31. Immediately after the big win against Verlander and the Tigers, they lost 11 straight, one short of the club record. After going 5-24 in August, in which they tied a franchise record for the most defeats in a month, including additional losing streaks of nine and six games, they were 55-77 and 17 1/2 games out of first place.
The speed of the fall was shocking.
"I've never been through a month like this anywhere . . . minor leagues, winter ball or in the big leagues as a coach or as a manager," Tribe manager Manny Acta said.
Maybe more surprising than the swiftness of the descent was that there was still one team below the Tribe in the division when the free fall finally slowed. From July 26 through Wednesday, Kansas City went 20-18 to climb past the Indians into third place. But Minnesota went 16-23 to keep a death grip on the basement.
"No one wants to finish last," Acta said.
The fall damaged the Indians so dramatically because they had no equity in their won-loss record. The 2011 Indians knew about equity. On May 23, they were 30-15 with a seven-game lead in the Central. Their subsequent fall wasn't complete until September and they still managed to finish second because of their strong start.
This year, however, the skid hit when the Tribe was 50-49.
"Unfortunately, the month dictated our season," Acta said. "We were close, but it wasn't like we were 10 games ahead. When you're playing just around .500, you just can't afford to have a month like we did."
During those 33 games, the Indians managed to win consecutive games once. Why couldn't someone apply the breaks?
"Why is the sky blue?" closer Chris Perez said. "There is stuff you can't answer. It was bad baseball. That's the easiest way to say it."
A scout from another big-league team, who saw Zombie Baseball at its height, said: "When you start losing games in bunches, players overextend themselves. Position players start trying to hit five-run homers and pitchers try to strike out everybody instead of just playing the game. That's what I saw with the Indians.
"I think they also have to make major changes in their pitching program. I didn't see any adjustments being made. They brought Ubaldo [Jimenez] over there to be an ace and now he's a No. 5. What's going on with that?"
Pitching coach Scott Radinsky was fired on Aug. 9 after the losing had been temporarily stalled with a victory over the Twins a day earlier. Ruben Niebla, pitching coach at Class AAA Columbus, replaced him on an interim basis.
Radinsky wasn't the only victim. Derek Lowe was designated for assignment Aug. 2 and Josh Tomlin was placed on the disabled list with a sore right elbow Aug. 13, then had Tommy John surgery nine days later. That ended the line for two of the five starters who opened the season.
When the season ends, there could be more casualties -- with Acta, General Manager Chris Antonetti and President Mark Shapiro being reviewed by ownership.
During the stretch of Zombie Baseball, the starters went 5-21 with a 7.58 ERA (134 earned runs in 159 innings). No. 1 starter Justin Masterson went 4-4 with a 7.00 ERA (35 earned runs in 45 innings). No. 2 starter Ubaldo Jimenez went 1-7 with a 7.48 ERA (36 earned runs in 431/3 innings).
The bullpen, meanwhile, has pitched the second-most innings in the big leagues since the All-Star break.
"This game is all about pitching," Acta said.
Meanwhile, the Indians' hitters offered no comfort to their pitchers. They were outscored, 215-105, barely averaging 3.2 runs per game over the 33 games. They hit .222 (242-for-1,089) as a team and .195 (45-for-231) with runners in scoring position.
The four hitters who have carried the Indians much of the season were mostly silent during the skid: Jason Kipnis .170 (17-for-100), two homers, eight RBI; Asdrubal Cabrera .240 (29-for-121), two homers, nine RBI; Shin-Soo Choo .223 (27-for-121), three homers, 13 RBI; and Michael Brantley .257 (29-for-113), two homers, nine RBI.
"No one thought it would last that long," Kipnis said. "I doubt anyone on this team has ever dealt with a streak like that.
"But it absolutely builds character. When you can say you've gone through that, some of the lows don't seem as low anymore."
That's a good thing because who knows when Zombie Baseball will strike again?
http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2012/09/cleveland_indians_zombie_baseb.html***********************
If I had a sig, this might be a good one ...
