Game #6 Observations: Hand Can’t Hold Sox Down in the 9th, Chicago Wins Finale of Series 4-0 Over Indians

CLEVELAND – The Cleveland Indians first homestand of the shortened 2020 season is over, and while they still won four of six, there’s a bitter taste in fan’s mouths after Wednesday’s ugly 4-0 setback.

The Chicago White Sox took advantage of a wild and frankly not very good Brad Hand in the 9th inning of a scoreless game.

Hand gave up a leadoff double to shortstop Tim Anderson, and then what followed next is a formula of what not to do as a closer.

A walk, hit batter, sac fly, catcher interference on Beau Taylor, another sac fly (by then Adam Cimber was in the game) and a two-run single by Luis Robert made it a 4-0 affair.

That was more than enough on a night when the Indians did have some chances against Chicago number one starter Lucas Giolito, but were not able to cash in.

Giolito went six innings, allowing four hits with two walks and six strikeouts. The Sox pen of Evan Marshall, Aaron Bummer and Alex Colome each threw a shutout inning to close out the win.

The loss puts the Indians at 4-2 as stated, and now they will get another test as they head to Minnesota for a four-game weekend set with the Minnesota Twins starting on Thursday night.

After that the team will play two games in Cincinnati against the Reds before coming home for two against the Reds next Wednesday and Thursday.

Here are some observations from the setback to the Sox as the Tribe wasted what was a tremendous pitching outing by fifth starter Zach Plesac.

Another Solid Start

The Indians pitching rotation did little wrong over the first six games of the season, and clearly you can’t lay the loss on Wednesday night on the team’s fifth starter, Zach Plesac.

The second-year pitcher was dominant, setting a career-high in strikeouts with 11 (his previous high was seven) and not allowing a run in eight innings of work.

“I felt like I had a good game plan, where I wanted to execute, I think we just had a good game plan, was a lot of fun,” Plesac said.

The outing was all for nought, as Brad Hand’s 9th inning meltdown allowed the Sox to score four times, thus Plesac earned a hard fought no-decision against Sox ace Lucas Giolito.

“At the end of the day you can only control what you control, I was just focused on doing my part, let those guys do what they do, I’ll put in the same effort next time,” Plesac said.

Another aspect that needs to be talked about is the fact that Plesac didn’t walk a batter, something that all the Indians starters in this first go-around in the rotation did an excellent job of.

The club’s starters allowed a whopping two walks in the first time through the rotation, one each for Shane Bieber and Carlos Carrasco.

Plesac, Bieber and Carrasco all reached double digits in strikeouts in their first starts.

Again, you can’t say enough about how good these six pitchers performed to start the year.

Some will say the team should be 6-0, and you can make a case for that, but instead they will take their 4-2 mark to the Twin Cities to take on the Twins.

Giolito Shuts Down the Tribe Bats

White Sox ace Lucas Giolito has pitched well against the Indians in his outings against them, and that was back on display in the Sox win on Wednesday night.

Giolito allowed just four hits and two walks over six innings, and in the process struck out six Indians.

He was helped by his defense, which turned in two double plays to end innings in the second and fourth innings.

The Indians had their best chance in the 6th inning to score, as they had the bases loaded with two outs for Carlos Santana.

Santana flied out on an 0-2 pitch, not able to do much after fouling off a few pitches from Giolito.

The Tribe did load the bases in the ninth for Domingo Santana with Alex Colome on the mound, but a weak grounder to third ended the game.

A Hand in It

Indians closer Brad Hand is going to be the most talked about (and likely hated) man on social media in Cleveland over the next 24 hours after giving up four runs (3 earned) in the 9th to lose the game.

Hand’s awful inning started with a leadoff double to Tim Anderson, then he walked Yoan Moncada, and on a 1-2 pitch hit Jose Abreu.

He got Yasmani Grandal to hit a sac fly, but the damage was already done as the Sox took a 1-0 lead, and eventually had four cross the plate in the inning.

“Obviously the leadoff double, then I got myself in trouble with the walk and hit by pitch, was trying to get a strikeout with the sac fly, just fell apart right there,” Hand said.

There at some point with the velocity of Hand not where it needs to be decisions made on what to do with Hand on night’s when he simply doesn’t have it.

Terry Francona clearly is not ready to go to another pitcher out of the pen, but if things like Wednesday continue, he may not have a choice down the road.

“Yesterday he was 92, 93 (miles per hour), that gun up there is about a tick or two slow, that part is coming, that’s not the end all be all, you’re looking for life, for swing and miss, there’s so much trust in him as a competitor, sometimes you’ve got to be patient,” Francona said.

How much patience the Indians and Francona can have with Hand is the big question.

Moving On

Now that the first homestand is in the books with the Indians going 4-2, the team will head to Minnesota to take on their biggest AL Central rival in the Twins.

The Tribe will play four in Minnesota, and then two in Cincinnati before coming right back home to host the Reds on Wednesday, August 5th and 6th.

After two games at Progressive Field the team will head on the road to take on the same Chicago White Sox in a three-game set.

The club will get their first off day of the shortened 60-game slate on Monday, August 10th before then hosting the Chicago Cubs on the 11th of August for a two-game set, and then another day off August 13th.