Tyler Naquin's misplay proves costly in Game 6 loss to Cubs
CLEVELAND – Tyler Naquin said he should have taken over the play. Lonnie Chisenhall said he should have caught the ball.
That was expected. Good teammates have each other’s back, and the Cleveland Indians are not about to start turning on each other one win short of a championship.
But they picked a bad time to commit the kind of costly mistakes they typically avoid, and against an opponent gathering momentum that will be hard to reverse.
The Indians watched the remnants of their two-win World Series lead disappear Tuesday when they were routed 9-3 by the Chicago Cubs in Game 6 of the World Series, which was no contest from the very beginning. The bravado so noticeable among the Indians after they dropped Game 5 at Wrigley Field was absent after this loss, to which they were accomplices.
Indians-Cubs World Series Game 7: Delayed glory for one, misery for the other
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“There’s no time to hang your heads or feel sorry for yourself,’’ Mike Napoli said after the Cubs pounded six Cleveland pitchers for 13 hits. “We’re about to play in Game 7 of the World Series vs. another good team. I’m confident with Corey Kluber on the mound. He’s our No. 1. I’m pretty sure we’re going to show up tomorrow ready to go and get after it.’’
It would help if they go after fly balls to the outfield with some more certainty. Hindered by the noise from their own pumped-up fans, the Indians had trouble several times ascertaining who would try to catch drives between two outfielders, and the first one hurt them badly.
Indians starter Josh Tomlin appeared to be out of the first inning with only one run scoring, on Kris Bryant’s two-out homer, when Addison Russell hit a catchable medium-deep liner between Naquin in center and Chisenhall in right.
As they approached the ball, Chisenhall pulled up, deferring to the center fielder as baseball norms demand. But Naquin stopped short of the ball too, letting it drop for a double that allowed Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist to score for a 3-0 lead.
The Indians never recovered, trailing all game long and falling behind 7-0 in the third after Russell’s grand slam off reliever Dan Otero.
“It was loud out there. It was one of those in-betweeners,’’ Naquin said of the big play in right-center. “Lonnie got a good break, I had a break. It’s one of those deals you wish you could take back. Me being the center fielder, I need to take charge. That’s my mistake.’’
Not entirely, according to Chisenhall, who said neither player called for the ball.
“I should have caught that ball. I made the aggressive move on it,’’ Chisenhall said. “The ball’s moving toward me, and if somebody’s going to catch it, it should have been me.’’
It’s hard to tell how much the game may have changed if the Indians had closed out the inning down by just a run, but giving up a three-spot against reigning Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta is not advisable. Falling behind by seven is suicide.
Much of the blame for that goes to Tomlin, who was brilliant in throwing 4 2/3 innings of two-hit ball in Cleveland’s 1-0 win in Game 3 at Wrigley Field. This time the Cubs tore into Tomlin early on, as Rizzo and Zobrist followed Bryant’s homer off a juicy curveball with hard-hit singles before the outfield miscue.
In the third, a walk to Kyle Schwarber and two more singles from Rizzo and Zobrist loaded the bases before manager Terry Francona pulled Tomlin for Otero. Russell blasted his third pitch over the fence in left-center for the first grand slam in the World Series since the Chicago White Sox’s Paul Konerko belted one in 2005.
“He had a harder time throwing his breaking ball where he wanted to,’’ Francona said of taking out Tomlin in the third. “It was just catching a lot of the plate.’’
After winning 10 of their first 12 games this postseason and going up 3-1 in this series, the Indians did not want to go the distance. They don’t have a happy history in Game 7s, having lost one in the 1997 World Series – the infamous Jose Mesa blown save – and the 2007 ALCS.
Plus, they will be facing the majors’ ERA champion in Kyle Hendricks going on full rest, compared to Kluber on three days, and going up against a Cubs club on a definitely upswing after back-to-back wins.
“Momentum can change pitch to pitch,’’ Chisenhall said. “If you can get the crowd behind you, we can forget an entire series. We had a 3-1 lead and now it’s on to a Game 7. You just have to win four before they do.’’
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