Cleveland Indians: Bullpen can’t be blamed when offense falters

Cleveland Indians fans must not jump to blame the pitching staff when the offense fails to put up much of a fight, as was seen Tuesday night.

Whenever the Cleveland Indians lose, some fans immediately jump to blame a certain player. Last night, some had the audacity to heap massive amounts of blame upon Cody Allen.

Allen gave up a home run to Adrian Beltre in the top of the ninth inning that gave the Texas Rangers a 2-1 lead, which ended up being the final score.

It was the third hit of the game for the Rangers, which happened to match the total had by the Indians one night after going off and scoring 15 runs.

But the home run allowed by Allen was magnified due to the fact it put the Rangers ahead for good. Yet using that one hit to claim Allen should be replaced as closer or a late-inning guy is simply asinine.

More from Away Back Gone

• Cleveland Guardians tantalizingly close to locking up AL Central tiebreakers
• Cleveland Guardians: Terry Francona becomes meme in profanity-laced ejection
• Say goodbye to defensive shifts and hello to bigger bases, pitch clock in 2023
• Cleveland Guardians: Shane Bieber second-fastest to 800 strikeouts in major-league history
• The next week will make or break the Cleveland Guardians’ season

The nature of social media is a difficult thing to interpret. Telling true beliefs from ironic or sarcastic ones is not always easy, yet saying something negative about an individual, in this case Cody Allen, is published for the world to see.

So a simple Twitter search of Allen’s name will bring up plenty of hot takes about how he doesn’t deserve to pitch in the later innings, even though he is clearly one of the better relievers in all of baseball.

The home run to Beltre was only the second run Allen has allowed this month, and his eighth on the season. For comparison, Andrew Miller has allowed six runs this month and seven all year.

The frustration from fans would have a logical basis if directed at the offense, which once again disappeared last night after seemingly being unable to make outs Monday night. But getting mad at a pitcher in a 2-1 loss is just foolish.

Next: 5 players to expect in the ASG

In any case, baseball is a sport where every team is going to lose a lot of games during the course of the 162-game season. So blaming one of the better players on the team when the whole offensive unit let the pitching staff down just doesn’t make sense.