Cleveland Indians: Looking into Terry Francona’s blunder

Terry Francona said last night that he had a communication mistake with his bullpen that essentially cost the Cleveland Indians their game against the Reds.

I’m sure we’re all tired of hearing about the Cleveland Indians heart-breaking loss to Reds last night. But There was supposedly another element to this loss according to manager Terry Francona.

Terry Francona explained in his post-game interview that while he had LHP Oliver Perez ready in the bullpen, RHP Dan Otero was called out to pitch against Joey Votto with the bases loaded. We all know the chaos that ensued after.

In Tito’s explanation of this mistake he claims that he said “OP” for Oliver Perez. The folks in the bullpen interpreted it as “OT,” which is apparently Otero’s nickname. It’s just a huge mistake you don’t expect from him.

All of this would have been meaningless had Cody Allen been able to close out the game. Trevor Bauer did literally everything he could to win. 12 strikeouts, eight innings, no earned runs, and three hits. Alas, the bullpen mishaps are back in full force.

This is all pretty similar to how the bullpen played in the month of May, now we’re back to those days and it’s not fun. In-fact it feels different. This feels like rock bottom for the Indians bullpen. Every season has its low moments, it’s no different this year. But this is the wake-up call the Cleveland Indians need.

The bullpen is in full-blown meltdown mode. We know that Andrew Miller and Tyler Olson are both on the road to returning. Oliver Perez has been the only consistent pitcher in this bullpen. He deserves some help. The Indians added Adam Plutko to their pen, so maybe that will help.

Next: An analogy for the Indians complete collapse

The bottom line is that this is inexcusable for someone of Tito’s caliber. If the team wants to make up for it, it’s time to add some new arms.