Cleveland Indians: An airing of grievances on a 2-2 series split

The Cleveland Indians were very much in need of some positive momentum before a weekend series in Minnesota. The White Sox had other plans.

If not for the heroic effort of Oscar Mercado on arguably the best defensive play of the entire 2019 MLB season, the Cleveland Indians would probably be heading to Minnesota off a 3-1 series loss to the White Sox.

Mercado bailed out Nick Wittgren from what would’ve been at least a game-tying, two-run double in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s contest, and instead the Tribe will walk away with a 2-2 split. Wittgren shouldn’t have even been in that situation to begin with, but that’s neither here nor there.

If the series had been closely contested by both the Indians and White Sox for four straight days, a 2-2 split would be disappointing but acceptable. The way it all actually played out on the field, however, the last four days feel more like a string of losses than a trading back-and-forth of wins.

Two bullpen catastrophes turned two certain victories into a loss on Tuesday and nearly a second on Wednesday. Tuesday’s defeat wasted another gem from the right arm of Mike Clevinger, a statement that simply cannot afford to be true one more solitary time for the rest of the regular season.

Wednesday’s narrow evasion of disaster may have resulted in a win, but it would not qualify as an encouraging one. When Shane Bieber tosses seven innings of two-run ball and gets eight runs of support, that game needs to end in lopsided fashion–not in a bases-loaded save situation where your rookie center fielder has to make one of the most improbable catches of the last decade.