Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer had a career year in 2018. It's a shame for him that he got injured in late August, because he had a shot at winning the AL Cy Young. Instead, he was relegated to bullpen duty in the ALDS for the Indians against an obviously-superior Astros team. And it all came crumbling down for Bauer in the seventh inning in Game 3.
Backs against the wall, the Indians were leading, 2-1, thanks to a Francisco Lindor home run in the bottom of the fifth. Bauer pitched a scoreless sixth, but then disaster struck. Bauer melted down in every way he could.
He allowed a first-pitch, line-drive single to Tony Kemp. George Springer followed with an accidentally well-placed infield single and that wasn't Bauer's fault. Bauer then coaxed a double-play ball from Alex Bregman in a comebacker, but Bauer made a terrible throw to second and everyone ended up safe, including Kemp at home.
Speaking of, Kemp had advanced to second on a Bauer throwing error, that's how he got to third on Springer's infield single.
So now it's 2-2 with runners on first and second with no outs. Bauer walked Yuli Gurriel. Then he tried to walk Marwin Gonzalez, who went out of the zone to break the game wide open with this double on a 3-1 pitch:
That was it for Bauer. His line:
He didn't miss enough bats, he lost control at the worst time, he didn't have command and he fielded his position poorly. As noted, that's an all-facet meltdown.
We can't go overboard here. Bauer isn't why the Indians got swept. The entire team was completely outplayed by the better ballclub. Bauer was 12-6 with a 2.21 ERA and 221 strikeouts in 175 1/3 innings this season. He was outstanding. In the seventh inning of Game 3 of the ALDS, however, he was far from it. He did everything poorly.
