The best game of the 2018 season (to date!) was played Sunday afternoon at Progressive Field. The Cleveland Indians stunned the defending World Series champion Houston Astros in 14 innings (CLE 10, HOU 9) to earn a split of the four-game series.
It was a back-and-forth roller coaster that ended when rookie Greg Allen smoked Brad Peacock's very first pitch into the right field seats for a walk-off homer. It's the second homer of Allen's career. Check it out:
The walk-off dinger was a fitting end to a crazy game that featured multiple lead changes and multiple comeback rallies. Here's everything you need know about Sunday's game:
1. The Indians got to Cole early
Gerrit Cole has been spectacular this season, taking a 1.86 ERA and an AL-best 101 strikeouts into Sunday's start. The Indians were able to get to him early, however. Jose Ramirez clocked a two-run home run in the first inning and Allen added an RBI double in the second.
Four of the first nine batters Cole faced reached base. Only three of the final 17 batters he faced reached base. Cole settled down and dominated the Indians from innings 3-7.
Sunday was one of Cole's worst starts of the season, which tells you how good he's been. He now owns a 2.05 ERA with 109 strikeouts and 19 walks in 74 2/3 innings.
2. The Astros got to Bauer late
Cole and Trevor Bauer were teammates at UCLA and there is no love lost in their relationship. A few days ago Bauer told reporters the bad blood dates back to a conversation the two had as freshman. From The Athletic's Zack Meisel:
"We had a rocky relationship in college, because he told me that I had no future in baseball and he insulted my work ethic as a freshman," Bauer told The Athletic and MLB.com on Thursday afternoon.
Ouch. A few weeks ago Bauer took some shots at Cole -- without naming names, to be fair -- when he not-so-subtly accused the Astros of doctoring baseballs to improve spin rates. You remember this, right?
If only there was just a really quick way to increase spin rate. Like what if you could trade for a player knowing that you could bump his spin rate a couple hundred rpm overnight...imagine the steals you could get on the trade market! If only that existed...
— Trevor “Tyler” Bauer (@BauerOutage) May 1, 2018
Of course, Bauer has proven he did have a future in baseball -- Cole and Bauer were picked 1st and 3rd overall in the 2011 draft, respectively -- and he has a pretty darn good present in baseball as well. He struck out 13 in 7 1/3 innings Sunday afternoon, though things unraveled in the eighth. Bauer put runners on second and third with one out before giving way to the bullpen.
Going into that seventh inning Bauer had held the Astros to two runs on four hits and one walk in seven innings. He was excellent before the bullpen got involved. Bauer currently owns a 2.61 ERA with 86 strikeouts and 25 walks in 72 1/3 innings this season. Pretty good chance he'll get to be Cole's teammate again later this summer, at the All-Star Game.
3. Cleveland's bullpen melted down again
Good gravy, the Indians' bullpen has been so bad this season. So, so bad. Their relievers went into Sunday's game with a 6.14 ERA, the highest in baseball by four-tenths of a run. The bullpen has been a problem all season.
On Sunday, the Indians took a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning before Bauer exited with runners on second and third with one out. Righty Evan Marshall entered and allowed three straight singles to give the Astros a 5-3 lead. Righty Ben Taylor came in next and he served up a three-run home run to Evan Gattis. The Indians went from leading 3-2 to trailing 8-3 in the span of four batters. Here's Houston's six-run eighth inning rally:
What a disaster. Bauer was charged with two runs, Marshall with three runs, and Taylor with one run in that eighth inning. After that inning, Cleveland's bullpen was sitting on a 6.39 ERA on the season. That's 92 earned runs in 129 2/3 innings. Oy vey.
4. Houston's bullpen melted down as well
Amazingly, that eighth inning was only the second-worst bullpen meltdown of the day. The Astros took their 8-3 lead into the ninth inning and handed the ball to closer Ken Giles. He did not retire a batter. Ramirez started the ninth inning with a 17-pitch at-bat -- a 17-pitch at-bat! -- and stroked a leadoff double into the right field corner. That put the wheels in motion.
Giles faced three batters and allowed a double and two singles. Will Harris took over and faced three batters, striking out Edwin Encarnacion before serving up singles to Jason Kipnis and Erik Gonzalez. Hector Rondon attempted to close the game out after that, and he couldn't do it either. Francisco Lindor singled to get the Indians to within 8-7 and Michael Brantley ripped a line drive off Alex Bregman's glove at third base to tie the game 8-8. Look at this rally:
Ramirez very nearly won that game in the ninth inning, but Yuli Gurriel made a tremendous diving grab on a line drive that was ticketed for right field and a walk-off base hit.
The Indians sent 10 men to the plate in the ninth inning and managed seven base hits, including two with two outs to tie the game. Giles was charged with three runs, Harris with two runs, and Rondon with one run. Houston's bullpen has been among the best in baseball this season, but geez, Giles sure does seem to be involved in a lot of spectacular meltdowns, doesn't he?
5. The Indians had to rally again in the 13th
The two bullpens traded zeroes until the 13th inning, when Gattis gave the Astros a 9-8 lead with a solo home run off Dan Otero. It was his second dinger of the game.
The second Gattis home run put the Astros in position to win despite that ninth inning meltdown. Then, on Collin McHugh's fourth pitch of the bottom of the 13th, Yonder Alonso went deep to tie the game 9-9.
That set up Allen for the walk-off homer in the 14th inning, on the 451st pitch of the game. Cleveland's bullpen managed to hold the Astros to one run, the Gattis homer, in six innings following that eighth inning meltdown. A rare nice job by those guys.
6. It was a near certainty the Astros would win at one point
This is what the game looks like in win probability form. In a nutshell, this tells you each team's chances of winning at any point in the game based on the score, the inning, the outs, the number of runners, etc.
Source: FanGraphs
At one point in the ninth inning the Astros had a 99.3 percent chance to win the game. The Indians had a 1-in-143 chance to win. This was the one.
