His team’s got bite, but Francona loses tooth with chew

Reliever Andrew Miller isn’t Atlas, holding up the heavens for all eternity. It was the first time in Major League Baseball history that a team came back from an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series.

Marco Estrada will pitch Game 5 for the Blue Jays. If Kluber gets hit hard Tuesday – or even if he is merely OK rather than great – and the Indians are unable to sweep, the decision will be scrutinized.

Allen recorded two very routine outs in the eighth before Francona brought in Miller, whose slider is impossible to hit when it’s in the strike zone and impossible to lay off when it misses. Yet he did not allow a run.

Bauer started Game 3 of the AL Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday but threw just 21 pitches before getting removed as blood dripped from his hand.

“Not one bit”, said Francona, when asked if he had a problem with Gibbons. Kluber didn’t even bat (an eye) because we wanted to talk to him first because it’s fine for us to be organized but if he’s not ready to do it or if it’s going to bother him, that doesn’t help. His stuff is unbelievable and he’s at a point now where he’s basically un-hittable. That thing came off and I’m chewing and it felt crunchy. “If we weren’t trying to beat them, I’d feel bad for them”. Currently, Miller’s 17 strikeouts is second on the strikeout leaderboard for the 2016 postseason. The southpaw features impeccable command with zero big league walks and only 23 free passes in 143.1 minor league innings pitched this campaign. Bauer is a baseball player, but more importantly, he’s a human being. Just focus on the task at hand. In other words: when the stakes are the highest, turn to the reliever you must trust to get you through the inning. “And they all made pitches, and against some really good hitters”. It’s a fun challenge, though. Just because you are leading by one run in the 5th doesn’t mean you’ll still be leading by one in the 9th. For those who don’t remember, the Yankees led the series 3-0 and Boston won four straight to stamp their World Series ticket. There was no indication whatsoever the team would make a run to the postseason, and ultimately, they fell way short of a playoff spot.

Curt Schilling believes his bloody sock shouldn’t be compared to Cleveland Indians pitcher Trevor Bauer’s bloody finger. But when Otero shook off a one-out single (Ezequiel Carrera) to throw a step-‘n’-throw double play grounder to Ryan Goins, with Cleveland shortstop Francisco Lindor bobbling before recovering for a sharp play, they relaxed. “I was like, you know, my only chance to stay in the game here is to get through the at-bat and get in the dugout and hope to stop the bleeding”.

“They found me a dentist last night”, he said. “We might have an idea, but really I don’t think any of us do and it catches us by surprise sometimes”.

“So then James comes back in, like, the third inning and I said, ‘Tell me you found a dentist.’ He goes, ‘I came to tell you about Trevor.’ I go, ‘[Screw] Trevor!'”