Yankees beat Indians 10-6, or: How I learned to stop worrying and hate the baseball

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... all the hope for 2014 floating away before our eyes.

Game 116: Yankees 10, Indians 6

Box Score

Tribe falls to 57-59

This game was terrible but in a way, it was also liberating. If you're one of the few that could stomach watching the whole thing, you're probably wondering what the hell I'm talking about. I wouldn't blame anyone who tuned out after the 1st inning. I feel fortunate that I had to watch this entire wretched game, though. It was enlightening. Revelatory even. I finally learned to stop caring about the fate of the Indians, fretting about jockeying for a second wild card spot, and concede this as a lost season.

Once again, the Indians failed to get even two aspects of their game to click. Trevor Bauer, with a huge assist from his atrocious defense, imploded in the 1st inning. The bullpen, with help again from the atrocious defense, imploded in the 6th inning. The six-run "outburst" from the Tribe offense wasn't enough to dig them out of the gaping abyss.

---

Despite Terry Francona's joke of a lineup card, things actually got off to a promising start. Esmil Rogers, making his first ML start of the year, gave up a double to Jason Kipnis to lead off the game. Kipnis came around to score on a Carlos Santana single later in the inning,  giving Bauer a lead to work with before he even threw his first pitch. The problem, though, was that Carlos Santana and Jason Kipnis also had to play defense tonight.

With one out in the bottom of the 1st, Captain Derek Jeter grounded to short, and Jose Ramirez made a nice play scooping it up and spinning to throw to first. Too bad Carlos just straight up dropped the ball, which beat Jeter by about two steps. It was ruled a hit. To paraphrase Hammy, it was pretty obvious the official scorekeeper was wearing a Jeter jersey tonight. The "hit" seemed to cause Trevor Bauer to lose composure. Here's the sequence that followed:

• Carlos Beltran singles in a run
• Bauer walks Brian McCann to load the bases
• Bauer walks Chase Headley to drive in a run
• Stephen Drew singles in a run

The Yankees were up 3-1 but then, the coup de crap. Martin Prado grounded weakly into a possible double play. Kipnis first botched the pickup, allowing a run to score (ruled a "hit"). In one clumsy motion, he then attempted an asinine glove-only flip which sailed over the head of a covering Jose Ramirez to allow another run to score. That put the Yankees up 5-1, and had me questioning which of these two teams is truly deserving of the name "Jackasses." Bauer stuck around until one out in the 4th, but his line tonight is concerning even when you account for the defense.

Shockingly, the Indians actually looked like they were trying to do something later in the game. Michael Brantley double in the 6th and was driven in by a David Murphy single. Nick Swisher also singled. Jose Ramirez drove a ball to deep right, but Ichiro took a break from punching himself in the face with bags of dirty Yankee money to make nice catch and end the inning. All this was only possible because the Tribe was facing LGFT David Huff, who is the MLB equivalent of one of these.

Just for funsies, John Axford came on and loaded the bases in the Yankee 6th just in time to face the heart of the order. The Ax Man was forced to poop in his bed shamefully. Why? Because Carlos Beltran ruthlessly demolished his bathroom with the force of a towering grand slam. Scrabble came on to relieve a soiled Axford, and what a relief he was! He promptly gave up a double to Francisco Cervelli then plunked Chase Headley. He induced a double-play grounder on the next batter but Jose Ramirez threw the ball away after making the first out. Another run scored, putting the Yankees up 10-2 and eliciting several legit LOLs.

Funny thing about this game is that the Yankees were pretty bad, too. No matter how hard the D and the pitching tried to give the game away, the offense kept getting opportunities. The Indians loaded the bases off Sean Kelly in the 7th, then Kelly walked in a run. Carlos Santana doubled in two runs, and David Murphy added a sac fly to make it 10-6. That would have been enough to give the Indians the lead - and eventually, the win - if it wasn't for that pesky grand slam. The bullpen held the Yankees scoreless in the 7th and 8th, but an attempted Indians rally in the 9th fizzled out and that was that.

I said above that I felt liberated by this loss, and I mean it. It's cynical as hell, but what can I say - I'm a Clevelander. Still, I think it's important to maintain perspective. It's important to remember that despite the smoldering tire fire that is this team, there are some very positives things to take away from the season so far:

• Corey Kluber emerged as an elite starter
• Michael Brantley has had a breakou year, displaying his freshly-blossomed man muscles
• Yan Gomes is who we hoped he'd be
• Carlos Santana can still mash
• Lonnie Chisenhall has a great DH career ahead of him

These are all promising signs that provide hope for a bright future. Unfortunately, it's becoming clearer by the day that we're going to have to wait until at least 2015 to see that hope realized.

Win Expectancy Chart:

Source: FanGraphs

Roll Call:

Game Thread

Total comments: 135

Total commenters: 23