Here are 10 Walk-Off Thoughts on the Indians’ 3-0 loss to the Chicago White Sox on Sunday.
1. The Indians will have to wait at least another day to break out the champagne. The Royals beat the Tigers 12-9, dropping the Indians’ magic number to one, but the Indians couldn’t complete the other half of the puzzle. In order for the Tigers to force a 163rd game for the division title, they’ll have to sweep the Indians in four games and then sweep the Atlanta Braves in three and hope the Indians are swept by the Royals to end the year. The Indians need only to win one more game this season, either in Detroit or Kansas City, or get one Tigers loss.
2. One of the loudest cheers of a quiet day for the Indians came when the Royals’ 4-0 lead over the Tigers was shown on the scoreboard. It’s impossible for players not to pay attention at that point.
3. Said Josh Tomlin, “A lot today because they were putting it on the scoreboard and you could hear the fans getting loud. It’s there. I’ll be honest with you. It’s there. You can see it. You can say you don’t see it but it’s up there. You see Detroit’s losing early in the game 4-0 and we have a chance to do this at home. So it's there, it’s very easy to look up there and kind of gaze and see if they’re winning or losing and see what we have to do.”
4. Indians fans knew it meant they might be able to see a division-clinching winner and celebration. But, Carlos Rodon had other ideas. He mowed through the Indians’ lineup to the tune of two hits and 11 strikeouts. Rodon has had the label of a young pitcher with a bright future for some time now. He’s lagged behind Chris Sale and Jose Quintana, but Sunday was a snapshot of why there’s been so much optimism.
5. Said Indians manager Terry Francona, “He's a young pitcher and he's getting better with starts. We've seen a lot of them because he's in our division. His off-speed is better, even his delivery is smoothing out and like a lot of young pitchers that have talent, you're starting to see him gain experience and he's pretty good."
More: Baseball world mourns the sudden, tragic loss of Jose Fernandez
6. So, the Indians will go to Detroit, the team that’s held them down for three years in a row, and try to secure their first division title since 2007.
7. Said Tomlin, “It’s a little fitting. But we have a resilient group in that clubhouse. We’re ready for the next challenge if it has to be in Detroit or Kansas City, [wherever] it may be, we need to get it done. So we know what the task is and we’re prepared for it. Hopefully we get it done sooner rather than later.”
8. One of the lone bright spots from Sunday’s game was Tomlin, who took another step in putting his rough month of August behind him. Tomlin threw 6 2/3 innings and allowed two runs—one earned on five hits. He took the loss, but in terms of his possibly starting Game 3 of the ALDS, it was another step in the right direction.
9. Said Tomlin, “I think it’s execution. Executing pitches when I need to execute them and when I miss I’m not missing over the heart of the plate for the most part. There are still times you’re going to miss over the heart of the plate but sometimes it’s up, sometimes it’s down. But for me it’s just staying out of the middle the plate with four pitches to try to keep them off balance, try to make them pick a direction to go to. Basically out-guess them, keep them off-balance enough to get them out in front of some stuff and if you leave the ball down the middle the plate, it’s a lot easier for a big-league hitter to do damage with that than stuff that’s on the edges.”
10. The Indians finished the 2016 regular season with a total attendance of 1,591,667. That’s an increase of more than 200,000 fans from 2015 and an average of 19,650 per game.