Cleveland – With Parker Meadows 1 for 8 with three strikeouts in the first two games of the series, with the Tigers struggling to score runs over their last 18 games (2.4 runs per game) and with the season on the line, manager AJ Hinch switched things up Thursday.
For the deciding Game 3, he had Meadows hitting ninth, pushing everybody else up one spot with veteran Gleyber Torres, Kerry Carpenter and Wenceel Perez hitting in the top three spots.
“It lifts the burden of leading off from Parker,” Hinch said. “Probably more importantly, it’s just spreading out some of our hitters.”
With the Guardians having a perfectly balanced bullpen – four lefties and four righties – Hinch constructed his lineup so that there were no same-side hitters back-to-back, with the exception of switch-hitting Perez, who would bat left-handed against Cleveland starter Slade Cecconi.
“When you play a team as often as we play Cleveland and, especially, the last couple weeks, I started to see where they attack and who they attack and when,” Hinch said. “And given that this game generally turns into all-hands-on-deck, classic bullpen-type decisions.
“If it does go that way, we’re trying to create some dilemmas. Obviously, having Wenceel in the middle creates an advantage. Having a righty and a lefty in the same spot, it creates some penalty if you attack Gleyber (with a right-handed reliever) or if you go after Carpenter (with a lefty).
“Given the balance of their pen and the likelihood of this game being chaotic like they usually are between us, it felt like this was the most balanced lineup we could put in there.”
Torres, who batted leadoff for the Yankees in the postseason last year, slashed .241/.309/.446 with a .754 OPS in 23 games hitting leadoff this season. Carpenter, though, has thrived in the two-hole, .314/.351/.543 with an .894 OPS in 21 games.
“It’s not really much different,” Carpenter said. “I’m still hitting behind Gleyber and Parker is hitting in the nine-hole. It’s almost the same lineup once you get around to him.
Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt targeted Carpenter for a lefty-reliever a lot in the regular season. But in the first two games of this series, he’s only brought a lefty in to face him once, and that was in the eighth inning in Game 1 and Hinch left Carpenter in (strikeout).
In Game 2, Vogt brought in lefties to face Riley Greene twice. That was with Perez hitting behind Greene. If he brings a lefty in to face Greene Thursday, the price will be right-handed hitting Dillon Dingler.
By putting Perez between Carpenter and Spencer Torkelson, Hinch hopes to force an early decision point for Vogt, three batters before Greene would be due up.
“It’s cool to be thought of that highly by opposing managers,” Carpenter said. “I have to lock it in more if I get those at-bats. I’ll plan on getting the at-bats, but we trust AJ with whatever he wants to do.
“It will be a fun day. Nothing really changes for me.”
What time is it?
The Tigers, and the rest of the baseball world, didn’t know what time Game 3 would start until after midnight. Major League Baseball couldn’t set the television schedule until after the Dodgers eliminated the Reds.
Initially, there were three starting options for the Tigers in Game 3 — 1:08 p.m., 3:08 p.m. and 7:08 p.m.
“It was weird,” Carpenter said. “I like watching baseball anyway, so I was watching the Yankees-Red Sox game. It was interesting going to bed. I had two alarms set, whether I had to wake up for a 1 p.m. game or a 3 p.m. game.
“It was weird going to bed last night, not knowing when we were playing. But it was not too big of a difference.”
Hinch chuckled when he was told Carpenter set two alarms.
“I’m glad Carp was sleeping at that point,” he said. “Makes me feel good about his readiness for today.”
Hinch kept a text chain alive all through the night, keeping the players updated.
“When I originally sent out the lineup to the guys, I gave them the scenarios,” he said. “At that point, the Cubs and the Padres weren’t done yet. And then as the night went on, we started to eliminate certain times. And then it fell to the Dodgers-Reds.”
The Dodgers got out to a big lead and Hinch was ready to set the bus schedule for the morning. Then the Reds fought back.
“We couldn’t commit to anything until at or around midnight,” he said. “I sent out the message — as did Peter Warden, our director of travel — just making sure our guys were alert to when they did get up.
“Whether it was in the middle of the night or in the morning, they would be aware of what the game time was.”
Part of it
For the first time ever with the game on the line, Hinch Wednesday pulled Greene for a pinch-hitter. He sent up right-handed hitting Jahmai Jones against lefty Tim Herrin.
Carpenter, more than anyone, could empathize with all aspects of that decision. For three years, he’s been consistently pinch-hit for later in games when teams bring in a left-handed reliever.
“It was a little weird seeing him getting pinch-hit for, but he handled it like a pro, like always,” Carpenter said. “It’s something that I’ve gotten a little used to, unfortunately. Like I said, we trust AJ with what he does. And I think everybody and their brother trusts Jahmai in that situation.
“He had a great at-bat, kind of got hosed on one (umpire’s call) and had to swing at the next one. But yeah, that was a little interesting.”
Herrin threw six straight curveballs to Jones; none of them were in the strike zone. Home plate umpire Adam Beck gave Herrin a called strike on a 3-1 pitch that showed up on the K-zone box below the zone.
Herrin threw the next pitch in just about the same spot and Jones chased it for strike three.
Tork bruised but ready
Spencer Torkelson took a physical beating on Wednesday but he was back in the lineup. He was hit with a 96-mph fastball from Cade Smith in the ninth inning and the ball got him in both the forearm and hand.
But that wasn’t why he was sent for X-rays after the game.
“He fouled the ball off his back foot the previous bat,” Hinch said. “Out of precautionary reasons, we got it checked out. Originally, I thought they were getting his arm and hand. He had a double, like a bank shot off his forearm and his hand. Neither of those were of any concern.
“There wasn’t great concern on the back foot other than he started to bruise a little bit so they got it checked out. Everything’s fine.”
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