Cleveland's walk issues costly: 'It hurt us'

CLEVELAND -- The Indians have relied on their pitching staff faithfully over the past few seasons, as the offense has often fallen silent. But in the club’s past three matchups against the Yankees, the pitching has been its biggest hurdle.

It was a rematch of the 2020 American League Wild Card Series at Progressive Field on Thursday night, as the Indians dropped the series opener of a four-game set, 6-3, after their hurlers struggled to throw strikes. Cleveland's staff issued nine walks, its most since walking 12 Yankees batters in Game 2 of last year's Wild Card Series.

• Box score

“I thought, uncharacteristically, with our whole staff, we had a bunch of walks,” Indians manager Terry Francona said, “a lot of deep counts, we fell behind a lot, we had to climb back into some counts. That obviously wasn’t our goal tonight to do that. But I thought it was kind of staff-wide. We didn’t throw a lot of strikes tonight.”

How uncharacteristic of a night was it for Cleveland’s pitchers? Of the 175 pitches thrown between starter Aaron Civale and relievers Bryan Shaw, Nick Wittgren, James Karinchak, Cal Quantrill and Oliver Pérez, only 93 were strikes. That 53.1-percent strike rate is the lowest the Indians have posted in a game since June 10, 2011 (49.5), also against the Yankees.

Over the past decade, New York has given Cleveland’s pitching staff the most trouble. That 49.5-percent strike rate in the 2011 matchup ranks as the club’s lowest over the past 10 years. Its second-lowest strike rate in that span came Thursday, while the third-lowest strike rate also came against -- you guessed it -- the Yankees in Game 2 of last year's AL Wild Card Series (53.6).

“Just got to be a little more aggressive in the zone, attack a little bit better,” Civale said. “I think I was a little too careful tonight. I've just got to be more aggressive with my pitches.”

Civale issued four walks, while Shaw and Wittgren each had a pair that put them in bases-loaded jams in their respective innings. Although Shaw escaped the sixth unscathed, Wittgren wasn’t as lucky in the seventh.

The Indians have wanted to avoid naming a closer or pigeonholing any of their relievers to a specific inning to give them freedom to turn to their best reliever in the most crucial situation of a game. But with the heart of New York’s lineup due up in the seventh, Cleveland turned to Wittgren, who has struggled early this season, instead of Karinchak, who has yet to give up a run.

Even though Cleveland has often turned to Wittgren, Karinchak and Emmanuel Clase -- in that order -- at the end of a handful of victories this season, Francona said that pattern isn’t set in stone.

“I think I’ve said all along that I would handle that depending on workloads and who we’re facing and things like that,” Francona said. “There’s a lot of times where it has lined up like that, but I like the idea of being able to pitch our guys when I think they fit the best.”

With the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh, Rougned Odor laced a two-run single to center field off Wittgren to put the Yankees ahead, 5-3, for their first lead of the night. Cleveland then turned to Karinchak, who struck out Clint Frazier on six pitches to end the inning.

The Indians' offense gave Civale some early breathing room by taking advantage of some defensive miscues by the Yankees in the first, rallying for three runs, but the bats were silent the rest of the night. As Cleveland's hurlers recorded the 16th game in franchise history with at least nine walks, it became impossible for New York's offense not to prevail.

“Guys are usually pretty good about pounding the zone, and they will be,” Francona said. “It hurt us tonight."