Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona made no bones about his World Series strategy. The moment he announced plans to start ace Corey Kluber in Game 1, 4 and 7, he was telling the world he was going to ride his workhorse pitchers to the end, and then hope they were all still standing when it was over.
The end came on Wednesday night at Progressive Field, and unfortunately for Francona, his horses didn’t have enough left to help them cross the finish line. The Indians dropped an epic Game 7 to the Chicago Cubs, losing 8-7 in 10 innings, and you can certainly point to a fatigued pitching staff as a major reason why.
Making his third start in nine days, Kluber clearly wasn’t as sharp as we’ve become accustomed to seeing him. Rather than dominating the Cubs lineup like he did in Games 1 and 4 — allowing just one run over 12 innings — he was pitching to survive. Dexter Fowler greeted him with a historic home run on the fourth pitch of the game, and that was just the first of many confident swings Cubs batters took against him.
By the time Francona removed his ace in the fifth inning, the Cubs had struck for four runs. Somewhat fittingly, Kluber’s night was book ended by homers, as Javier Baez’s opposite field blast sent him to the showers. In between, Kluber hung on by a thread. He was touched for two runs in the fourth and seemed like a bad bet to give Francona anything more, but the skipper still returned to the well hoping for more.
Manager Terry Francona pats starting pitcher Corey Kluber on the back after his gutsy World Series Game 7 performance. (AP) After Kluber was Andrew Miller, who coming into Game 7 had enjoyed a historically dominant postseason. Like Kluber, he’s a big reason why the Indians were still playing on Nov. 2. Also like Kluber, his innings had piled up quickly. In nine appearances before Wednesday, Cleveland’s relief ace logged 17 innings.
That might help explain why Miller looked more human than robot. Even with three full days’ rest, the Cubs looked comfortable, notching two runs and four hits over Miller’s 2 1/3 innings. Those were both highs for Miller this postseason. The outing included a home run from retiring catcher David Ross, who at 39 years old became the oldest player to homer in a World Series Game 7.
Such a moment would be unthinkable against a refreshed Andrew Miller.
Still, even with the evidence pointing to fatigue as a key component to the Game 7 outcome, Francona offered no regret for his decisions. Only appreciation for the pitchers whose work helped make a moment like Game 7 possible.
“For our starters to have the guts to take the ball like Corey Kluber three times in a series and the other two guys,” Francona said. “This is Trevor’s third time, and our relievers to be available for that much that often and be that effective, it’s not luck. It’s will. I think at times tonight they proved they’re human. But without them, we don’t get anywhere close to here.
Closer Cody Allen was the Indians only pitcher able to gut through a scoreless outing with multiple innings in Game 7, putting up two zeroes behind Miller. That marked his third multi-inning appearance in the series and his sixth during the postseason. Bryan Shaw, who served as Cleveland’s primary set-up man this season, coughed up the decisive runs in the tenth inning coming off two multi-inning appearances in Chicago.
In just about every way but one, it played out exactly as Francona would have hoped. His four best and healthiest pitchers covered all but two outs in a decisive Game 7 that went 10 innings. And that one was the most important.

The weight of the workload created by injuries — Danny Salazar was limited and Carlos Carrasco was completely missing — proved too much for the Indians to bear.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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