Reliable Karinchak off mark as Indians fall?

CLEVELAND -- As much as the Indians’ bullpen has tried to be perfect all season -- especially the back-end trio of Bryan Shaw, James Karinchak and Emmanuel Clase -- it was bound to run into a hiccup. This time, it came at Karinchak’s expense.

The Indians had executed the perfect safety squeeze in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings, but Karinchak, who had entered the game having permitted just one run in 21 appearances, gave up a three-run homer to Kyle Garlick in the top of the 10th, leading to the Indians’ 8-5 loss to the Twins on Sunday afternoon at Progressive Field.

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“Any time you start with a runner on second, you're kind of pitching with traffic that he didn't produce,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “Normally, even when he's got the deep counts, he's found a way to get out of it. Today, it didn't work. I mean, the kid's human. I think that's the fourth or fifth hit he's given up on the year. That's pretty amazing.”

Karinchak was on the heels of a steller 1 1/3-innings performance that extended into the 10th inning on Saturday night, and Francona raved about how effective his incredible strikeout rate is when a runner starts the inning at second base. But just as Karinchak seemed to be settling into a groove, he showed his first signs of losing his control.

Karinchak opened the frame with a walk before the three-run blast. But when he responded to the homer with another free pass, Francona turned to Trevor Stephan to escape the rest of the inning unscathed. It marked just the fourth hit Karinchak has given up all season, the first time he’s issued more than one walk in an outing and just the second time he didn’t record at least one strikeout in 2021. Even though he’d much prefer to never have a blemish in his game logs, Karinchak couldn’t stay flawless all season long.

“It's been special,” Indians outfielder Jordan Luplow said of watching Karinchak this year. “He had a little hiccup tonight, but he's been our rock this year. He's really held it down.”

The issue wasn’t that Karinchak gave up the homer in the 10th, the problem was that the team missed a handful of opportunities earlier in the game to avoid extra innings. Cleveland went 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position, left 12 men on base and even though the team racked up 11 hits, it still only owned an expected batting average of .185. And what may have made it even more difficult for the Indians to score is that three of the five hurlers they faced were southpaws. Entering Sunday, Cleveland owned a .206 average against lefties, which ranked the second worst in the Majors, trailing Seattle (.188).

“We had some really good opportunities to add on today,” Francona said, “or to extend the lead early and we just didn't do it.”

One of those instances came in the bottom of the ninth following Luplow’s safety squeeze. With runners on the corners and one out in the bottom of the ninth, Luplow laid down the perfect bunt to first baseman Alex Kirilloff, who flipped the ball out of his glove to home plate, but Cesar Hernandez was able to beat the toss to knot the score at 5. But even with momentum in their favor, runners on first and second and just one out, Eddie Rosario and Owen Miller, who made his MLB debut, were unable to push the winning run across.

“Yeah, it's tough,” Luplow said. “Obviously those are the situations you want to put yourself in as a team and try to capitalize. But sometimes it just doesn't work out. You just keep fighting for another day.”