CHICAGO: Indians manager Terry Francona doesn’t like to look ahead. He doesn’t like to talk in hypotheticals. He wants to look at every situation as it comes, taking it one task at a time. It’s the only productive way to assess most situations.
Francona was asked about some of his postseason philosophies back in September, before the Indians had clinched their division. It wasn’t a surprise that he refused to talk at length about them before the Indians had punched their ticket to October baseball. But Francona did offer one mantra that hasn’t ever changed: when he’s in a series, the object isn’t to play it safe and just try to extend a series or keep it close; it’s to win it.
Francona has stuck to that thinking this postseason, and certainly in this World Series. He’s wasted no time in bringing in Andrew Miller when the Indians have held a lead, which has pointed toward the newer line of thinking around baseball instead of waiting until the ninth to use a team’s best relief pitcher.
On Friday night, he put Carlos Santana in left field to try to keep his bat in the lineup. He was a bit nervous about the move. But beyond just baseball thinking, he didn’t want to come all the way to the World Series to hold back.
“We didn’t show up to keep the game close,” Francona said. “We’re trying to win. I think I said [the other day] that we might have to be a little bit [creative]. … I think when it’s all said and done, if we’re going to lose, I’d rather do it knowing I didn’t [wuss] out. We didn’t come all this way to play it safe.”
AL to NL
The designated-hitter rule has been one of the more talked-about subjects around baseball for quite some time, and whether it should exist in either league, both, or just one like the current setup.
Francona wishes the American League representative wouldn’t have to change how they can make out their lineup in the World Series after six-plus months of operating under one set of rules. The AL team loses the DH and also has to send its pitchers to bat when playing in the National League park.
“I think they’ve done so many really good things, and I know [commissioner emeritus Bud Selig] is a lot responsible, this would be the one where I disagree,” Francona said. “I don’t think it makes it a bad game, things like that. I just don’t necessarily agree with this. I just think you set your team up the way you set it up and then you get to the most important games and you’re doing something different.”
Josh Tomlin might be the exception — he likes batting and had success earlier in the year in Cincinnati.
“I enjoy hitting. I enjoy trying to be a ballplayer,” said Tomlin, who played the infield in college. “It’s fun when you’re in the National League and you enjoy everything that’s going on. You actually get to go out there and try to impact the game on both sides of the ball, it’s fun to me. I think we all take a little bit of pride in trying to get bunts down and move up runners and put up decent at-bats, even if it’s a strikeout.”
The Indians will have an interesting scenario for Game 5, when Trevor Bauer and his stitched-up pinkie will have to go to the plate. The Indians are still unsure of what he’ll be able to do, if anything.
Bench coach Brad Mills likes the National League rules that harken back to the game’s early days. But the difference between leagues creates some problems.
“I’ve always liked the National League way of doing things,” Mills said. “That’s just how I am, I was always raised in the National League, being a player there, I managed in the National League. I kind of like the way all the quirks go. But I definitely see how when you’re used to playing one way and now all of a sudden you have to shift to another way, I totally get that and I’m on board with that train of thought.”
Ryan Lewis can be reached at rlewis@thebeaconjournal.com.