Cleveland Indians ace Corey Kluber was surprisingly knocked out of Game 2 of the ALDS on Friday after allowing six runs to the New York Yankees in 2.2 innings. His early exit continued a theme of pitchers struggling to work deep into the postseason thus far.
Some managers have pulled their pitchers even earlier this postseason after noticing early struggles. Indians manager Terry Francona says he probably would have done the same if it were anyone other than Kluber.
“Right off the bat you could tell he was fighting his command,” Francona said of Kluber during an in-game interview with MLB Network’s Tom Verducci. “It cost him a couple of runs in the first. The hope is he’ll find it. It looked like in the second inning he started to put it together, but when you see him throw that many pitches … and he couldn’t put hitters away.
“If it’s anybody else he’s probably out before that, but there’s so much faith in Kluber, you think he’s going to find a way to reel it in.”
So that’s why Francona stuck with his ace when it was pretty apparent in the first that he didn’t have it. Francona kept Kluber in long enough to surrender a 3-run home run by Aaron Hicks, which was the big blow to knock him out of the game. Luckily Cleveland has a deep bullpen full of viable options.
