The scoreboard might not have indicated it, but the Indians actually had more baserunners than the Rangers on Sunday.
The Indians fell, 5-1, in the series finale at Globe Life Park while reaching base 12 times — three more times than the Rangers did. But they were unable to get enough of those baserunners across home plate, going 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position and leaving nine men on base.
“You come up in those spots and you either get it done or you don’t,” Indians outfielder Nick Swisher said. “Our guys didn’t get it done today. But that’s all right. The good thing about baseball is that we can come back tomorrow. I know those guys are looking at those ABs and really looking at what they did wrong.”
The Indians’ first missed opportunity came in the first inning. David Murphy lined a single to center with one out and then Michael Brantley drew a walk to put men on first and second. But Lonnie Chisenhall and Brandon Moss both struck out swinging to end the inning.
“I think there could be a tendency to speed things up with runners in scoring position,” Murphy said. “Ideally you want to probably slow things down and see the ball as long as you can. I can’t speak for the other guys, but I know we had opportunities we weren’t able to capitalize on. That’s the way the game goes sometimes.”
Twice the Indians had runners on second and third with no out and both times they could not score. Rangers right-hander Nick Martinez issued two free passes to begin the third inning by hitting Jason Kipnis with a pitch and walking Murphy on four pitches. Brantley followed by striking out before Chisenhall popped out to shortstop and Moss flied out to left to stop the threat.
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