Cleveland Indians outrageously bad as White Sox doom postseason hopes

The Chicago White Sox all but ended the Tribe’s postseason hopes, thanks to some outrageously bad play from the Cleveland Indians.

Winning the final four series of the season as a tall order, but certainly attainable. The Cleveland Indians needed to accomplish this fete to have a shot at one of the Wild Card berths.

If there was going to be a hiccup, many expected it to come against the Phillies or the Nationals to end the season.

Instead of going to Washington with momentum going in their favor, the Tribe is heading to nation’s capital to bury the 2019 campaign, all thanks to the hapless Chicago White Sox.

Chicago isn’t as bad as the Tigers, but the White Sox are terrible enough that they shouldn’t have been an obstacle for a team fighting for their playoff lives.

Instead, the Indians got tripped up, being outscored 16-3 in the final two games of the series. In defeat, the Tribe now finds themselves two back of a Wild Card berth with three games to play. It’s not impossible, but definitely improbable.

With the season on the line, here’s how shockingly bad the Indians were in Chicago:

1. In the biggest game of the year, Chicago retired 17 straight Indian hitters at one point. It took a Greg Allen single in the eighth inning to break that streak, when the game was way out of reach. It was the Tribe’s only hit after the third inning.

2. Sweeping teams is really hard in baseball. Even when your playing a bad team. You may run into a pitcher who’s on, and there’s nothing that can be done. That said, the Indians needed to win this series, meaning they needed to win just one game.

In failing to do so Wednesday and Thursday, the Tribe’s 1-5 hitters were a combined 1-for-39!

3. Francisco Lindor is a great player and I hope he’s an Indian former. He’ll want to forget the conclusion to this season, though. He needed to put on Superman’s cape for this series, but instead, he was one of the biggest holes in the Tribe’s lineup, going 1-for-14 with eight strikeouts.

Lindor was as bad as anyone in this series. He finished 1-for-14 with eight strikeouts. The four-time All-Star couldn’t cash in on key opportunities with runners in scoring position.

I’ve given the Tribe’s season last rights, but technically they’re still clinging to life support. How do they stay afloat?

The Indians need to sweep three games from the Nationals, then they need the Rays to drop two of three. If it happens, they can force a one-game playoff against the Rays for the right to be the Wild Card.

4. This isn’t a shot at Aaron Civale. He’s been a blessing and has a bright future. That said, the injuries caught up with the Tribe in Chicago as the young pitcher was finally tripped up.

Civale had allowed just two home runs in the first 54 1/3 innings of his career. He surrendered two in the fourth inning.

5. This was a playoff game, and to be shut out by a sub-.500 team? It was the 14th time this season the Tribe hung an egg on the scoreboard. Heckuva time do it.