More on yesterday's game: Hutchison, bunting and Travis

I really don't want to think about yesterday's games but.....

Drew Hutchison was terrible again. He's had 6 starts, 2 have been good, 4 have been awful. His ERA is now 7.47 and, as everyone knows, having an ERA that's the name of a jet is bad luck, it usually means that you'll moving soon.

Zaun suggested that his problem was that he was showing all his pitches too early in the game, and then later, when he needed something that the batters hadn't seen yet, he had nothing else to throw. Generally pitchers like to get thru the first inning or two, using just the fastball or maybe the fastball with the odd change, bring in other pitches as you need them. But, I kind of disagree with Zaun. Looking at game day, Drew threw 18 pitches in the first inning and 12 of them were fastballs, 4 change and one slide, making it thru the 3 up 3 down inning. Next inning he threw 12 pitches and 8 of them were fastballs, 4 change.

In the 3rd and 4th innings he tried to mix in the slider more. Trouble was, he wasn't successful with it. In all, according to GameDay, he threw 10 sliders, 5 for balls, 1 for a swinging strike, 1 for a called strike, 2 were put in play for outs and one was the Kipnis home run. We were expecting the slider to turn him into a top of the rotation pitcher. It seems like he doesn't have the release point on yet, he's going to have to find it quick.

Ezequiel Carrera's bunt, in the 3rd inning was stupid. The inning started with a Michael Saunders walk (after getting to a 1-2 count) and a Ryan Goins walk on four pitches. Carrera gets to 2-0 count, at this point Trevor Bauer has thrown 9 balls in a row, and then bunts.  I'm never a fan of the bunt, and I hate it even more with runners on first and second. When you have 2 guys on base already, the pitcher is in trouble, don't let him off the hook, don't give him a free out. I can understand that Gibby doesn't have much confidence in Ezequiel (whose name I'm never going to learn to spell) but, he would go on to have a 2 for 3 day at the plate and, well, he is in the lineup, you should have some faith in him. Anyway, the bunt worked, he moved up the runners, but we didn't score, so I guess, really, the bunt didn't work.

There should be certain rules about bunting. Unless the pitcher is at bat:

• Is it before the 7th inning? Don't bunt.
• Is there are 2 guys on base and no one out? Don't bunt. The pitcher is in trouble, don't help him.
• Is there 2 on and one out? Don't bunt.
• Are we in front? Don't bunt.
• Are we behind by more than a run? Don't bunt.
• Is the next batter a poorer hitter than the one that's up now? Don't bunt.
• Just a runner on second? Don't bunt. He's in scoring position already.

The next inning, Russell Martin tried to bunt, but, in his case, he was trying to bunt for a base hit, he saw the third baseman was playing deep and though he could get it down. I don't mind guys trying to bunt for a base hit, but I don't like it as much with runners on base. Martin has some power, I'd prefer him to swing.

In the bottom of the 8th, up by 4. after a lead off double by Jason Kipnis, the Indians had Jose Ramirez bunt. A one run strategy, when you are up by 4?  What was that for?