Taken on its own, Cleveland being three-hit by one of the best starting pitchers in baseball and losing 2-1 is nothing to worry about. No shame in that. Zoom out, though, and you see a familiar pattern looming over this game, as it has for the other 18. Whether they are facing a guy with 1,400 career strikeouts or 40 — they just can’t seem to hit when it counts.
The pitching duel of Shane Bieber vs. Gerrit Cole was exactly as billed, at least. Both sort of struggled with command early, and you could sense when each of them locked in.