BOSTON — Cleveland righties Josh Tomlin pitched significantly more effectively against lefties than righties this season. The way Tomlin utilized his curveball and changeup to lefties tended to generate better results for him than anything he threw against righties.
Still, the lineup John Farrell wrote out for Sunday’s postponed Game 3, probably the same lineup he’ll write out again when the Red Sox and Indians try again on Monday, had lefties Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley Jr. in the outfield rather than righty Chris Young. Benintendi and Bradley started each of the first two games of the series in Cleveland and probably will start each of the remaining games in the series, however many games the Sox can force.
The desire of Farrell to utilize Young as a pinch-hitter against Cleveland lefty Andrew Miller trumped whatever advantage Young might have had against Tomlin. Young this season slugged a respectable .446 against righties but hit .329 with a .410 on-base percentage and a .589 slugging percentage against lefties.
“He’s got reverse splits, yeah,” Farrell said, “but if we get into a situation where we’ve got that right-handed pinch-hit, we’re more flexible with his availability.”
As was the case back in April, a run of righties has limited the ability of Farrell to deploy Young. Not only are the Indians starting three righties in this series, all but one of their relievers throws from the right side.
If Farrell does deploy Young against Miller, he’ll have three logical choices for whom to pinch-hit – Benintendi, Bradley and Brock Holt.
As crazy as such an idea might have seemed months ago, it might be Bradley who gives way in that situation.
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