Indians Pitcher Mike Clevinger Rips New Extra Inning "Runner" Rule

CLEVELAND - Much like his best friend Trevor Bauer, Indians pitcher Mike Clevinger isn’t afraid to speak his mind.

That was on display Saturday evening at Progressive Field, as the Indians fell for the first time in 2020, losing to the Kansas City Royals by a score of 3-2.

It wasn’t so much that they lost, it was how they lost that upset Clevinger. The Royals took full advantage of the new MLB extra inning rule that had each team start with a runner in the 10th inning on second base.

Kansas City pulled off two perfect plays, a bunt to get the runner to third and a sac fly to bring him in for what turned out to be the game’s winning run.

After the game Clevinger, visibly upset with the new rule, spoke out heavily against it, saying that it’s something many around the league are not going to like when they have to play an extra innings game.

“This isn’t travel ball. This isn’t Perfect Game,” Clevinger said. “You know how hard it is to get a runner on second base off the back end of any bullpen, how incredibly hard that is? And now all of a sudden you just get a guy on second base with a guy like Karinchak on the mound.

“I’m not happy about it. I’m sure when other teams face the situation and this happens to them, you’re going to get similar reactions.”

After he let his feeling known to the media, Clevinger was still fuming about the new rule, and went to twitter to continue to let his feelings on the matter be known.

This new extra inning rule is the whackest s*** I’ve ever seen, do you have any idea how hard it is to get a runner to second off the back end of a bullpen?!!! #ThisIsntTravelBall #MakeThemEarnIt @MLB
— ❂ Mike 𝕊𝕌ℕ𝕊ℍ𝕀ℕ𝔼 Clevinger ❂ (@MikeClevinger) July 26, 2020

While Clevinger isn’t a fan of the rule, the Indians did have an opportunity of their own in the 10th, as pinch-runner Greg Allen started as the team’s “automatic runner” at second base.

Bradley Zimmer was hit by a pitch from the Royals Greg Holland, but then he struck out Cesar Hernandez, Jose Ramirez and Francisco Lindor to end the game, saving the win.

One has to wonder why the Indians didn’t have Zimmer bunt Allen to third like Kansas City did in their top half of the 10th to give them a shot to tie up the game.

Manager Terry Francona said the team felt they wanted to take their chances in the inning, and giving up an out with a bunt wasn’t in their plans.

“So, ‘We're a hit away from winning the game,’ was our thinking,” Francona said. “We were OK starting out to bunt, but if you're bunting into an out -- that first baseman was so far in that that's really difficult to convert on something like that.”

One will have to wonder if that mode of thinking will change the next time the team goes into extra frames.

For Clevinger, the good news is the new extra inning rule is only for the this season, and only until the postseason when things go back to normal.