TORONTO — Ryan Merritt said all the right things, all the things that are scripted for and expected of a 24-year-old rookie hurler with 11 innings of major-league experience before his second start in the bigs, one that just coincidentally can send his Cleveland Indians team to the World Series.
Young Merritt, the pride of McKinney, Texas, at this moment the most famous alum of McLennan Community College, stood in front of his stall in the visitors’ dressing room and took questions from reporters after his teammates lost Game 4 of the American League Championship Series to the Toronto Blue Jays, their first loss through two rounds of the post-season.
"It’s an honour to be pitching in [Game 5] tomorrow," he told them, never raising his voice, never breaking out a smile, never shifting his stance though occasionally drifting between the first and second person, with marks off for grammar. "[I’ll] just relax and treat it like any other game. Take a breath. Don’t let it speed up on you. Have fun. I’ve had a little time to reflect on it, see how the atmosphere here, see the hitters and stuff. It gives me a little more comfortable [sic] out there.”
The questions came from all directions but if they were distilled and summarized into just one, it would be: How do you, a guy who was pitching in the Arizona instructional league a week or so ago, get thrust into a situation like this?
Merritt can be forgiven for conflating this into a question of his own making: How do you wind up being scheduled for Game 5 when you were originally scheduled to pitch in Game 4? And even that self-asked question he danced around.
"I trust in myself that I can go out and pitch on any day," Merritt said. "They wanted [Kluber] to throw today, so I’m going to be ready to throw tomorrow.”
OK, admittedly all of this constitutes at least a very big ask of a pitcher who went 11-8 with a 3.70 ERA with Columbus in triple-A. Still, keep perspective: it’s not like the Indians’ season is completely riding on Merritt’s left arm. This isn’t a no-tomorrow situation. No, it’s a game that Cleveland, ahead three games to one, can afford to lose. No matter what the outcome Wednesday afternoon the team will be going back to Ohio that night. If things work out their way, the Indians can prep for the World Series against either Los Angeles or Chicago. If things don’t, then they’ll ready themselves for Game 6 against Toronto Friday. If all things are equal, you could mount the case that there’s a lot to win and limited damage to suffer by sending out a guy who has put in six seasons in the minors after being Cleveland’s 16th-round pick in the 2011 draft. Pulled straight out of the What-the-Hell Book of Managing, a text that Terry Francona doesn’t seem to consult very often.
Merritt warms up before Game 1 of the ALCS in Cleveland. (Charlie Riedel/AP)
There is cause for some trepidation on the parts of Merritt, Francona and those in the clubhouse who have played 169 games to get to the verge of the World Series. As hinted at earlier, Merritt is a left-hander, which might have been bad news for the instructional leaguers but is red meat for the right-handed bats at the top of the Blue Jays’ batting order, Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion. Bautista stopped just short of smack talk although he might have been smacking his lips at the thought of a couple of servings of Merritt: "Not having seen him is something that could go either way, but with our experience in our lineup I’m pretty sure he’s going to be shaking in his boots more than we are. I like where we’re at.”
On optics, this Left-handed Pitcher vs. Right-handed Batters is a big plus. If you look at the splits, though, in this case the numbers don’t hold or at least tell the story that you’d expect. The stats lines for Donaldson and Encarnacion against southpaws are either equal to or very marginally better than the stuff they put up against righties. For Bautista, he in fact did better against right-handers (.238 AVG, .376 OBP and .834 OPS) than lefties (.220, .324, .753). When Francona steered his ace left-hander Andrew Miller away from the top of the Toronto lineup in Game 3, it might have been with real cause but not with one backed up by the blanket stats. And as for what lies ahead in Game 5, there’s no subset of numbers for these veteran bats against callow kids in Merritt’s demographic.
Like the young pitcher, those in the Cleveland clubhouse said all the right things about their scheduled starter for Game 5. “He’s going to fill up the strike zone and attack hitters,” outfielder Tyler Naquin said. "I played with him in the minors. He’s hard-nosed. He’ll give us a chance to win.”
Perhaps. After all, the Indians managed to win Game 3 getting just two outs from their starter Trevor Bauer, who left the game because of blood pouring out of his little finger. Anything less than eight-and-a-third to hand to the bullpen they can consider upside.
Across the room, Merritt tried to put it all into perspective for reporters Monday night. “Standing right here is a lot more intimidating than on the mound," he said.
Though the media is much despised these days, they are not without a heart—not one of them pointed out that he hadn’t been on the mound anywhere but instructional league lately.