Two Morals In a Very Small Story

Here's a baseball story with two morals.

Corey Kluber notched his ninth win last night in Cleveland's 7-4 victory over Chicago. Kluber has been an All-Star contender based on a 9-6, 3.01 half-season that features good peripherals including a complete game and 4.5-1 K-BB ratio.

Last night was vindication for Boston manager John Farrell's decision to bypass Kluber for the honor. The righty from Stetson managed six innings while surrendering four runs on eight hits, two walks and a home run.

The Tribe tallied three times in the fifth to bail Kluber out of a deficit. Then the real bailing began. Relievers John Axford, Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen shut the door over the final three frames, fanning six of the nine batters they faced -- all outs. That is, Cleveland's defense was asked to make all of three plays behind the trio of firemen.

Allen gets credit for a save, and why not: he struck out the side. Shaw and Axford receive bupkus, except the warm feeling that their work, combined with a potent Indian offense, secured Corey Kluber a "win." 

(In the interest of redundantly flagellating an equine corpse that long ago achieved rigor mortis, the Associated Press dedicated their first two game summary paragraphs to Kluber's sub-stellar performance and none to his successors.)

The morals of the story are familiar: 1. Pitching wins are the ultimate evidence that correlation is not causation. 2. If it's not measured it's not valued by the old fogies who still think RBIs are about "clutchness," but that doesn't mean we shouldn't value it.