CHICAGO – Terry Francona deftly deflects praise like a hockey goalie, reflexively invoking those challenging days of his playing career when he was a lousy hitter, he says, or mentioning his hair loss, or recalling some boneheaded decision from his past. Francona's habit is honed by decades of being humbled by a game that routinely crushes its best and brightest.
But if the Cleveland Indians manage to win two more games in the next five days and win the World Series, Francona will be face-to-face with a nightmare scenario: He will be forced to listen to others say really nice things about his work, and he will have no choice but to take it.
Because the way he has managed this October should probably be regarded as one of the best performances by any manager in any postseason, even if the Indians don't win another game against the Cubs. If the Indians secure those last two victories needed for the championship, Francona's handling of these moments will be the managerial equivalent of what Madison Bumgarner did on the mound two years ago.
Francona has won two championships as a manager, but the players at his disposal with the Red Sox were very different from what he has now. His Boston lineups were stacked with expensive veterans, from leadoff hitter Johnny Damon to David Ortiz to Manny Ramirez to Bill Mueller, and his pitching staffs were loaded with established stars, including Curt Schilling, Pedro Martinez and Josh Beckett. Those Red Sox teams sported among the highest payrolls in the sport, behind the Yankees but ahead of just about everybody else.
The 2016 Cleveland Indians, on the other hand, opened this season ranked 21st in payroll, and they are the only team to rank among the bottom 16 payrolls in MLB this year that qualified for the playoffs. For the Indians, for Francona, the next man up will never be some pricey star in the midst of a whopper free-agent deal or somebody else's big salary dump. With the Indians, the next available is Ryan Merritt, who started the clinching game of the American League Championship Series with only four games in the big leagues, or Roberto Perez, who makes little more than minimum wage. Perez became the catcher when Jonathan Lucroy rejected a trade to Cleveland, anticipating he wouldn't make as much money in an extension with the Indians as with some other team -- and Lucroy was probably right.
Francona is duly credited with managing player personalities, but what he has done so well this postseason is manage his limited assets. Because of injuries to starting pitchers Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar, the Indians lost their rotation depth, which all along has been perceived as their greatest advantage over other teams. So game by game in this postseason, Francona and his staff have had to weigh the needs of the moment -- the effort to prevail in a big inning or in a crucial sequence -- against the need to conserve some pitching ammunition. The Indians have somehow managed to get through two rounds of the playoffs and the first three games of the World Series with 2½ starting pitchers in Corey Kluber, Josh Tomlin and drone victim Trevor Bauer.
The Indians decided before this series that they wanted to start Kluber in Games 1, 4 and 7, while knowing they can simply ride the right-hander like a tiring nag. Although Kluber was absolutely dominant in Game 1, Francona pulled him after 88 pitches, probably about 20 to 25 pitches short of his max, because the Indians needed to give him the best possible chance to bounce back on short rest in Game 4.
On Friday in Game 3, Francona surprised a lot of Twitter managers by pulling Josh Tomlin after 17 batters and only 58 pitches; Tomlin was executing perfectly, throwing up zeroes. But while Francona could have left Tomlin in for more, he knows he will probably need the right-hander, who has historically pitched much better when afforded extra rest, to come back and pitch Game 6 after just three days off. Francona has been like a master billiards player, lining up one shot while planning for the next.
On Friday night, Francona planned to deploy Andrew Miller against the top of the Chicago lineup, so he got an out in the fifth inning and threw the sixth, using only 17 pitches. Francona also will have a lot left in Cody Allen; because Francona patiently watched Bryan Shaw pitch all of the seventh inning and get two outs in the eighth, there were only four outs left for his closer Allen, who threw 18 pitches.
So Saturday, in Game 4, Francona will have Kluber, relatively rested. He will have Miller, who has thrown only 17 pitches in the past three days, and Allen, who has thrown only 18 pitches. He has relied very heavily on Kluber, Miller and Allen in this postseason, with that trio throwing 50.1 percent of the Cleveland innings (49⅓ of 98), and yet through the decisions of Francona and pitching coach Mickey Callaway and the efficiency of the Indians pitchers, they have managed to create needed respites.
Before the series began, Francona marveled in conversation at the Cubs' pitching staff, the depth and quality of Chicago's rotation and bullpen. He does not have that; the Indians probably never will. Jon Lester, the Cubs' ace, makes $25 million, and fellow starter John Lackey makes $16 million; both make more than the combined salaries of Cleveland's rotation of Kluber, Carrasco, Salazar, Bauer and Tomlin ($11.7 million).
But through the preparation of the Cleveland advance scouts, the disciplined work of Perez, the execution of the pitchers and the staff's management, the Indians could be within 36 hours of the organization's first championship in more than six decades, punctuated by a parade. And poor Terry Francona would have to sit there while others have a microphone and shower him with compliments, his self-deprecation muted and helpless.