Cleveland Indians forgot how to use phones, paid the ultimate price

Cleveland blew a late lead on Tuesday night, and Terry Francona is blaming falty bullpen phones.

All they had to do was close it, but the phone bill never got paid. Something happened in Cleveland on Tuesday night that we’ve rarely seen before: a supposedly malfunctioning bullpen phone ended up sending the wrong reliever out to the mound.

Cleveland manager Terry Franconca called for Oliver Perez using his nickname “OP”, but the bullpen heard “OT” and warmed up Dan Otreto.

From that point, everything that could go wrong went wrong. Cleveland surrendered the lead and lost both an important game int he grander scope of the playoff chase, and a game that should have never been lost in the first place. The game seemed to spiral out of control all because of a miscommunication, all over a nickname.

A nickname. Of all the unbelievably frustrating ways to lose a game, Cleveland couldn’t have delievered more.

It ended up sullying what was a rather decent outing from Trevor Bauer, which makes this snafu all the more tragic.

This was a new low for an already struggling Indians bullpen, one that might need an addition or two at the trade deadline.

Next: Its time to start respecting the Atlanta Braves

It must be so unbelievbaly frutrating to be a Cleveland Indians fan, watching helplessly as the team struggles to do something as simple as use phones the right way. Cleveland is going to try and forget this one, but it’s an ebarassment that is hopefully doesn’t end up being a metaphor for their entire seson.