CLEVELAND -- Hours before Monday's game against the Rangers, Indians bench coach Brad Mills stood alone in left field, baseballs strewn throughout the outfield grass. Mills would pull a ball out of a bag, hit it off the left-field wall and study the way it caromed.
Mills repeated the process over and over, and was eventually joined by left fielder Jose Ramirez, who is still learning the quirks of Progressive Field's 19-foot wall. They discussed a play from Sunday's game, and they talked about what Mills found during his solo session with the green-padded behemoth. Mills then hit a few balls off the wall so Ramirez could practice fielding the ricochets.