With dad in stands, Josh Tomlin came up big for Cleveland

There’s enough pressure that comes with starting a World Series game. You’re making the biggest start of your career on baseball’s biggest stage. Your team’s entire season hangs in the balance based on your performance. Lose, and you’re one step closer to elimination. Win, and you’re the hero.

Now, add in the fact that you’re playing in a historic park that hasn’t hosted a World Series game in 71 years, and the team you’re playing for hasn’t won a championship in 68 years. That would be enough to unnerve even the most confident of pitchers.

And yet, compared to what Cleveland Indians starter Josh Tomlin experienced off the field this season, none of that seems stressful.

In August, Tomlin’s father Jerry underwent emergency surgery for a condition known as an arteriovenous malformation on his spine. The condition, which deals with an abnormal grouping of arteries and veins, left Jerry paralyzed from the chest down.

Josh left the team for four days to be with his dad following the surgery. He returned to the club at Jerry’s urging, according to MLB.com.

Jerry spent most of the past two months in his hospital in Texas, watching his son pitch two games during the Indians’ incredible postseason run. He was released from the hospital on Oct. 19, which was not only Josh’s birthday, but also the day the Indians clinching the American League pennant. It was at that moment Jerry vowed to be in the stands when Josh his first-ever World Series start.

All that came to pass Friday night. When Josh took the mound against the vaunted Chicago Cubs offense in Game 3 of the World Series, Jerry was there cheering him on. It was the first time the two had seen each other since the surgery, according to MLB.com.

While that might make other players more anxious for the biggest start of their life, it had the opposite affect on Tomlin. He made a point to find out where his dad would be sitting prior to the start of the game.

“I made sure I found him,” Tomlin said. “That way, during the course of the game, if the game sped up on me, I could find him and look at him and it would just calm me down. There was a few times it got loud and I looked up at him. There’s a sense of calm about him.”

That strategy worked. Tomlin was masterful over 4 2/3 innings against the Cubs. He allowed just two hits, with one strikeout. On a night where the wind was blowing out at Wrigley, Tomlin forced the Cubs to pound the ball into the ground. Chicago hit just two balls in the air against the 32-year-old righty.

Tomlin was only at 58 pitches when Terry Francona pulled him in order to bring in Andrew Miller. The move was less an indictment of Tomlin’s performance, and more part of the strategy Francona has utilized all postseason.

Miller and the Indians’ bullpen would come through again. Cleveland won Tomlin’s first-ever World Series start 1-0. Tomlin’s 4 2/3 scoreless innings played a huge role in the win. And his dad was there to see the whole thing.

If Tomlin did experience any nerves during the start, they didn’t show. That came as no surprise to Francona.

“Oh, he always holds it together,” Francona said. “I think if anything, I don’t want to speak for him, but I think if anything he was genuinely excited that his dad was here. But, he always — he’s not going to beat himself. Again, sending him to the mound tonight, we were excited about that. And the fact that his dad was here made it better.”

Tomlin was able to keep himself in check on the mound, though he admitted it was hard to ignore his emotions during the start. That should come as no surprise considering what Tomlin and his father have been through over the past few months.

“It was probably one of my more emotional starts I’ve ever had in my entire life, career, any situation baseball related ever,” Tomlin said. “I’m fortunate enough for [my dad] to even be here. So to have him get to experience a World Series game and obviously my first World Series start, it meant everything.”

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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at christophercwik@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik