The Cleveland Guardians have had starting pitching issues since pretty much the first week of the regular season. That’s when Shane Bieber went down after his second start in Seattle. After 12 scoreless innings and 20 strikeouts, he was done for the season.
However, until recently, it wasn’t quality that was the issue it was quantity. The starters simply could not pitch deep enough in games to assist a bullpen that although was performing yeoman work, was pitching a lot of innings.
Triston McKenzie, counted on to be one of the rotation’s stalwarts, had a 3.23 ERA after beating Minnesota on May 17th. The issue was he had one start of seven innings and two others were he went 6.2 frames.
The longest he has gone since? 5.1 in back-to-back starts in early June before he was sent to Columbus a couple of weeks ago.
Logan Allen went 6.2 shutout innings in his second start of the year in Seattle, and that was his longest outing of the season. He went six innings four times and was sent to AAA last week.
Staff surprise Ben Lively has gone seven innings once and pitched into the 7th just one other time. He has a 3.59 ERA on the season, so he’s been pretty effective.
However, since Tanner Bibee went six innings on June 29th in Kansas City allowing two runs in beating the Royals, the issue has been quality as well as quantity.
Since that start, a stretch of 13 games, the Guardians’ starters have compiled a 5.69 ERA , with one start of seven innings (by Bibee Wednesday night in Detroit) and two starts where the starter completed six.
In this period was Gavin Williams’ 5.1 IP scoreless outing against the Tigers, the best performance by a starter in the last two weeks. Removing that start from the equation raises the collective ERA by the rotation to an unsightly 6.41.
Teams with that high of an ERA from starters are largely non-competitive. They are behind early in games and it very difficult to come back and win. That the Guardians are 5-7 in these games speaks to the resolve of the players.
The last two games in Tampa have returned to the original problem, which is length by the rotation. Carlos Carrasco and Gavin Williams both pitched five innings, allowing two runs against the Rays, but that meant the relief corps had to cover seven innings because they lost Friday.
We have already seen Nick Sandlin go on the injured list and now Sam Hentges is out with a shoulder issue. It’s not a leap to think the arm problems are due to the overuse of the bullpen.
We know president Chris Antonetti and GM Mike Chernoff are aware of the problems with the rotation and are working the phones for help before the trading deadline.
However, there are a week and a half worth or games before the deadline, and Steven Vogt has to have starters. We would assume Bibee, Williams, and Ben Lively would start the first three games out of the break, but what about after that?
Yes, there is Carrasco, but only the most optimistic Guardians’ fans feel good about that. He’s a fan favorite and his return has been a great story, but he still has a 5.02 ERA. Lefty Doug Nikhazy has been great in AAA in three starts, allowing no runs and six hits in 17 innings. Maybe he gets a shot?
Can the Guardians get enough out of the rotation for the rest of the season in terms of both quality and quantity? That might be the biggest question of the season.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 