The Cleveland Guardians have hit May on a bit of a hot streak. They came into Saturday night’s game against the Phillies having won eight of their last ten. We understand this doesn’t sound good, but to his credit, Steven Vogt seems to be doing it with smoke and mirrors.
Based on the number of runs they have scored and allowed, the Guardians’ record should be 19-22, which would put them fourth in the AL Central Division.
Their offense is below average, scoring 4.1 runs per game (the AL average is 4.2). Their pitching ranks 10th in the league in ERA at 4.13, higher than the average of 3.96.
This could mean two things. First, they could get much better pitching starting this week and stopping other teams from scoring would cause a continued streak of good play. Or a losing streak is in the balance.
Part of the problem with the pitching staff has been the inability of the starters to throw strikes. We were at the game Friday night when Gavin Williams labored through five innings, throwing 98 pitches. Yes, he held them off the scoreboard and that’s great, but it puts a strain on the bullpen.
Here are the walk rates per nine innings for the Guardians’ starters this season–
Williams 5.6
Logan Allen 4.8
Luis Ortiz 4.4
Tanner Bibee 3.2
Ben Lively 3.0
And Lively will likely miss some time after leaving last night’s start with forearm tightness.
The latter two are acceptable. The first three have had issues getting through five innings and again, that affects the relief corps. Last year, the bullpen was dominant. This year, we’ve already seen Emmanuel Clase and Cade Smith go through some struggles.
And the last two games against Philadelphia saw a pair of 1-0 games get expanded leads because the bullpen allowed runs.
The Guardians simply need Williams, Allen, and Ortiz to throw more strikes.
Offensively, the hitting has been buoyed by the recent hot streak of Daniel Schneemann, who has a .344 on base percentage and an 857 OPS. But mostly, the offense is overly reliant on Steven Kwan (.390/.453/843), Jose Ramirez (.356/.472/828) and Kyle Manzardo (.315/.476/791).
Reports are Lane Thomas should be back soon, and it will be interesting to see where he fits in. Angel Martinez has done a decent job in centerfield and rightfield continues to be a vortex of suck, so logically, putting Thomas in right should be the play.
We say this knowing the exit velocity police are championing Nolan Jones and Jhonkensy Noel, who are both hitting under .164 and have OPS under 600. Jones is out of options, and we know the Guardians’ front office goes to the end of the earth for those guys, but it has to be tough to keep putting him in the lineup.
Sunday night, Vogt pinch hit Will Wilson for Jones, and we have said this before, but whether or not Wilson should be on a big-league roster should be the question, not should he be pinch hitting in a close game in the late innings.
Brayan Rocchio was sent down yesterday with his .165 batting average and 433 OPS, and Will Brennan was called up. We know what Brennan is at this point, he’s a singles hitter who doesn’t walk and also doesn’t handle left-handed pitching. Such is the state of things as the upper level of the farm system.
Later this week, the Guards hit the road and take on the red-hot Twins and Tigers on the trip. Vogt needs some of these issues to have worked themselves out by then.
That they have the second-best record in the AL is kind of a minor miracle.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 