Might Have To Move Clase To Get A Needed Bat

Whether or not the Cleveland Guardians’ front office will add at the trading deadline is up for debate, but one thing is for certain, the best trades are made from a position of strength.

That means there is one chip to keep an eye on as the end of July approaches, whether the Guardians are in contention or not. And that would be all-star closer Emmanuel Clase.

Clase might be the only player Cleveland can move and get a bat, probably a prospect in return. And the one area the Guardians have any depth is in the bullpen.

This thought has nothing to do with Clase not having a “Clase” type of season, the kind of years he had in 2022 (42 saves, 1.36 ERA and 43 hits allowed in 72.2 innings) or in 2024 (47 saves, 0.61 ERA, 39 hits allowed in 74.1 frames).

This season, he got off to a tough start, and even though he has 18 saves and the complete trust of Steven Vogt and Carl Willis, and he’s earned that, he has allowed 40 hits in 33.2 innings.

One thing Clase does, and this cannot be minimized, is keep the ball in the park. The most home runs he has allowed in a single season is four. And frankly, we are still shocked when anyone takes him deep. He’s only allowed one this season.

Clase is still an excellent closer. He doesn’t walk hitters and keeps the ball in the park. And despite the post-season in 2024, we still feel he has respect throughout the sport.

So, why consider dealing him?

Again, the best trades are made from strength. The Guardians have another high leverage dominant relief pitcher in Cade Smith. In 34.1 innings this season, he has fanned 53 batters and has a 2.36 ERA. When Clase was struggling earlier this season, he saved three games.

Vogt uses him as the ultimate fireman, bringing him in to face the toughest hitters in the lineup before the 9th inning.

Now, the questions would be if you make Smith the closer, who takes his spot? Hunter Gaddis has been solid for two years, including this season if he starts the inning clean.

He has fanned 38 in 30.1 innings and has a 2.08 ERA. He has struggled this year allowing inherited runners to score, and frankly we wish he would use his fastball more often.

Andrew Walters looked to be someone who can help this year until he was injured, but the Guards still have Nic Enright and Franco Aleman who had a 1.99 ERA at AAA last season but has struggled to date this year. He has a power arm though.

Don’t forget Trevor Stephan is nearing being ready after Tommy John surgery and he has fanned 232 hitters in 195.1 innings in his career. Another lefty, Erik Sabrowski, who pitched well in September and the playoffs in 2024 should be ready soon as well.

It’s not like the Guardians have a ton of trade chips on the big-league roster. They could always move some minor leagues, particularly in the lower classifications, but no one is giving you anything for Lane Thomas or Carlos Santana, right?

We have said this before, but the front office doesn’t seem to make trades to stay in a race, but maybe this year is different. The offense has to get better, and it seems the most valuable piece the Guardians have to get some hitting is to move their all-time saves leader.

…As For The Guardians’ Pitching Staff

Over the last two weeks, we have written a lot about the Cleveland Guardians’ lack of offense, but the pitching staff hasn’t done very well either.

The Guardians, much renowned for their pitching factory, currently rank 10th in the American League in ERA at 3.99, and Carl Willis’ philosophy of throwing strikes has also fallen on deaf ears, with Cleveland ranking fourth in the league, issuing 3.7 walks per game.

Last season, they ranked 8th in the AL.

The bullpen, the dominating unit of last year’s division champions, has also sprung leaks. Emmanuel Clase struggled to open the year, but has righted himself as of late, Saturday’s blown save notwithstanding.

The closer has allowed just 12 hits in 16.1 innings since the beginning of May, allowing just five runs (2.76 ERA) with 18 punchouts.

But outside of Cade Smith, the balance of the bullpen has not performed up to last year’s standards, and pretty much anyone with a brain would have expected that. Hunter Gaddis has a 1.93 ERA, but is allowing inherited runners to score at an above 60% rate.

Tim Herrin is another reliever whose numbers are way off compared to last season, he’s allowed 20 hits and 16 walks in 23.2 innings.

But the real issue has been the starting pitching, which for the most part has not been able to soak up innings to keep the bullpen fresh.

This was highlighted over the weekend against Seattle when Gavin Williams went just four innings, Tanner Bibee went five, and although Luis Ortiz pitched six frames, he allowed a grand slam homer in the second and allowed six runs.

Bibee leads the staff averaging 5.8 innings per start, followed by Ortiz at 5.4, Logan Allen (5.1), Slade Cecconi (5.0) and the inconsistent Gavin Williams at 4.95.

The latter continues to be maddening, although to be fair, this is his first full season in the big leagues. He has pitched well in games, but his longest start in 6.2 (twice). He went five scoreless against the Phillies but threw 98 pitches in doing so. He pitched six allowing one run against the Twins, 6.2 vs. the Angels allowing no earned runs.

He also has given up five runs in 6.2 frames against the Orioles, four runs in two innings against the Twins.

Again, he’s a young pitcher and has good stuff, but is still figuring how to pitch.

As we said earlier, walks are plaguing the starters. Williams is walking 5.1 hitters per nine innings, last year he was at 3.8; Ortiz is at 4.6 (2.8 last season) and Allen is at 4.1. Besides putting runners on base, it is also raising the pitch counts.

Bibee is also up in walk rate, 2.9 this season vs. 2.3 a year ago.

Last season, the starting pitching wasn’t up to Cleveland standards either, but the bullpen made up for it. The weakness did show up in the post-season though.

Perhaps Shane Bieber is back by the All-Star break to shore up the rotation a bit, and maybe Cecconi will be trusted to go deep into games. And maybe Williams figures it out and starts giving Steven Vogt six innings on a regular basis.

The offense has been the weak spot of the team, but the pitching hasn’t been up to standard either. If the season is going to be salvageable, this is another area that has to improve.

Another Injury Causes Vogt, Willis To Use A Tito Model

The Cleveland Guardians head into a huge four-game series this weekend at Minnesota with the starting rotation still very much in flux. Steven Vogt and his staff have done a masterful job working around this issue, and it will be interesting to see how he handles this upcoming series.

The latest starter to miss a start is Tanner Bibee, who didn’t pitch yesterday against Arizona, as Logan Allen was recalled taking his turn. The club is still hopeful Bibee will not have to be placed on the injured list.

Newcomer Alex Cobb pitched for Columbus on Saturday and should make his debut this week vs. the Twins, so hopefully that’s a big help. We know some are optimistic about Matthew Boyd too, but you have to remember he has a 4.94 lifetime ERA.

Perhaps the best news for the Guards this weekend was Triston McKenzie’s outing at AAA Saturday night when he pitched six shutout innings fanning 11. Having McKenzie find his command will also be a huge factor down the stretch.

Ben Lively continues to be consistent, beating Philadelphia and Baltimore in his last two starts, and for the most part, Vogt and Carl Willis are probably very confident he will give them five or six solid innings and Cleveland will be in the game when he leaves the game.

Because of these issues with the starting rotation, Vogt and Willis seem to have taken something from the way Terry Francona handled a similar problem during the 2016 playoffs. That is, if you don’t have a lot of confidence in your starter, see if you can get them two times through the batting order and then go to the bullpen.

It is fairly obvious to everyone that the bullpen is the strength of this team. Fox analyst John Smoltz pointed out in Saturday night’s broadcast that when you are playing Cleveland right now, there is pressure to have a lead after five innings. That’s how good the relief corps is.

It looks like the role of Andrew Miller is being played right now by rookie Cade Smith, who has struck out 75 hitters in 54 innings and has a 2.17 ERA. If the starter gets Vogt into the fourth inning, when Smith is available, he comes in and gets the Guardians through the fifth or sixth, depending on when he is brought in.

And Vogt is trying to save his primary relievers right now, so if they are trailing after five, fans should get used to seeing pitchers like Pedro Avila, who has done a real solid job in this role, Xzavion Curry, Eli Morgan, and even Connor Gillispie, who got called up prior to Sunday’s game and pitched three innings in his MLB debut.

That is totally a sound strategy. Do everything you can to win games when we have the lead. If you are trailing and Avila (or another long reliever) does a great job and shuts the opposition out, it gives the offense a chance to get a lead, but these guys can’t pitch every night.

People can’t be mad that the bullpen is overused and then be angry when Vogt pitches Curry when the Guards are losing 4-1 in the 7th inning. The manager is doing his best to protect his pitchers while still trying to win games in a post-season race.

And right now, he is threading a needle. Until Bibee’s shoulder is healthy, Cobb can make effective starts, and McKenzie is back to his normal pitching, the coaching staff is trying to squeeze out wins anyway they can.

They should get enormous credit for that.

On The Guards’ New Skipper

The Cleveland Guardians picked the successor to Terry Francona earlier this week when they tabbed Steven Vogt to be the new skipper of the Guards.

Is it a good move? We have no idea. Vogt just retired as a player after the 2022 season and spent last year as Seattle’s bullpen coach. He just turned 39 years old earlier this week. He made two all-star teams as a player.

That’s what we know about Vogt. We aren’t going to make any claims as to how he will do as a manager because he’s never done it before. And that doesn’t mean he will not be good at the job; it simply means he has no track record.

The front office did their due diligence reportedly speaking to Francona and other experienced skippers about what they feel was the best attributes to having success as a manager. They felt Vogt had those qualities and it is a good thing that he can still recall what it was like to be a player.

It reminds you what things you can ask a player to do.

Apparently, Sandy Alomar Jr. will remain on the coaching staff and his experience should be invaluable to Vogt as he navigates his way through a 162 game regular season. And Carl Willis, the Guardians’ long time and very successful pitching coach will also remain on the staff.

Vogt couldn’t hope for two better guys to be able to bounce ideas off, and hopefully, he listens to them as well in terms of communication from a manager’s standpoint, rather than that as a veteran leader.

He should develop a relationship with Jose Ramirez as soon as possible. Ramirez is the Guardians’ de facto captain and bonding with him and getting his support will go a long way into having the rest of the roster buying in.

Francona liked having veteran leadership in the locker room. In his first year in Cleveland, he had Jason Giambi in that role. Because Ramirez has been here awhile, an older player isn’t needed for that purpose, but Vogt and Ramirez need to be a team.

We would like to see the new pilot and the organization be a little more flexible about starting the season with rookies in everyday spots. Francona seemed to be a little more concerned with cold weather affecting the performance of rookies, but we would like to see them as opposed to mediocre veterans with track records.

It is a bold choice for sure and for that we commend the front office.

Speaking of the front office, they already improved the catching situation by claiming Christian Bethancourt on waivers from Tampa Bay. He belted 11 homers last season (635 OPS) and has a rocket for an arm, he pitched for a bit in the minors early in his career.

He doesn’t have a great strikeout/walk ratio, but is certainly better than Cam Gallagher, who put together one of the worst offensive seasons we have seen in a long time.

We don’t understand the other waiver pick up, 1B/OF Alfonso Rivas, who slashed .303/.422/725 with Pittsburgh and San Diego last season. He’s not an on base guy and doesn’t have a lot of pop either. He is having a good winter league season and had good numbers in AAA last season.

Just seems like a AAAA player right now. However, he may not be on the 40-man roster by the time spring training begins.

And that spring training will be guided by a new manager for the first time since 2013. Maybe Vogt can be the first World Series winning manager for Cleveland since 1948.

Inconsistent Guardians’ Bullpen Makes Everyone Worried

Show me a bad bullpen and I’ll show you a bad team. That’s the old baseball adage. We would guess the corollary to that would be, show me an inconsistent bullpen and I’ll show you an inconsistent team.

Which brings us to the Cleveland Guardians.

The other day, Terry Francona said his bullpen had gone through a rough patch over the last week. We hope that manager speak, because the truth is the Guardians’ relievers have been hit or miss for about the last month.

The organization will tell you the bullpen ERA ranks second in all of baseball, and it does, ranking behind only the Yankees with a 3.48 ERA.

Detractors will tell you the relief corps is gassed, but they rank 18th in the majors in innings pitched.

They do have the 4th best batting average against at .223.

There are two issues at work here. The first is because the Guardians are currently leaning on four rookie starters, Francona and pitching coach Carl Willis are leaning on the relievers quite a bit. Having the cover sometimes four or even five innings, not only put a great burden on the crew, but also the more relievers used, the greater chance one of them doesn’t have it that night.

The second thing is Francona, like most managers, likes to have a pecking order with his relievers, so they know when they can expect to get into a game.

We know Emmanuel Clase has the ninth, but he would like to have one or two pitchers who know they will go in the 8th, and so on down the line.

It hasn’t worked that way lately.

Trevor Stephan is the preferred guy to pitch the 8th, but since June 1st, he’s been in 19 games, and allowed runs in six of them. He also has pitched just six innings where he has retired the side in order.

Last Sunday, he came into a game with a three-run lead, and after retiring the first hitter, he walked the next two. That led to a four-run inning, and an eventual loss for Cleveland.

By the way, we have (and most people have) two rules for relief pitchers: Don’t walk hitters and don’t allow the long ball.

Friday night was the kind of thing that makes you wonder how you can figure this game out.

After Gavin Williams had to leave after four innings, Eli Morgan pitched the fifth and faced two batters in the 6th, allowing a single to one of them.

The Guards went to Tim Herrin, a lefty, because Sam Hentges has been scuffling lately, and Herrin over the last month had pitched 8.2 innings, allowing just two runs, striking out 10 and walking just two.

The rookie walked the next three hitters, forcing in a run.

So, Francona went to Nick Sandlin, who got out of the inning. Sandlin over the last month had fired 9.1 frames allowing just one run, and fanning 13, walking just three.

He gave up two homers in the 7th. They were the first he’d allowed since June 17th.

Stephan relieved and you could feel fans wincing at the move.

He put down all five batters he faced.

The point is right now, the Guardians really need the bullpen crew to step up because of the inning restrictions put on the rookie starters, but Francona can’t feel too confident in bringing anyone in, because he just doesn’t know what will happen.

If this is a slump, eventually everyone will return to form and Cleveland’s bullpen will be one of the best in the game. If they continue to fail, then the season could go south in a hurry.

It’s not easy at times to manage a major league baseball team.

Talking Through Trading Bieber

When the Cleveland Guardians fell to 21-28 after losing a series on the road to the Chicago White Sox, the baseball media immediately went to their default story when dealing with the Guards, the possibility of a trade of an established star for prospects.

In this case, the star is former Cy Young Award winner Shane Bieber. What kind of haul could Cleveland get for the ace of their staff?

First of all, let us be clear that we are in favor of any trade that makes the team better. However, we say that with a caveat. After winning the AL Central Division a year ago, we are not interested in deals that make the Guardians better in three to four years.

The other part of that equation is the 75 year gap since the last World Series the franchise won.

The real question is what numbers the front office are looking at, the win/loss record or the number of games behind the Guards are in the standings? If it’s the former, then they have to look at the prospect that Bieber will be a free agent after next season and has already likely turned down an extension offer.

If they believe this year’s team can still win the division and get back to the playoffs, then a trade at the deadline doesn’t make sense, particularly since Triston McKenzie is back on the injured list.

We all saw firsthand last week what happens when the starting pitchers don’t throw a good share of the innings on a nightly basis. Any team’s bullpen gets taxed, and Cleveland is no different.

This is a good time to bring up that Bieber leads the American League in innings pitched with 95. Granted, we aren’t seeing the dominant Bieber who made the All-Star team in 2019 (he was the game’s MVP) and was the best pitcher in the league in 2020.

But he still is great help to the Guardians because he can pitch deep into games and he still is effective, allowing less hits than innings and walking only 25 batters vs. 69 strikeouts. His ERA is in the mid-threes at 3.51.

With McKenzie and Cal Quantrill both down, and two rookies in Logan Allen and Tanner Bibee taking two rotation spots, Terry Francona and Carl Willis need guys who can give the bullpen a lighter load every few games.

And if the Guardians do fall off the pace in the division by the middle of July, then it would make sense to explore deals for the right-hander, but we feel the organization would be and should be looking for major league ready bats and/or arms in return.

Besides the whole 1948 issue, remember that Jose Ramirez will turn 31 in September, and we know he wants to win here. Pushing an opportunity to do so down the road a few years while Ramirez is still putting up all-star numbers would seem to be a bad move.

This isn’t a rebuilding team, they won 92 games a year ago with the youngest team in the sport. Before the season started, we looked at young teams and saw sometimes they had to take a step back before they moved forward.

That’s how the Guardians should view this season if they do fall off the pace.

One other issue about trading Bieber while the Guards are still very much in the race. How do you explain it to the fan base, who already look at the ownership with a jaundiced eye.

Close Games For Guardians Mean Added Pressure For Bullpen

At the end of last season, the Cleveland Guardians knew if they had a lead after six innings, the game was effectively over. Their bullpen was dominant, led by closer Emmanuel Clase. Trevor Stephan and James Karinchak combined to take care of the seventh and eighth, and Terry Francona had Sam Hentges, Enyel De Los Santos, and Nick Sandlin if needed to bridge from the starter to the set up men and closer.

It is also said the most volatile part of any team is the relief pitching, and just because it happened a year ago doesn’t mean it will happen again.

It’s still early, so Francona and Carl Willis are still trying to decide how to use some of the pieces of the ‘pen and integrate a couple of new hurlers into the mix.

Last season, Cleveland relievers threw the fifth least innings of any bullpen, the third least in the American League behind only Houston and Seattle. The non-starters pitched 37.7% of the innings played by the Guardians.

So far this season, that number is up to 43%. There are several reasons for the high total, and one of them is the Guards have played four extra-inning games to date, which is 25% of their schedule.

Another reason is right now, Cleveland has two inexperienced starting pitchers in the rotation. Hunter Gaddis has made three starts and pitched into the sixth inning just once, while Peyton Battenfield made his first career start last week and threw just 4-2/3 frames.

Add in Zach Plesac’s one inning outing in his season debut, and Cal Quantrill getting into the sixth for the first time in three starts in his last outing, and the relievers have had to soak up a lot of the workload.

We have always maintained there are two things a relief pitcher cannot do: Walk people and give up home runs. Cleveland pitchers in total have walked 44 batters in 2023, 25 of them have come from the bullpen.

Clase, who walked just 10 hitters all last season, has already issued four in nine innings this season. De Los Santos has issued four free passes in ’23, after allowing only 17 all of 2022.

The home run numbers are similar. Guardians’ hurlers have allowed only 14 homers this season, a total that ranks tied for 5th in the AL for the fewest coughed up. Unfortunately, the relievers have allowed eight of the blasts, with Sandlin and rookie Tim Herrin each giving up a pair.

We think De Los Santos should be the secondary set up man if the normal three who close out games (Clase, Karinchak, and Stephan) are unavailable because any of them have worked two days in a row. We have the most confidence in him out of everyone else.

Sandlin still falls behind too many hitters and Herrin is a rookie, but he does have electric stuff.

Another thing that magnifies the results of the bullpen is that the Guardians have only won one game this year by more than two runs, the 9-4 victory against Seattle on the second day of the season. There isn’t much room for error for a guy like Herrin to work with.

It takes time to develop a bullpen and having all the close games means the growing pains that go along with it get closer looks.

In the meantime, mixing in a few 6-1 or 7-2 victories would really help the principal relievers get some needed rest.

Impressions Of A Great Opening Weekend For Guardians

We were very impressed that the Cleveland Guardians went into Seattle, a playoff team a year ago, and took three of four in their opening series.

Especially because the Guards had all kinds of problems scoring runs vs. the Mariners last season. They scored just 11 runs in the seven contests against Seattle last season.

There were several positive things that caught our eye in baseball’s first weekend of the season, and yes, we know it’s just four games.

Guardians’ fans have to be impressed with Aaron Civale’s debut, throwing seven, two-hit innings at the Mariners. The right-hander was on a track for an all-star berth in 2021, when he was leading the AL in wins at the time of his injury (he was 10-2 with a 3.44 ERA).

He made just 20 starts a year ago with a variety of injuries and threw just 97 innings. Getting back to his ’21 form would be a big boost to the starting rotation, particularly since Triston McKenzie could miss as much as two months.

What about Tim Herrin’s major league debut on Sunday? The 26-year-old southpaw faced four batters and struck them all out. It’s the ultimate small sample size, but if he can give Terry Francona and Carl Willis another left-handed option when Sam Hentges returns, that would be outstanding.

One of the things Cleveland lacked the past few years is any offense at all from the catching position. Mike Zunino isn’t a great offensive player either, but what he does more frequently than Austin Hedges or Luke Maile, is run into a pitch every once in a while, and sends it over the fence. He has 147 career homers.

Sunday, his three-run dinger gave the Guards a temporary lead. His lifetime batting average is just .201 and he strikes out, a lot. But the power does play.

Oh, and by the way, Bo Naylor went 5 for 13 over the weekend with two homers at Columbus.

The bullpen was also very impressive over the weekend, with James Karinchak’s hiccup on Opening Night the only blemish. In total, the relievers soaked up 14-2/3 innings, allowing just three earned runs.

That heavy toll can’t continue, but again, it’s only four games.

As for Karinchak, we don’t think it was a pitch clock issue to blame for his first outing, it was more that he couldn’t throw his curveball for a strike, and the Mariners took advantage.

Newcomer Josh Bell didn’t have a big weekend at the plate, going just 1 for 12, but he did walk six times, and avoiding making outs is a very good thing. We are sure the hits will start coming.

The only issues to keep an eye on are Zunino’s ability to block pitches, Cleveland had six wild pitches in the series (they had just 49 all last year). That’s something Hedges was outstanding at and it is easy to overlook.

We are sure Sandy Alomar Jr. will work with him on that.

Hunter Gaddis kept the ball in the park Friday night (he gave up 7 homers last year in 7 innings), but he also only gave Francona 3-2/3 innings, and Cal Quantrill couldn’t get out of the fifth.

We aren’t concerned about the latter because of his track record, but the Guards need some length out of Gaddis, if he’s going to stick around for a while.

It was a great opening weekend to be sure, but it’s a long, long season ahead of the Guardians. We are sure everyone prefers to be 3-1 rather than 1-3.

Our Guardians’ Bullpen Confidence

One of the things about the Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen is outside of Emmanuel Clase, the group has kind of been in a state of flux all season.

Clase has been remarkable since the first two weeks of the season, and showed the entire baseball world how great he has been in the All-Star Game, when he struck out the side against the National League on ten pitches, earning the save for the AL.

The right-hander has allowed just 23 hits and six walks in 43 appearances this season, compiling 21 saves and a 1.31 ERA. However, the way Terry Francona and Carl Willis has gotten to Clase has changed a bit.

Early in the season, the Guards used Nick Sandlin and Trevor Stephan to set up, and mixed in Anthony Gose when a lefty was needed.

We should also mention there has been another constant, using Bryan Shaw in any role other than as the closer.

Gose proved to be prone to walks (14 in 21 innings) and the home run ball (he’s allowed four) and so Sam Hentges, who struggles with command too, started to be used in his place, but recently, Hentges hasn’t received a lot of work.

Sandlin couldn’t find the plate and Eli Morgan emerged as “a weapon” as Francona called him, able to work multiple innings. But he too as found a need to adjust as he’s allowed 11 earned runs in his last 15 innings.

Stephan had a rough stretch, but recently seems to have straightened himself out, and probably is back to being the pitcher of choice in the 8th inning of a close game.

Enyel De Los Santos is a guy who seems to be underused. He’s really had just two bad outing all season, and overall has a 2.87 ERA with 36 whiffs and 11 walks in 31-1/3 innings. There are times the skipper goes to Shaw, when De Los Santos would seem to be a better choice.

The Guards are also working back in James Karinchak, who missed most of the season, but in seven appearances totaling 8-2/3 innings, has struck out 16 and walked four. In his last five games, he hasn’t allowed a run in 6-2/3 frames. giving up three hits and fanning 13.

Based on all of the information currently at hand, here are our bullpen confidence ratings right now:

Clase (that goes without saying)
Stephan
De Los Santos
Sandlin
Hentges
Shaw
Karinchak
Morgan

This list is very fluid to say the least. We’d like to rank Karinchak higher, but you never know when he’s going to lose control. If he can demonstrate he can find the strike zone consistently, he’d be right there with Stephan.

And as good as Morgan was early in the year, right now, we would avoid using him in a close game. Maybe we will move him up if he can put up more zeroes.

Hentges seems to walk (or at least fall behind) the first hitter when he comes in the game and Shaw is prone to the long ball and the walk, two no-no’s for relief pitchers.

We guess what we are really saying is it would be nice if the front office got an extra arm for the bullpen by the trade deadline. Right?

Schedule Or Not, Guards’ Pitching Has Improved

A few weeks ago, we talked about what figured to be the Cleveland Guardians’ strength coming into the season, the pitching staff, wasn’t pulling its own weight, ranking near the bottom of the American League in ERA.

Things have taken a decided turn for the good for the Cleveland hurlers, as they have seen that ranking moved to 6th in the AL. Surprisingly, they are not doing it with the strikeout, as Guards’ pitchers are just ninth in the Junior Circuit in strikeouts per nine innings.

They are third from the bottom in total whiffs, but that has more to do with Terry Francona’s club playing at least three games less than every other team in the league.

They’ve allowed the third fewest hits per nine, behind only the Yankees and Astros, so there could be concern about how sustainable that is considering the lack of strikeouts.

New York is near the top of the league in whiffs per nine, while Houston averages the same as Cleveland.

In terms of issuing free passes, Carl Willis’ staff is right around league average, so nothing unusual there.

However, in the last 15 games, Cleveland pitchers have allowed more than four runs just twice, most recently, Saturday’s loss to Baltimore, and to take it back further, in the last 23 games, opponents have hit the five-run mark against the Guardians just four times.

The two most disappointing members of the rotation earlier this season were Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale. Plesac has two runs or less in three of his last four starts, and Civale has started only one game since May 13th, and it was a 6-1/3 inning, one run allowed (unearned) effort against Detroit.

Rookie left-hander Konnor Pilkington has subbed in with three starts and hasn’t allowed more than three runs in either of them.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention the only above league average offense Cleveland faced in the last 15 games is Houston. The Tigers are the league’s worst offense, while the Orioles and Royals both rank in the bottom five in the AL in scoring.

There do seem to be changes afoot in the bullpen. Trevor Stephan has been struggling in his last few outings and Nick Sandlin has had issues throwing strikes all season, walking 15 batters in 15 innings.

So Francona has leaned more on Eli Morgan, a starter last season, and he has been more than impressive. Morgan started the year on the roster to be able to give the team innings because starters were still stretching out from the shortened spring training.

The 26-year-old righty has pitched 25 innings, allowing just 10 hits with only four walks against 32 strikeouts. He’s getting more and more opportunities in the seventh and eighth innings.

The same is true with southpaw Sam Hentges, who has thrown 16-1/3 frames, giving up just eight hits and four walks against 19 strikeouts. He has supplanted Anthony Gose as the late inning lefty.

Enyel De Los Santos has also worked his way into more high leverage situations as well.

If the club can get both Stephan and Sandlin straightened out, this has the makings of a very good bullpen.

If the pitching can keep this going, the Guardians can stay in the post-season race. Hopefully, the last group of games is more indicative of how good the staff can be.