The offense, once again, showed up tonight. 6 runs on 17 (SEVENTEEN) baserunners. Obviously not great that you only score 6 runs off that, but great that they got 17 baserunners. This game basically followed the same script as most of the games the Guardians have played since the deadline. Offense scores, pitching lets them down.
The Guardians had bases loaded, no outs in the 1st, and managed to score a run off a Jo Adell 113mph GIDP. Luckily, Angel tacked on another run with an RBI double.
Naturally, right after, Foster Griffin gave up 2 runs in the bottom of the 1st.
Then, gave up the lead in the 3rd on a no-doubt shot off thh bat of Gleyber Torres.
Luckily, the offense woke up. In the 5th, with Jose on first, Adell smacked a ball over the fence in left. 4-3 Guardians.
And then, in the 7th, with two outs and a runner on second, the Guardians decided to (thankfully) tack on some insurance runs. Genao doubled in Martinez, and then Hedges brought Genao home with an RBI single.
Gaddis, once again, failed to be able to adequately fill his role in the bullpen. He came out for the 8th, and couldn’t finish the inning. He walked McGonigle to start the inning, but then struck out the next two Tigers. Then, he gave up a single to McKinstry. He was, at that point, at 21 pitches, and clearly didn’t really have it tonight. (For the record I can’t remember the last time Gaddis ‘had it’, nor do I understand why he’s still pitching the 8th inning). So, Cade had to come clean up his mess. Again. The Tigers scored on a wild pitch, but Cade eventually managed to strike out Clark after a 12-pitch at-bat. So, because of Gaddis , your closer has now thrown 12 pitches — before the 9th — in a save situation. Awesome.
Cade ended up throwing nearly 40 pitches in order to record the save tonight, though through no fault of his own. Hedges failed to challenge a borderline two-strike no call on two separate occasions, both of which were immediately followed up by a Tigers base hit. But, Cade got the save, and the Guardians, somehow, won.
Lost in this, for what it’s worth, are the 1.1 scoreless innings Holderman pitched tonight. Not to mention the two strikeouts Sabrowski got when he came on for Holderman.
