With just 5 games to play in the regular season (holy moly we really are at the end aren’t we?), the Guardians remain in a dead heat with the Chicago White Sox for the AL Central crown, while the runner up is charging quickly towards the Final Wild Card spot. Would the Guardians rise to the occasion yet again?
Sonny Gray. Foster Griffin. ESPN broadcast. What could go wrong?!?!
Yup. I’ll admit it. I didn’t have high hopes for this one. I saw the matchup and the fact that we will be in the national spotlight
(they lost 8-0 and 13-1 on two Sunday Night baseball broadcasts earlier this season) and quickly thought, “Go Royals!”… But a game must be played! And the way these Guardians are playing right now, it would be silly to rule them out before the 27th out.
Well tonight, Sonny Gray was feeling quite sunny, and hardly gray at all (yuck- please excuse that)! The 14 year Vet continued his typical dominance against Cleveland, limiting the Guardians to Zero runs on just 4 hits (all singles) and a Walk over 6 very efficient innings. The Guards could hardly get comfortable in the box. It was weak contact. It was getting fooled. It was a lot of the little things that he does time and time again. I’m in a chat with a few like-minded (and often, opposite-minded! Which makes the conversation and education better) Guardians fans. What I shared tonight with them was that I’m not gonna make any sweeping proclamations about the lineup tonight. This is just one of those guys who typically carves us up. Combine that with the pressures of a playoff race at the end of a 162 game season, and yeah, I’m not gonna take much away from this one.
Opposing him tonight was Foster Griffin, who has had a rough go of it in his near 2 months with Cleveland. In 8 starts, Griffin has had a 5.79 ERA, which is far and away the worst of any Cleveland Starting Pitcher this year. And while ERA doesn’t always tell the full story, it kinda does here. In those 8 starts he has only completed 37.1 innings, has a WHIP of 1.67 and has struck out just 35. It’s a far cry from his 2.77 pre-ASB ERA that made him an All Star for the Nationals.
Let me just say this: I love that the Guardians went out and got Griffin. Many will tell you it was a terrible move, or that they should’ve saw this coming, they got fooled or this is another Caminero trade all over again (ok buddy). Sure, maybe, whatever. But they went out and made something happen. Sometimes trades don’t work out, and that’s ok. But we root for a franchise that is very protective of their prospects and rarely makes big splashes. So I absolutely commend them for doing that, even if it didn’t work. I hope they still do it in the future.
Well tonight, Griffin wasn’t the problem. He wasn’t quite everything you hoped you were getting at the Trade Deadline- but he got you results you’d take from any SP on any given night.
It started off shaky. In the 1st inning, Griffin threw 18 pitches, 15 for strikes. NONE were swings and misses. Now, I’m not an analytics genius here, but over the course of a ball game, that ratio of swing and miss is rarely ever gonna work out (even though it actually had earlier this season). He would need to buckle down and get going.
He did. The hits kept coming, but none were very damaging. Griffin gave up 10 hits on the night, but scattered them beautifully across 6 innings. He also did not allow an extra base hit. That’s right, 10 singles over 6. And it wasn’t until the 10th one did Boston score a run, and it took some 94 grade speed to avoid getting tagged out at home after a beautiful throw from Steven Kwan (of course it was.
Bam. Just like that, 1 run over 6 and stranding 9, but leaving the game in line for the loss. No one said sports were fair!
The Guardians would get their leadoff man on in the 7th, but Tyron Guerrero absolutely blew away the next 3 hitters, striking out Lowe, Bailey and Halpin by pumping 100 right down the middle, daring them to swing (they did- it didn’t matter). Then in the 8th, Cleveland would work 2 walks against Garrett Whitlock, but even with a high pitch count and an opportunity to burn an additional arm, Chase DeLauter rolled into a tailor made 4-6-3 Double Play, ending Cleveland’s only threat before it even started.
In the bottom of the 8th in a 1 run game (and Aroldis Chapman warm), Steven Vogt put in Matt Festa, the Human White Flag (who kinda did his job), signaling that we would live to fight tomorrow and for the final 4 game stretch (even if we now need a BETTER finish than the White Sox).
Biggest takeaway from the game was Cleveland’s inability to make anything happen. They didn’t have many baserunners, but much like last night had very little success when they did. Cleveland went 0-14 batting with a man on base, a flaw that has haunted them all season long, and one that I fear will rear its ugly head in the Playoffs.
Tonight felt like a Red Sox playoff dress rehearsal. 6 shutout from Gray. Clean innings from Guerrero, Whitlock & Chapman. That’s their formula, and it certainly worked tonight. For the Guardians, they now have 4 games to play, and need a better finish than the White Sox who hold that ever so important Tie-Breaker.
The Guardians finish their series with the Red Sox on Thursday night, when Cleveland Homegrown Superstar “TBD” takes on Ranger Suarez.
