These games have legitimately taken decades off my life. A 3-hour game against a division rival in September that refused to be broken open by either team (despite numerous chances by both squads to take advantage) is simply something that no person deserves.
In any case, we won… so that’s fine… I guess.
Gavin Williams had a very strange outing today. He got hit really hard (when the Tigers managed to put the ball in play), but escaped tonight’s outing unscathed. 5 innings, 3 hits, 2 walks, 9 strikeouts,
no runs. Lowered his ERA to 3.06. His command, or stuff, wasn’t there tonight. I’m not quite sure what caused the Tigers to hit 30+ foul balls today.
Regardless, you won. At this point in the season, luck means absolutely everything. While regression can certainly come at any moment, you take every single break you can get (though, I guess, that’s true at any point in the season). Gavin did exactly what you wanted him to. While he may not have given you the length you’d hoped for, he gave you a chance to win, without unnecessarily taxing your bullpen.
There were some questionable pinch-hitting choices today (either the actual PH or a lack thereof), but we won, so I’m not gonna waste anyone’s time complaining.
Onto the offense.
A little rough today, as they left 11 men on base today. At least 8 of them were in scoring position. George Valera started off the scoring with a beautiful swing taking an outside Flaherty fastball the other way through the 6-hole. In the 6th, Martinez looped a ball into right off a RHP, driving in Arias. (Arias, by the way, had some amazing swings today). In the 9th, with the bases loaded (following Jose taking an extremely rare and uncharacteristic walk with RISP), Manzardo grounded out to first. Then, with two strikes, Bo Naylor drove a perfectly placed Jose Urquidy changeup to right, bringing home Jose and Schneemann.
Let’s talk about the bullpen. Not the most orthodox implementation of the bullpen today, with the majority of our relievers coming in to end one inning, and then back out to start the subsequent inning. But, they gave you 4 scoreless innings, and you didn’t use Gaddis. Herrin, Festa, Sabrowski, Junis, and Cade combined for 4 innings of 1-hit, 2-walk, scoreless baseball. Also struck out 3 (you can thank Cade Smith for 2 of those punchouts). By the way, Cade Smith rebounded excellently from yesterday’s oopsie with a stressless, scoreless frame. 8 pitches, 8 strikes.
The Guardians exorcised one of their demons today, keeping Flaherty from recording a quality start against the Guardians for the first time in his career (he had a sub-2 ERA against Cleveland going into today’s game).
Final aside, Jose fouled a ball off his back leg in the 9th, but walked, and was left in the game to run. Hopefully, he’ll be able to play tomorrow, though one worries that he’ll DH, forcing Fry, and maybe even Manzardo, out of the lineup. Hopefully, he feels good enough to play in the field, because you absolutely will need him if you want to have any chance at winning. You have to put your best 9 out there tomorrow, and all three of those guys are integral to that effort.
And no, in case you were wondering, I will not be mentioning anything about this team and the month that follows September. Find a way to win tomorrow against Skubal.
Have a good night.
