The Guardians lost to the Royals in the series opener tonight 4-2. They also lost Gabriel Arias to hamstring tightness – we will see for how long.
The Guardians continued to get good starting pitching, this time for 4 and 2/3rds from Tanner Bibee who gave up 1 run on 5 hits and 1 walk, striking out 3. Tim Herrin finished out the fifth and Peyton Pallette pitched two innings, giving up a homer to Carter Jensen. Kolby Allard finished off the game and gave up a two-run homer to Johnathan India.
The Guardians
had one of those “hit the ball hard and got nothing to show for it” games, and were generally stymied by Michael Wacha. But, there were some positive signs – Steven Kwan and Brayan Rocchio hit their first homers of the season, and Jose took two walks.
Jose Ramirez is now the franchise leader in games played in a Cleveland uniform. Amazing.
Arias appeared to tweak his hamstring after hitting a double and was removed from the game. I suspect this means an IL stint for Arias which is a real shame because he had been playing well over the last couple games. I wonder if Juan Brito will get a shot at second base with Brayan Rocchio moved to short (where Rocchio made an excellent play late in the game).
No time to feel bad about this one as the Guardians will return to action tomorrow at 1:10PM to accommodate a return to winter temps forecasted for our area. Let’s hope to see our lefty masher lineup come out in full force. Brito generally hits lefties well, so hopefully it will be a good debut if he is called up.
