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The Guardians came into Wednesday afternoon, coming off a heartbreaking loss the night before, losing to the Cardinals, 6-5 in walk off fashion, after having a 5-2 lead going into the bottom of the 8th.
Cleveland needed to come out with a win to take the series versus the Cardinals but unfortunately, that is not what happened.
Let’s be honest, the Guardians choked this series, blowing Tuesday’s game with an error and poor bullpen play, and Wednesdays’ game, with more poor bullpen play, poor timely hitting, and base running mistakes.
Cleveland fell 5-3, letting a washed Dustin May practically shut them down for 6 innings, only giving up 1 run.
The Guardians lost this game for 2 reasons. Reason number one being just horrid base running mistakes. In the top of the first, Steven Kwan was thrown out after falling between 3rd base and Home, and in the top of the 4th, Kyle Manzardo was sent home on a George Valera double, and thrown out by a mile. Not even close. Kyle Manzardo is most definitely the slowest player on the team and it was just a horrible decision by 3rd base coach Rouglas Odor to send him. Odor has made bad decision after bad decision so far this season, sending guys home in situations they don’t need to, getting them thrown out, and missing those runs always seem to come back to bite them later in the game.
Odor needs to be removed from his 3rd base coach duties. He has been making too many poor decisions, and it’s costing the team some runs. Times like these make us fans appreciate Mike Sarbaugh a little more from his time spent in Cleveland.
The second big reason for Wednesday loss was bullpen pitching. The bullpen today for the Guardians was not great, giving up 3 runs in the 6th due to bad location on pitches, and walks. Connor Brogdon is responsible for all 3 runs scored that inning, and now his ERA bumps up to 6.43.
Steven Vogt made a bad decision, putting in Matt Festa to come in relief for Tim Herrin in the 6th who struggled to get out of the inning after coming in to relieve Brogdon. 3 pitchers in one inning is insanely embarrassing.
We all know what happens when Matt Festa makes an appearance though, he gives up runs and it basically feels like Vogt is punting the game. Especially after letting Festa go back out for the 7th, to immediately give up a run, after the Guardians chipped away in the top of the inning to make a 1 run game.
It just felt like Vogt wasn’t too interested in winning this game, and you can’t use the bullpen being “gassed” excuse, because we are 19 games into the season. They’re not gassed.
The Guardians were led offensively by Kyle Manzardo, who went 2-2 with a walk, and a RBI. Manzardo has been swinging the bat a lot better as of late and has increased his batting average to .180.
Daniel Schneemann once again had a great game, going 2-3 with 2 singles, and has continued to be very good so far and has surprised a lot of people, batting .295 with 7 RBIs and a HR in 44 at-bats.
Bo Naylor finally had a nice day at the plate, going 1-3 with a 2-run RBI double in the 7th to get the Guardians a little close and make it at the time, a 4-3 game.
Video credit : GuardsTV on X/ MLB
Bo had a great at-bat, working a full count, and whacking the 3-2 sinker 373 ft over center fielder Victor Scott II, driving in Hoskins and Schneemann.
On the mound, Slade Cecconi wasn’t spectacular, going 4.0 innings, giving up 1 run on 3 hits, but having 5 walks.
Cecconi’s pitch count got too high too quickly, being at almost 50 pitches by the end of the 2nd inning. This seems to be a reoccurring issue with the Guardians starting pitchers, Bibee, Cecconi, and Williams all have had issues so far this season with high early pitch counts. It needs to be fixed otherwise the bullpen is going to be used a lot more than they should, just like 2024.
The Guardians are back at it on Thursday for a 4 game series against the Baltimore Orioles back in Cleveland.
LHP Parker Messick, who has been fantastic for the Guardians, starting 2-0 with a 0.51 ERA in 3 starts will get the start for the Guardians.
The Orioles have a good solid, veteran lineup especially bringing in former Mets’ Star Pete Alonso, so this is going to be yet another tough challenge for Parker on the mound today who looks to continue his stretch of brilliance.
First pitch is at 6:10 PM ET at Progressive Field.
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