Guardians Storm the “Hah-buh” during a Boston “C” Party
The green monster loomed in left field, it was cold as shit, and the rain came and went and then came again. The Guards come into Boston hot, but with two of the scheduled starters set to be making their 2024 debut, a series split seemed sufficient.
Game one, we see Xzavion Curry, hereby referred to as X, actually pitch a gem…on paper. The box score shows that he went 5.1 innings, giving up just 2 hits and no runs. HOWEVER, if you watched the game, it felt like just about every put out was on a batted ball going 105 mph straight to a defender. I hesitate to call it luck, but I would imagine if the Guards defense wasn’t as good as it was, the numbers would change a bit. Regardless of the decent start, X is now playing in AAA Columbus as the club had to make room for Ben Lively.
On the hitting side of things, Gabby stayed hot with 6 total bases, Will Brennan hit himself a 2 run Bing bong and the good guys score 2 runs in each of the last 3 innings. Tim Herrin gets the win and Guards win game 1, 6-0. Another shut piece.
In Game 2, Tanner pitches fine *insert shoulder shrug here* and gets through 5 innings surrendering one Home Run and a handful of hits. The boys are able to help Tanner out and give him a 5-1 cushion when he hands the ball to Tyler Beede. Beede proceeds to get crushed for a few line drives and Cade Smith takes the mound. Cade smith then proceeds to finish blowing the lead by giving up two WHITE HOT doubles. The guardians come out of the inning down 6-5.
Luckily, Kenley Jansen is pitching in the 9th and the Guardians are able to tie it with the “Cleveland Classic.” That’s what it’s called when you hit the ball 3 times to score 1 run. Why score more runs when few runs do trick?
THEN, in the bottom of 10, Emmanuel Clase gets a groundout and a fly out, BUT, since the extra-innings base runner was on, this is actually a blown save so that’s cool. Luckily Jose and Flo hit a couple singles in the 11thand the Guardians win 10-7.
Game three is when it appears the boys in blue were okay with a series split as well because Tanner Houck would pitch a complete game shutout in less than 2 hours. I like to think this was as good as a day off because the offense was just completely asleep. Without a completely bullshit Balk call, it could have been a scoreless 9 innings for both clubs, but the Guardos lose this one 2-0.
AND, the series finale. Cookie gets off to slow start, walking 2 and giving up a pair of hits to go down 1-0 early. It looked like Cookie was going to break the 6 inning barrier that has plagued Cleveland Starters but Vogt decides to put Cade Smith in after 5.2 innings. Cade says fuck it and shits the bed for the second time in three days.
Cleveland comes out of that experience with a narrow 5-4 lead and somehow, someway, Tim Herrin, Hunter Gaddis, and Emmanuel Clase sit down 9 straight to win 5-4.
Honestly, going home from Boston and taking the series is a huge surprise. I know Boston isn’t great, but I would rate our rotation a solid 3 out of 10. And our otherwise great bullpen was pretty shitty this week. So honestly, the fact that we won 3 of the 4 is a small miracle and just shows the heart these guys have. I really don’t know many teams scrappier and more exciting than this one. Back to Cleveland to play the Sacramento Athletics. Another series win hopefully in the works.
I keep waiting for it to come crashing down and the train just keeps chugging. I know, we are starting to sputter a little, but after 3 weeks, the boys are 7 games over .500. I’ll fucking take it.