Guardians 3, Tigers 1: Guardians Early Offense Propels Them to Win

Cecconi silences Tigers offense en route to a 3-1 victory.

I have a lot to say, so stick with me.

I haven’t been able to write about wins very often, so I’m going to take full advantage of this victory today to be happy and optimistic about this team instead of the usual tone I take in these recaps.

First, getting to Jobe early in the game was fantastic! Hanging 2 that early was amazing and almost certainly gave Cecconi some breathing room as he began to work through what was an almost blemish-less start.

However, I would’ve liked to have seen us continue the barrage that we started in the 1st throughout the rest of Jobe’s start, but I’ll take 2 runs in 5 innings most days.

Felt like the offense took a few innings off in the middle of the game, but they came roaring back in the 9th with Bo Naylor’s lead-off triple (nice defense, Kerry). Nolan got relatively unlucky in the at-bat following Bo’s, but then Kwan knocked him in (extension).

Gaddis was fantastic. Those 2 flawless innings were crucial to getting to Clase. With Cade and Herrin both down, and with our ‘pen being relatively short of high-leverage guys, it was awesome to see Gaddis battle.

Slade. Where do I begin? That was, yet again, a fantastic outing. I am in awe of what he’s been able to do in his first two starts, working to a 3.27 ERA. He had everything working for him tonight, barring one hanging slider to Torkelson.

So, there are some trends I wanted to talk about. Here’s a couple of Guardians players’ stats over the last 20 games:

Jose: .372/.437/.628 (1.065 OPS). In those 20 games, he has 4 homers, 11 RBI, and as many walks as he has strikeouts. Also 8 steals, lol.

Carlos Santana: .266/.407/.484 (.892 OPS). 4 HR, 20 RBI, 15 walks to 14 strikeouts.

Bo Naylor: .211/.308/.509 (.816 OPS). 4 HR, 8 RBI, 2:5 BB:K.

Now, I wanted to talk about the starting rotation in the month of May:

2.82 ERA (4th in MLB)

3.55 FIP (7th in MLB)

1.8 fWAR (10th in MLB)

8.82 K/9 (8th in MLB)

0.91 HR/9 (6th in MLB)

The only blemish on the unbelievable work from this rotation is their 99.0 innings pitched mark (23rd in MLB). Recently, we’ve seen guys like Gav, Tanner, and Slade work deeper into games, and I’m hoping that trend continues. Until we get some more high leverage arms up from AAA (like Andrew Walters and Franco Aleman), we really need to keep the bullpen as protected as possible.

This rotation has been about as good as you could want in May, and I’m really excited to see the development arcs of guys like Gavin, Slade, and Ortiz throughout the season. You add back Bieber and call up Messick and this rotation could be really, really good. I know many of us were shocked at the Gimenez and Naylor trades this offseason, but both seem to have been working pretty well. Gimenez was, prior to injury, sporting a sub .600 OPS, and Josh Naylor has a .643 OPS over his last 20 games.

Considering Ortiz is rocking a 3.71 ERA since his first start with the team, and considering how great Santana and Cecconi have been, I’d say we may have been a bit harsh on the front office for those trades. Now, of course, all of these trends could flip, but as of right now (especially with Lively’s injury), Ortiz and Cecconi are going to be crucial to continuing the success (and maintaining the depth) of this pitching staff.

Anyway, stunning the Tigers in the first two games of this series is massive, and I’d love to see us take the series tomorrow. Go Guards!