Guardians News & Notes: Calling all Angels

Nolan and Arias to the rescue!

Ever feel the need to do a pulse check on a team in May? It certainly almost felt necessary going into the 7th inning during Saturday’s game against the Angels. Friday night’s loss was punctuated by the injury to Andrew Walters, and when the Guardians, already trailing 4-0, left the bases loaded against Kyle Hendricks in the third inning of Saturday’s game, a resuscitation was needed.

Enter…Nolan Jones? You guessed it! A little league home run, thanks in large part to the Angels actually in the outfield, not only got the Guards on the board, but they hung a crooked number, cutting the Angels 4-0 lead in half.

If you take anything away from today’s reading, it’s to be very thankful for Steven Kwan and José Ramírez. The lifeblood of Cleveland’s lineup came to the rescue as they seemingly always do, as José’s solo home run in the fifth and Kwan’s in the sixth cut the Angels lead down to 5-4 entering the 7th inning. The Angels pulled Kyle Hendricks after six solid innings, and in came Ryan Zeferjahn. Just one night before, Zeferjahn shut down Cleveland’s top of the lineup to help secure an Angels victory. Saturday evening started out similarly.

It started with a José Ramírez flyout followed by a Kyle Manzardo groundout. Zeferjahn was cruising with Carlos Santana coming to the plate.

A spinner spun right back over the heart of the top of the zone, and Unc didn’t miss it. From there, the wheels began to wobble for Zeferjahn. Schneemann singled and then stole second, and that led to a Bo Naylor walk, bringing up Gabriel Arias with two on and two out.

Arias broke out of a slump in a big way, putting together a two-hit day including this 2-run, game winning double. It took a village on Saturday, and Sunday belonged to Gavin Williams.

I wrote about Gavin last week and how the usage and overall development of his cutter has changed how he’s been able to pitch within the zone and make his fastball more effective, and he put it on full display on Sunday afternoon. Gavin didn’t give up an earned run over 6.2 innings against the Halos, and over his past three starts, his cutter usage has gone from 3% up to 26.5%. On the season, Williams’ cutter is running a +4 run value per baseball savant, the 8th best mark among all starting pitchers in baseball. He’s still yet to give up a hit against his cutter, and since he upped his cutter usage against the Twins, his cutter has been the best in baseball over those three starts, running a +5 run value, the best of any cutter in the sport.

Williams’ newfound ability to win in the zone has completely transformed his outlook in 2025. The Big Rig is running a 2.59 ERA since the start of May with 38 strikeouts across 31.1 innings. Walks are the issue for Williams as they always have been, but finding a legitimate number pitch to attack in the zone with makes Williams’ sweeper and curveball all the more dangerous. A big Summer could be ahead for Gavin.

AL CENTRAL STANDINGS

DET: 40-21
CLE: 32-26 (6.5 GB)
MIN: 31-27 (7.5 GB)
KC: 31-29 (8.5 GB)
CWS: 18-42 (21.5 GB)

Injury Report

• Shane Bieber (Tommy John) is scheduled for a rehab start in Double-A Akron on 6/5
• Erik Sabrowski (elbow) will join Shane Bieber in Akron on rehab assignment
• Lane Thomas (plantar fasciitis) was placed on the 10-day IL, retro to 5/27
• Will Brennan (forearm inflammation) will meet with Dr. Keith Meister for second opinion
• Andrew Walters (lat tear) will be out for an undisclosed amount of time with surgery most likely needed