Guardians N&N: Homers, Homers, and more Homers

News & Notes for Saturday, May 10th

So, the Guards made an impression on the Phillies last night. As everyone was watching a finally healthy Cavs team beat up on the Pacers, the Guards were beating up on baseballs.

To be completely fair, I did have the Cavs game up on my phone, propped up on a cupholder in the lower right field seats (as did pretty much everyone around me at the stadium haha). Younger me would be appalled at how much I looked at my phone at a Cleveland baseball game.

But, I digress.

It took the Guardians a bit to get to the longtime Phil Aaron Nola (who is off to quite the rough start might I add), but once the bats got going, it wasn’t long before they were up a healthy amount on Philly.

Kyle Manzardo got things going with a solo bomb, then Angel Martinez followed that up with a two-run big fly of his own an inning later. In the 7th, J-Ram hit one of those foul homers that seem to always get him, but one pitch later he boomed one that just stayed left of the right field foul pole this time.

Gavin Williams had himself a solid day after getting out of a jam in the first. He’s continuing to K batters, getting 8 on the day. Still letting up walks, but he still finished the day with 5 strong innings and no runs scored.

Cleveland’s bullpen followed that up with 4 scoreless to complete the full shutout of the Phillies in the opener.

In other news, Travis Bazzana had an electric game-tying bomb in the 9th last night for the RubberDucks. Bazz is now hitting .303 for the Ducks in May after what seemed to many like a slow month of April. Cooper Ingle also hit a bomb earlier in the game as well. However, Akron didn’t end up winning the game, as the Somerset Patriots took it in 11 innings.

Around the League

Well, this is sort of around the league, but the Guardians, in tow with the rest of the AL Central, are on a combined 22-game win streak currently (although this one does not include a Jay Bruce walk-off single). This is all while the AL East is struggling to even reach a combined .500 win percentage. This is totally normal.

It was announced Thursday that Red Sox cornerstone Rafael Devers was asked by the Boston brass to make a switch to 1st base (with Triston Casas being out for the season with an patellar tendon rupture).

Mind you, this is just 2 months after Raffy reluctantly agreed to give up his spot at 3rd base to Alex Bregman, relegating him to DH. So, being asked to switch up positions again is definitely not sitting right with Devers, who seemed to be the face of the Red Sox franchise after signing an 11-year, $331 million dollar deal with Boston in 2023.