Milwaukee 9, Cleveland 5: Guardians Fall to Brewers in Finale

Bullpen Implosion Proves Costly

Well.

The scoring started with a Jake Bauers (yikes) RBI double in the 2nd, and the Guardians answered back in the bottom of the 2nd with this Manzardo solo shot (his team-leading 10th HR of the season).

Nolan Jones had an RBI single in the 4th, driving in Jose.

Until the 6th inning, it looked as if the Guardians were poised to pull off the sweep of the Guardians. A Sal Frelick homer in the 5th tied the game, and Gavin Williams was pulled after 5 (5IP 4H 1BB 2ER 6K, lowered ERA to 4.29).

Williams looked very good most of the afternoon, and continued a 2-game streak of very solid starts (4IP 2ER 9K vs. Toronto, 5IP 0ER 8K vs. Philadelphia).

Tim Herrin came in to pitch the 6th, and gave up two baserunners. Junis was brought in to (I guess) get out of the jam, and 3 runs scored.

In the 7th, Cantillo was brought in for length, and surrendered two more.

Overall, not pretty, bullpen-wise. I’m not sure why Vogt keeps trusting Junis in these high leverage situations, other than that they can’t go to Cade Smith everyday. Hopefully, Andrew Walters can help soon.

And then, Jose did his thing. After Hedges singled, Schneeman had a two-out infield single, and Jose hammered the second pitch he saw 420’ to dead center. He’s been on one of his hot streaks this past few weeks.

Kent gave up 2 more in the 9th as Hoskins went nuclear today.

Regardless, the Guardians take the series against the Brew Crew. They head south to Cincinnati this weekend to face off against our old skipper in a 3-game set starting Friday. We have some very consequential games following that series, so let’s look to keep rolling this weekend.