News and Notes for Tuesday, May 7th, 2024
The Guardians beat the Tigers 2-1 on the strength of a strong Triston McKenzie outing, excellent relief pitching and José Ramírez late inning heroics.
Aside from a first pitch of the game bomb from Riley Greene and a little trouble in the first resulting in a Will Brennan RBI single, McKenzie and Tigers’ starter Jack Flaherty had their respective opponents off balance all game. McKenzie used his slider and curveball each about a fourth of the time and the other half of his pitches were fastballs sitting 91-92 mph. Though the Tigers aren’t a good lineup, this was a very encouraging start for McKenzie.
Triston McKenzie, Pretty 80mph Curveball.
5th K pic.twitter.com/w0kaoSQn5v
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 6, 2024
In the 6th, José Ramírez does what José Ramírez does and pulled a fly ball out of the park to give his team the lead, also giving him the franchise lead in go-ahead homers, pulling ahead of Larry Doby. It’s a reminder how blessed we are to watch José day in and day out.
José and Hammy.
What a combo!#ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/Onqw8eYDq7
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) May 7, 2024
Sam Hentges made his triumphant return, Nick Sandlin cleaned things up, Hunter Gaddis survived by the skin of his teeth but had a great last couple batters, and Emmanuel Clase was absolutely dominant again.
Emmanuel Clase, Mean 98mph Cutter. ✂️ pic.twitter.com/GScUSOu5PH
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 7, 2024
Newcomer Kyle Manzardo struck out three times. So, I guess we were mostly all wrong about him needing to be promoted. Just kidding, he’ll be fine and it was great to see his family all there to support him.
Travis Bazzana hit two more homers.