Will Chase DeLauter debut this series?
The Blue Jays and Guardians will meet for a scorching hot series starting tonight – which team will emerge hot and which will come out cold on the other side?
The Guardians are 39-37 with a -23 run differential, 25th in MLB team wRC+ at 89, 10th in Baserunning Runs Above Average at 1.2, fifth in Defense at 3.9, 26th in starting pitcher SIERA at 4.38 (only 4.11 since May 15th, however), tenth in bullpen SIERA at 3.61.
The Blue Jays are 41-36 with a -10 run differential, 12th in MLB team wRC+ at 105, 24th in Baserunning Runs Above Average at -2.8, first in Defense at 22.4 (that is an insane number), 17th in starting pitcher SIERA at 4.08, and second in bullpen SIERA at 3.27.
The Blue Jays are a good team. They haven’t quite put everything together yet, but this team pitches well, hits well and plays defense insanely well. The Guardians will have to play their best baseball to win this series (and probably need to call up Chase DeLauter by Thursday night).
Matchups:
Game One, Tuesday 6:40PM EDT: Eric Lauer, LHP, 3.63 SIERA vs. Logan Allen, LHP, 5.01 SIERA
Game Two, Wednesday, 6:40PM EDT: Max Scherzer, RHP, 6.76 SIERA vs. Gavin Williams, RHP, 4.41 SIERA
Game Three, Thursday, 1:10PM EDT: Kevin Gausman, RHP, 3.74 SIERA vs. Tanner Bibee, RHP, 4.11 SIERA
The Guardians have five players hitting over 100 wRC+: Jose Ramirez at 152 wRC+, Steven Kwan at 129 wRC+, Daniel Schneemann 106 wRC+ and Kyle Manzardo 103 wRC+. The Blue Jays have seven: Vladimar Guerrero 135 wRC+, Addison Barger 128 wRC+, George Springer 126 wRC+, Alejandro Kirk 120 wRC+, Ernie Clement 115 wRC+, Bo Bichette 115 wRC+, and Nathan Lukes 113 wRC+ (Myles Straw is back down to 78 wRC+).
Interestingly enough, Carlos Santana has a 116 wRC+ since May 1st, and Nolan Jones has a 116 wRC+ since June 1st. The team will need both Los and Jones to help, and their lefty “mashers” – David Fry, Lane Thomas and Angel Martinez – to show up in this series to get a series win. I’d also really like to see the team call up Chase DeLauter for Thursday night’s game to begin a mostly full-time gig starting in right field. We will see if I get what I want. Meanwhile, welcome back Andres Gimenez, one of my favorite Guardians players of the past five years, and all-around great guy. Hope his team loses but he still feels the love from Cleveland fans (thank you for the good memories and for Luis Ortiz, Josh Hartle and Michael Kennedy).