Guardians lose to Tigers 4-2

After a postponement the day before and a slight delay Sunday the Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers played the final game of their series. With Cleveland winning the first game there was the opportunity to complete the now two-game sweep. Unfortunately the Tigers had other ideas as they used a Josh Naylor error in the fifth and some late game heroics from Javier Baez in the 8th to hand Cleveland the loss.

Speaking of Naylor, the Cleveland first baseman had some positive impacts on the game. Naylor did tie the game at 2 in the 4th with his sixth home run of the season. Naylor did give the Guardians did have a chance in the 9th after he was hit on the elbow with a pitch giving Franmil Reyes the prime chance to tie the game late. Reyes would hit a deep fly ball that died on the warning track and Andres Gimenez grounded into a double play in the next at-bat to end the game.

Pitching for Cleveland was Shane Bieber as he struck out 10 over 7 innings while allowing two runs on six hits and two walks. Velocity continues to be an issue for Bieber as he continues to live in the lower 90’s. There is way to make this work, but it is incredibly difficult and requires pinpoint command. Bieber has incredible command and is very much impressive in this department. Although like everyone else in the world he is not perfect and it can escape him occasionally.

Due up

At 17-20 the Guardians are in third place in the American League Central behind first place Minnesota by 5.5 games. Cleveland will travel to Houston for a three game set with the Astros before heading to Detroit for a four game series with the Tigers to close out the week.