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Guarding The Corner Episode 13 – State of the Guardians: James and Bryan discuss where the Guardians stand now, short-term outlook, and trivia.
Tag Archives: Owen Miller
Guardians complete sweep of Royals, win 4-0
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The Cleveland Guardians were able to take care of business with a 4-0 win Wednesday in what was the final game of their series and brief home stand. This victory completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals with wins of 7-3 and 8-3.
While not a blowout or seemingly dominant, the Guardians were able to keep the Royals off the scoreboard despite multiple scoring chances. Cleveland’s pitching staff was able to limit Kansas City to a 1-6 line with runners in scoring position, but with no runs allowed. This is in addition to stranding nine Royals baserunners over the course of the game.
Konnor Pilkington did find himself walking a tightrope at times, allowing five hits and two walks. Pilkington did find himself in a bases loaded situation with one out in the 4th inning, but was able to get a strikeout and groundout to dance out of trouble. It was a career-high 5 innings pitched and eight strikeouts for Pilkington. Eli Morgan would follow Pilkington allowing two hits and striking out four in 2 innings.
Offensively the Guardians got some help from the top of the order. Steven Kwan and Amed Rosario each had two hits. Rosario was able to get Cleveland on the board with a 3rd inning RBI single.
From the bottom third of the order it was Andres Gimenez going 2-4 with a double and his RBI single in the 4th allowing Owen Miller to come around to score.
Jose Ramirez did not collect a hit, but was still able to drive in a run with a RBI groundout in the 5th inning.
Another member of the bottom third, Richie Palacios, also had two hits on the afternoon. Palacios’ RBI double in the 8th allowed Gimenez to score Cleveland’s fourth and final run.
What’s next?
The Guardians have an off day Thursday before heading to Camden Yards Friday for a three game set against the Orioles. Cleveland will head into play sitting at 22-24 against a 21-30 Baltimore squad. There is a very real chance for the Guardys to get above .500 with a sweep of the Orioles. This is a great opportunity for a young team to stack successive series on top of each other for consecutive series wins for the first time this season.
Guardians manage 12 hits in win over Royals
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It was a hit parade down on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario as the Guardians tallied 12 hits in their 8-3 win over the Royals.
Amed Rosario, Ernie Clement, Andres Gimenez, and Oscar Gonzalez each collected two hits in the contest. Rosario would double and triple while Gonzalez managed another double. Gonzalez (2), Gimenez, and Clement would each drive in runs.
Austin Hedges may have had just one hit, but he made it count. Hedgey hit a three-run shot in the 3rd to increase the Guardians lead at the time to four. Owen Miller did manage a hit in four at-bats in addition to driving in a run on a groundout.
The truly interesting part of the Guardians performance is that Jose Ramirez had one hit in two at-bats. This is due to Kansas City intentionally walking Ramirez in his first two plate appearances in addition to a traditional walk later in the game. Considering that Ramirez is the current American League Player of the Week it is hard to question their thought process. Make any non-Ramirez player beat them, fortunately for the Guardians it worked out in their favor.
On the mound
Taking the mound for the Guardians was Cal Quantrill. Quantrill would allow three runs in 6.1 innings on six hits while striking out five. This was the third straight game which saw Quantrill pitch at least 6 innings while allowing three runs or less.
Sam Hentges would record the final two outs of the 7th, striking out one and allowing just one hit.
Enyel De Los Santos and Bryan Shaw would not allow a hit during the 8th and 9th innings with the latter walking two.
What’s next?
A potential series sweep awaits the Guardians as their three game set with the Royals wraps up Wednesday afternoon. A win in the series finale would bring Cleveland within two games of .500 and set them up nicely to eclipse it with their upcoming three game set in Baltimore.
Guardians walked off by Tigers
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With the game tied at 3 in the bottom of the 9th the Guardians were looking to extend the game to extras for a chance to win. Unfortunately Cleveland Miguel Cabrera had other ideas. The future hall of famer proceeded to hit a walk-off RBI single to hand the Guardys a 4-3 loss.
Prior to the Cabrera’s walk-off single there was a fairly prolonged scoring drought. The two clubs combined for six runs in three innings before going scoreless until the 9th. Detroit scored two runs over the first two innings while Cleveland answered in the 3rd with three runs. It was Luke Maile who got the Guardians on the board first followed by an Owen Miller two-run double to tie the game. After the 3rd inning there were several three up and three down innings by both teams which led to a finish just under three hours.
Pitching for the Guardians was Konnor Pilkington, essentially a last second replacement for Aaron Civale who landed on the IL with a glute injury. Pilkington would allow three runs on seven hits and four walks with four strikeouts in just 3.1 innings of work. Inefficiency would be the way to describe this outing as Pilkington threw 87 pitches 49 of which were for strikes. The Guardians pitcher was lucky to be facing an offensively inept squad in Detroit. If a competent offensive team of any kind was in the other dugout Pilkington’s night could have been over earlier with much more damage on the scoreboard.
Looking forward
The Guardians are now 18-23 on the year which has them in third place in the AL Central, seven games back of the division leading Twins. There are three more games left in Detroit for Cleveland to get back on the right track and being their record closer to .500. If not, some players could be on their way out as the club could become an early seller.
Guarding The Corner Ep.10 – Weathering The Storm
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Guarding The Corner Episode 10 – Weathering The Storm: James and Bryan discuss the Guardians slide, previewing the series in Houston, and of course more trivia.
Guarding The Corner episode 5 – Hit Parade
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Guarding The Corner episode 5 – Hit Parade: James and Bryan discuss the Cleveland Guardians sweep of Chicago, Miguel Cabrera, and the Yankees series.
Guarding The Corner Episode 4 – Cold As Ice
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Guarding The Corner Episode 4 – Cold as Ice: James and Bryan discuss the Guardians being swept, Roki Sasaki, Mike Trout, Sunday Night Baseball, and the upcoming series against the Chicago White Sox.
Guardians lose home opener to Giants
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The Cleveland Guardians played host to the San Francisco Giants in their home opener and their offense was limited in a 4-1 loss. It was the work of former Chicago White Sox pitcher Carlos Rodon who stifled the Guardians bats from the start.
Rodon allowed just one run on two hits and two walks while striking out nine in seven innings. This was reminiscent of last season when Rodon no-hit Cleveland in April, followed up by another impressive performance before Cleveland was finally able to get to him in their final matchup of the year.
Starting for the Guardians was Zach Plesac who pitched adequately overall. Plesac allowed two runs on even hits and one walk with four strikeouts in 5.1 innings of work. The only issue is that Plesac allowed solo home runs to Brandon Crawford and Joc Pederson. Perhaps Pederson was sending a message to a team he criticized during the offseason for their spending habits.
It was a parade of relievers who followed Plesac. Trevor Stephan, Anthony Gose, Bryan Shaw, Anthony Castro, Sam Hentges, and Konnor Pickington who covered the final 3.2 innings. Pilkington was originally optioned to Triple-A earlier that day, but was recalled by the club after placing Yu Chang on the injured list.
The lone Cleveland run of the day came in the seventh off of Rodon. It was a sacrifice fly from Owen Miller which allowed Jose Ramirez to score. Cleveland was 0-4 with runners in scoring position in the contest. While there was not a high volume of opportunities, they did not come through when they needed to and that was problem.
The Guardians will take on the Giants again on Saturday at 6:10 P.M. Previous outings against DeSclafani have not gone well, but perhaps their new approach could lead to a different result.
Guarding The Corner Episode 3 Miller Time
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Guarding The Corner Episode 3 Miller Time: James and Bryan discuss the Guardians wins over the Reds, discuss Owen Miller’s performance, Clayton Kershaw’s near perfecto, Bryan Reynolds’ extension, and preview their upcoming series.
Guardians early low whiff rate leaders
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Through just a handful of games the Cleveland Guardians have three of the top six leaders in lowest whiff rate among qualified players. Steven Kwan, Owen Miller, and Jose Ramirez are first, tied for fourth, and sixth respectively according to Sarah Langs.
Whiff rate is a percentage of swings missed by a batter. Ramirez is the least surprising Guardians player on this list with a 9.8% whiff rate. Cleveland’s perennial MVP candidate third baseman being on this list is very much expected.
Kwan and his highly publicized streak of not swinging and missing leads the way at 4.1%. The Guardians rookie also struck out for the first time since September of last season, that includes his time in Triple-A in addition to Spring Training this year.
Miller being tied for fourth is a fantastic sign of improvement from the young infielder. Miller struggled at times last season and his future with the big league club was in question. Making adjustments and developing has mostly solidified his spot in the starting lineup on a regular basis.
Things can change over time and this list is going to shuffle around a lot. For the time being seeing multiples Guardians players being able to prevent high strikeout rates while putting the ball in play is a nice change of pace from the three true outcome style of baseball that is common across the sport.