News and Notes: Guardians Fail First Test Vs. Braves
News and Notes for Saturday, April 27th, 2024
The Guardians didn’t fare well in their first test against one of the elite teams in Major League Baseball, losing 6-2 to the Atlanta Braves Friday night.
Chris Sale brought back recent memories of Cleveland’s struggles vs. left-handed pitching, allowing only two hits and one walk while striking out six in seven innings of one-run baseball. The lefty mashers David Fry and Ramon Laureano were not up to the task last night, which certainly happens. I would assume the leash on Laureano as a platoon player vs. LHP is probably not longer than the end of May, but it’s disappointing he hasn’t been able to continue his 120 wRC+ against LHP in his career into 2024 so far (obligatory small sample size caveat).
Brayan Rocchio looked overmatched. Gabriel Arias went 1 for 4. The offensive highlights were a leadoff home run from Steven Kwan
Oh, that's just our boy, Steve.#ForTheLand pic.twitter.com/K6nooOoi87
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) April 26, 2024
and a late double from Tyler Freeman. Josh Naylor is in a bit of a funk and may get a day off like Andres Gimenez got yesterday if Vogt’s recent trends are any guide.
Meanwhile, Logan Allen continued a trend of short, uneven performances for Guardians starting pitchers, giving up five hits, two walks, four runs and hitting a batter. He didn’t give up any homers, but Pedro Avila did. Tyler Beede was pretty bad for an inning and a third and won’t last long walking two batters and hitting a third if that’s the pattern. Hopefully, for his sake and the Guardians’, he can turn things around because he seems like a great dude with a fun story. Personally, I’d rather root for a good guy like Beede struggling than be a Braves fan forced to root for a bad guy like Marcell Ozuna succeeding.
Ah well, today is a new day and we will now see if Tanner Bibee can turn in a good performance against a good hitting team. This game and series aren’t going to determine much about my perspective on the 2024 Guardians, but I will say it’s becoming clear that this team needs Gavin Williams to come back strong from this elbow discomfort. Things aren’t sustainable with the current starting rotation production, and while I like Logan Allen, I do not want him to be more than my #4 starter, especially in a potential playoff series.
Another day, another Charlie Condon homer:
Funny story… Texas A&M was playing 4 outfielders against Charlie Condon. He went over the scoreboard for his 27th HR on the season. BBCOR record is 33HR pic.twitter.com/lraNGQpnh5
— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) April 26, 2024
Another day, another Travis Bazzana homer:
TRAVIS BAZZANA GOES OPPO FOR HIS 20TH HR
— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) April 27, 2024
Beavers take a 2-0 lead over the Ducks pic.twitter.com/bfbqWiWW3y
Around MLB
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