Three Positives From the Week of June 2nd
A debut and a winning weekend were just two of the overwhelming positives for this first-place team.
An up and down week for the Guardians came with lots of highlights and an even record. Let’s take a look at all of the “ups” from the past week to get us through this cloudy Monday.
Four Games Up
Although Wednesday’s game against the second-place Kansas City Royals was postponed due to weather, the Guardians still did what they needed to do in the shortened two-game series. Prior to dropping the series finale by just one run, Cleveland took the opener from KC in an 8-5 effort behind a rough outing from Triston McKenzie. Even though he gave up five earned runs on nine hits in 5.1 innings, the offense made sure that that didn’t matter.
A pair of two-run home runs from Josh Naylor and Tyler Freeman powered the team to a much-needed victory to lengthen their lead in the division. Entering Monday, the Guardians have a four-game cushion for first place and a 8.5 game lead on the third-place Minnesota Twins. While it’s still early in the season, it was great to see the team hold their own against the hard-charging Royals.
Schneemann Making His Case
27-year-old Daniel Schneemann was called up to the Guardians on June 2 to finally make his Major League debut. Since then, he’s proven why this was the right choice. Splitting his six games between second base, third base, shortstop, left field, center field, and right field, he has made it clear that he’s willing to play anywhere as long as it helps the team.
And help the team, he has. Hitting .385/.556/.615 across his first 13 at bats, Schneemann is making his case to stay on the big league roster. His electric debut saw him hit a two-run double to right field to cut Washington’s lead to two. Although the team couldn’t pull out a win for him, I feel that double was just a glimpse into what he will provide for this team down the stretch.
Winning Weekend
After Friday’s loss in Miami, the team (and its fans) needed a pick-me-up. That came on Saturday with a huge 8-0 victory against the Marlins and again on Sunday with a 6-3 victory. Ben Lively showed that his early success with the team was no fluke by giving up just three hits in the shutout before passing it off to Sam Hentges who gave up one hit and Pedro Avila who didn’t allow any.
Sunday saw veteran Carlos Carrasco go 4.2 innings after giving up two runs on four hits. The bullpen held steady after that and gave up no hits until the ninth when closer Emmanuel Clase gave up a run on one hit. I guess we’ll allow his ERA to balloon to 0.57 for now…