Guardians News and Notes: Gavin Williams stifles Yankees, Tristan McKenzie DFA’d

The peaks and valleys of the season hit in the same day

It was a nearly flawless night for the Big Rig as Gavin Williams dazzled against the New York Yankees who led the American League in runs scored coming into the night.

It wasn’t all Gavin though. Heading into the third, Cleveland had made Clarke Schmidt work, but they couldn't put anything together. However, consecutive singles by Brayan Rocchio and Steven Kwan set the table, and after a Nolan Jones strikeout, José made Schmidt pay.

A good pitch is good, but a great swing beats good pitching every single time, and that’s exactly what the future Hall of Famer did to Schmidt. It wasn’t over though.

Coming into the night, Manzardo was an ambush machine, and that continued against Schmidt, taking a first-pitch sinker over the right field wall for back-to-back jacks and a four-run third inning. Manzardo has crushed the first pitch this season, specifically fastballs. Manzo now has two first-pitch homers off heaters this season, and of his 15 hits, 6 have come ambush style.

Now, let’s get back to the star of the game, Gavin Williams. Williams was great, finally finding a way to locate early — including a six pitch 2nd inning — which led to success getting ahead in counts with his fastball and sweeper. Gavin’s fastball command against New York was easily the best its been this season. His zone rate with his fastball sat at 72%, 7% higher than his next closest mark this season, and he generated 10 whiffs on the heater, also a season best. On the day overall, Williams ran a 36% whiff rate, and an old friend made its way back into his arsenal as well.

Gavin Williams, for the first time all season, worked back his cutter into the fold, and while he only threw it five times, it helped his sweeper play for whiffs when it was thrown. Last season was a constant fight for Gavin and his cutter/slider as he could never get comfortable throwing either, and they ended up blending into each other, seeing very poor results. Williams worked on establishing a sweeper all offseason, and working in his cutter is likely something he’s worked on in bullpens, and him feeling comfortable enough to throw it in games and get good early results with it is a major positive moving forward.

Cleveland added two more runs, and they wound up being needed as a Jasson Dominguez 2-run home run ruined Gavin Williams’ shutout, and Jazz Chisholm’s 2-run bomb off Paul Sewald drew the Yankees back within two. However, a huge lift from Joey Cantillo led to a Cade Smith save as Emmanuel Clase had a designated day off, as the Guardians took game one against the Yankees, 6-4.

AL CENTRAL STANDINGS
DET: 14-9
CLE: 13-9
KCR: 9-14
MIN: 7-15
CWS: 5-17

Guardians DFA Triston McKenzie

A long feared reality has come to fruition for Triston McKenzie and the Guardians as Cleveland designated McKenzie for assignment on Monday afternoon. A once rising star, Sticks battled injuries, and between injuries and overall debilitating stuff depletion and command issues, McKenzie could never get back to being the pitcher he once was as Zack Meisel wrote for the Athletic. The rest of the league will have until next Monday to claim McKenzie, and with him comes the rest of his contract which is this season’s $1.95 million and 2026’s arbitration season.

AROUND MLB:

The Tigers beat the Padres as they continue to keep pace with the Guardians