He was totally fine when I saw him two days ago. Wholly inconsistent.
According to mlb.com he was firing them in at over 100 mph today.

Williams still has 1 win to his credit.
I would like to have seen him last a little longer but he would've need Stephan and Clase in any case.

Luck ran out of juice. Twins winning 8-0 over the Phils in the 7th. Clutch win. Twins take a 4.5 games lead.

I think its time to give Clase the week off to think about it. I can only think of a few things that could be wrong. He's got a dead arm and no movement on the ball. He's tipping off his pitches. He fell into a groove with pitch selection and the hitters have figured him out.

At any rate, he needs a week off. Can't do any worse without him.

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No one else in the bullpen has been reliable either. Lots of home runs allowed by Stephan and Sandlin. Very high ERA for Hentges. The game I attended DeLosSantos was awful and his next time out was perfect.

Agree. Bullpen is not what it used to be. Very inconsistent.

Teams: Guardians (56-62) vs. Rays (71-48).

Starting pitches: RHP Tanner Bibee (8-2, 2.92) vs. RHP Zach Eflin (12-6. 3.34).

Guardians

LF Steven Kwan.

2B Andres Gimenez.

CF Ramon Lauereano.

1B Kole Calhoun.

DH Oscar Gonzalez.

RF Will Brennan.

3B Gabriel Arias.

C Bo Naylor.

SS Jose Tena.

Emmanuel Clase blows MLB high ninth save in Guardians 6-5 loss to Rays

By James Mastrucci | 8:23 AM EDT

There is a certain level of comfort a team should have in their closer when he comes in to finish off a game. That has begun to wane in Cleveland as closer Emmanuel Clase gave up three runs in the bottom of the 9th in the Guardians' 6-5 loss to the Rays.

This was the ninth blown save in 40 chances this season. Clase’s 31 saves are tied for the American League with Baltimore’s Felix Bautista (third overall) and his nine-blown saves lead all of baseball. Nobody is expecting perfection, as that is unrealistic, but something a bit better than blowing a save nearly once in every four chances would be nice.

Clase is still a good closer, do not confuse this as a suggestion of the opposite. The issue when it comes to closers and/or relief pitchers is that they are incredibly volatile. It must also be noted that Clase's 55 appearances are tied for the second-most in all of baseball. Overuse could certainly be a factor coming in to play here.

Terry Francona has not been afraid to go to Clase this year and it may be having a negative impact as the season enters its later stages. Not having enough reliable arms at the back end of the bullpen has led to this development. James Karinchak was supposed to play a significant role this year but his struggles have led to him being demoted to Triple-A. It seems fairly obvious that when Tito has his back up against the wall in a late-game situation, he is going to call on Clase more often than not.

The truly frustrating part about this is that Clase did enter into a game where a bloop and a blast could have won it. In fact, a lineup without Jose Ramirez (currently serving his suspension for the fight against the White Sox) and the injured Josh Naylor, actually provided a few insurance runs to increase the lead to three. This was a fringe save based on the qualifications required for one to be classified as a true save opportunity.

Additionally, this deflating loss comes in tandem with a Twins win, which now sees the Guardians’ deficit in the American League Central division race increase to 4.5 games. This was an opportunity that this team could not afford to squander and yet it happened anyway. It is times like this which make any notion of still being in the mix for the postseason appear completely unrealistic.

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Williams’ 22 strikeouts over his past two starts are the most by a Cleveland rookie in a two-game span since Herb Score in 1955. He joins Score and Bob Feller (1936) as the only Cleveland rookies with consecutive double-digit strikeout performances.

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Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Tanner Bibee delivers to the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023, in St. Petersburg, Fla.



Akron Beacon Journal

Tanner Bibee wins 7th straight decision as Guardians avert series sweep against Rays

Matt Didtler

Sun, Aug 13, 2023, 4:56 PM CDT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tanner Bibee won his seventh consecutive decision and the Cleveland Guardians beat the AL wild-card-leading Tampa Bay Rays 9-2 on Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep.

Bibee (9-2) gave up two runs, seven hits and struck out five in seven innings.

Andrés Giménez and Gabriel Arias homered for the Guardians, who had 15 hits. Five starters finished with two or more hits as the Cleveland won for the fifth time in 16 games.



Cleveland Guardians' Andres Gimenez, right, celebrates his solo home run off Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Zach Eflin during the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023, in St. Petersburg,



Rays starter Zach Eflin (12-7), seeking to become the AL's first 13-game winner, allowed a season-high six runs and nine hits over three innings in an 82-pitch outing.

Tampa Bay is 9-6 in it last 15 games after going an MLB-worse 5-15 from July 1-26. The Rays have lost 12 of 18 at home.

Guardians All-Star third baseman José Ramírez served the second and final game of a suspension for fighting with Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox



Cleveland Guardians' Bo Naylor, left, scores past Tampa Bay Rays catcher Christian Bethancourt on an RBI single by Andres Gimenez during the fifth inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023, in St. Petersburg,


Arias had a two-run homer and Steven Kwan added an RBI single in the second as Cleveland went ahead 4-0. Cleveland increased its lead to 6-0 in the third when Oscar Gonzalez and Will Brennan hit consecutive run-scoring doubles.

Gonzalez added an RBI double in a two-run fourth and finished with three doubles.

Giménez opened the scoring with a first-inning solo homer and had a fifth-inning RBI single.



Cleveland Guardians' Gabriel Arias, center, celebrates his two-run home run off Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher Zach Eflin with Will Brennan, left, during the second inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023, in St. Petersburg, Fla.



Tossed

Rays pitching coach Kyle Snyder was ejected by plate umpire Adrian Johnson during a mound visit in the second.

Moving up

SS Osleivis Basabe was recalled from Durham to make his major league debut and doubled in his first at-bat.

“She was happy, she was crying and she couldn’t speak,” Basabe said of his mom through a translator.

Basabe took away an RBI single from Kole Calhoun in the fourth with a leaping catch on a liner with the infield in.

Regular shortstop Wander Franco didn't play.

Rays LHP Josh Fleming was optioned to Triple-A Durham, one day after allowing two runs over three innings in his return after being out since June 3 due to left elbow inflammation.

Trainer's room

Rays: All-Star LHP Shane McClanahan (left arm), out for the season, is scheduled to see Texas Rangers physician Dr. Keith Meister on Monday. Tommy John surgery is among the options under consideration.

Up next

Guardians: LHP Logan Allen (5-5) takes the mound against Cincinnati RHP Graham Ashcraft (6-7) on Tuesday night.

Rays: RHP Tyler Glasnow (5-3) is scheduled to make his first start since being sidelined after Aug. 1 by back spasms Monday night at San Francisco.

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Offensive outburst a 'confidence booster' for Guardians

18 minutes ago

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Guardians’ offense had experienced a dreadful couple of weeks leading into the club’s three-game series against the Rays. As Cleveland departs Florida, however, it has a lot to build upon following a 9-2 victory on Sunday at Tropicana Field.

Consider that through their previous 13 games before this series, the Guardians hit .159 and were held to fewer than 10 hits in each. But they reached double-digit knocks in every game of this set, topping out at 15 in the finale despite facing one of the best pitchers in the American League in Zach Eflin, not having the services of the injured Josh Naylor for the entirety and being without José Ramírez for the final two games as he served a suspension.

“Obviously, those are the stars of our team, and we need them in order to make any deep runs,” outfielder Steven Kwan said, “but to be able to do it without them is really confidence-building and big for the young guys.”

“We really needed it,” second baseman Andrés Giménez said via team interpreter Agustin Rivero. “It was kind of like that confidence booster for the offense to get this type of weekend.”

Kwan and Giménez led the charge for the entire weekend at the top of the lineup, as they combined for 14 hits in 29 at-bats. And they opened Sunday’s contest with arguably the two most important plate appearances of the game.

Kwan greeted Eflin by fouling off six pitches and four pitch types. Although he ultimately grounded out to first, Kwan set the tone with his 10-pitch at-bat: The Guardians were going to make it a long afternoon for Eflin, who entered as the Major League leader in WHIP (0.97).

“I’ve talked to a bunch of pitchers, and I think having long [at-bats] like that is just their worst nightmare,” Kwan said.

Giménez followed with a much shorter but louder at-bat as he crushed the second pitch he saw, a fastball, for a Statcast-projected 413-foot home run to center field. The solo shot was his 11th of the season and his longest since July 2022.

“Every time when you are on deck and the guy in front of you sees so many pitches,” Giménez said, “you have more of an idea of what the pitcher is doing.”

Every Guardians batter seemed to know what was coming from the right-hander. Gabriel Arias hit a two-run homer in the second inning. After Bo Naylor, the next batter, drew a seven-pitch walk and moved to second on a fielder's-choice grounder, Kwan brought him home with a double that he slapped off the third-base bag and down the left-field line.

Kole Calhoun singled and Oscar Gonzalez and Will Brennan followed with back-to-back doubles to score two runs in the third. Each had multiple hits Sunday. Gonzalez picked up three doubles, and Giménez paced the offense with his second-four hit game of the season.

“Any mistake I made, they pretty much put it in play and found a hole,” said Eflin, who was out of the game after the third inning, having thrown 82 pitches and allowing season highs in runs (six) and baserunners (10).

Meanwhile, right-hander Tanner Bibee continued to build his AL Rookie of the Year case with a second consecutive start with no walks over seven innings. He struck out five and allowed two runs, and he holds a 1.79 ERA over his past nine starts.

The Guardians posted two more runs in the fourth and another in the fifth, marking the first time since Sept. 4, 2019, that the team plated a run in each of the first five frames.

And besides Cleveland missing two of its most potent batters, this hit parade came after back-to-back walk-off defeats, including Saturday’s crushing loss, which saw the Guardians squander a two-run lead in the ninth.

“It’s hard to come out on a day game after that walk-off win and kind of swing the bats like we did,” Calhoun said. “[Giménez] started us off early, and it seemed like everybody just followed suit.”

The Guardians did damage all weekend on the road against one of the best teams in baseball, and they handed Eflin, an AL Cy Young Award candidate, his worst start of the season. Ramírez will be present for Cleveland’s next game on Tuesday in Cincinnati. After an extremely rough couple of weeks, perhaps this lineup is finding a groove as the season’s stretch run nears.

“I’ve talked about it before: Hitting is contagious,” Kwan said.


CONDENSED GAME

https://youtu.be/vo73Dv5MagY

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Bibee has been extremely good, with his ERA of 2.90 and ability to go 7 innings. His 9-2 record compared to Williams 1-3 is due to some offensive support and bullpen relief. Williams can't catch a break but no one is dismissing the talent and the success of either.
Bibee is odds on favorite to win an AL rookie pitcher of the year award if there is such a thing.

7 run lead was enough for our bullpen.

Thank God! The Twins shutout the Phils 3-0. We remain 4.5 behind.

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it will be pretty hard to make up 4 1/2 games with the offense and bullpen we have.
We do have a lot of games against the Twins coming up which is the only chance.

Might not have to work that hard. Twinkies have a history of fading all by themselves.

think 78-84 can do it? Disgraceful if it does