Cleveland Sports Forum

Matthew Boyd and Alex Cobb are relishing time with Guardians: ‘It feels like a college dugout’ NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 20: Matthew Boyd #16 of the Cleveland Guardians pitches in the second inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on August 20, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
By Ken Rosenthal
Sep 6, 2024



Suffice it to say that Alex Cobb and Matthew Boyd are experiencing a bit of culture shock with the Cleveland Guardians.

The dugout, it’s just different.

“Lots of chirping,” Cobb said. “They talk a lot of trash. There’s a reaction to every pitch, every night.”

“It feels like a college dugout,” Boyd said. “Guys are loose, giving each other a hard time, the other team a hard time.”

The Guardians are challenging for the best record in the American League with the youngest group of position players and the fifth-youngest group of pitchers in the majors. Their two newest starting pitchers, Cobb, 36, and Boyd, 33, say the vibes are nothing short of invigorating. In turn, they are trying to invigorate the Guardians’ rotation, a trouble spot for the club all season.

Neither was a particularly sexy addition. Neither before joining Cleveland had pitched a major-league inning this season. The Guardians signed Boyd as a free agent on June 29 while he was still recovering from Tommy John surgery. They acquired Cobb from the San Francisco Giants on July 30 while he was still recovering from left hip surgery and shoulder trouble.

Both, however, are now pitching well, joining Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams and Ben Lively to give the Guardians — dare we say it? — the best version of their rotation thus far. The next starts for Boyd and Cobb, at Dodger Stadium this weekend against the fourth-highest scoring team in the majors, amount to their biggest tests yet.

“Recency bias is easy to fall into,” Cobb said Wednesday. “But we just had a whole turn through the rotation, maybe a little bit more, of guys going out and dominating. If we continue to live up to our potential, there sure doesn’t look like there are many holes in that rotation.”

For the Guardians, a better performance from their starters is critical. Their bullpen leads the majors in ERA. Six of their relievers, though, entered the weekend with 60 or more appearances. Four of them (Hunter Gaddis, Cade Smith, Emmanuel Clase and Tim Herrin) ranked among the top eight in the majors in that category.

This is where Boyd and Cobb enter the equation.

Boyd, who missed time in 2021 and 2022 after undergoing flexor tendon surgery and then had Tommy John in late June 2023, made his Guardians debut on Aug. 13 and has produced a 2.38 ERA in four starts.

Cobb, true to form for a pitcher who has undergone six surgeries and made 14 career trips to the injured list, dealt with one last ailment before debuting on Aug. 9, a blister on his index finger. He encountered difficulty again after only two starts, going on the IL with a fractured nail. But in his return against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday, he carried a perfect game into the seventh and wound up with six scoreless innings.

Both Boyd and Cobb view their tenures with the Guardians almost as gifts, and not only because of the physical hardships they’ve endured. Boyd has appeared in the postseason only once, in 2022 with the Seattle Mariners. Cobb hasn’t pitched in the playoffs since 2013 with the Tampa Bay Rays, when he knocked out Cleveland with 6 2/3 scoreless innings in the wild-card game.

Now they are part of a rollicking club that not only leads the AL Central by four games, but also is tied with the New York Yankees and only a half-game behind the Baltimore Orioles for the best record in the AL.

“I haven’t been part of a team with the amount of energy these guys bring every single night,” Cobb said. “I know that might not sound like much to a lot of fans and people that tune in. But you get into August and September, it’s tough to continue to have that same energy you start off the season with.

“Obviously, winning creates a little bit of added energy. But the way that this team pulls for everybody, it’s been so refreshing. They’re just so young that they don’t know any better. They expect to win every single night.”
Alex Cobb has a 2.76 ERA in three starts for the Guardians. (Nick Cammett / Getty Images)

In a sense, Cobb’s trade to the Guardians brought his career full circle. After the Rays, then known as the Devil Rays, chose him in the fourth round of the 2006 draft, his catchers in his first two seasons of pro ball included Craig Albernaz and Stephen Vogt, the Guardians’ current bench coach and manager, respectively.

Vogt, the Devil Rays’ 12th-round pick in 2007, said Cobb was the first teammate he met at extended spring training in St. Petersburg. The two were soon to depart for Hudson Valley, a short-season team in the old New York-Penn League. Cobb, then 19, three years younger than Vogt, introduced himself while on the phone, standing in the hallway of the team hotel. They were teammates not only that season, but also at Triple A in 2011 and with the Rays in ‘12.

“It’s been really surreal to have him on our team and to be working with him again,” Vogt said.

Cobb, in turn, is tickled that his old teammate now has “the keys to an organization,” and that he, Vogt and Albernaz occasionally find themselves “sitting in a room together just kind of laughing about if they knew what stupid stuff we did in the minor leagues.”

All these years later, Vogt views both Cobb and Boyd as almost ideal additions, bringing veteran presence and combining with the Guardians’ highly regarded pitching instructors — pitching coach Carl Willis, assistant pitching coach Joe Torres and bullpen coach Brad Goldberg — to help the younger starters understand their own strengths.

Veteran presence, though, is most meaningful, perhaps only meaningful, when the veteran performs well. Cobb’s ERA in his three starts with Cleveland is 2.76. In his last outing especially, he felt things starting to click. He could see it in the Pirates’ reactions to the way his stuff was moving.

His goal is to be in midseason form by October.

“Think about 10 years of not winning. It wears on you,” Cobb said. “Other places I’ve been, August and September has been like, when are we going to lose enough games to where the organization gives up? It’s a toxic mindset to have.

“I went to San Francisco after they won 107 games (in 2021). With an expanded postseason, (you think) there’s no way you’re not going to go back to the postseason. And then it just didn’t happen for two years.

“This has been such an amazing opportunity. I’m so thankful to the organization and to Vogter and Alby because I know they had a big hand in bringing me over.

“It’s changed my career, for sure.”

Boyd, like Cobb, had connections in the Guardians organization. Andrew Moore, the team’s Triple-A assistant pitching coach, was three years behind Boyd at Oregon State. Left fielder Steven Kwan, though 6 1/2 years younger, also was an Oregon State alum.

Then there were those who Boyd met after signing with the Giants in 2022. He was recovering from his flexor-tendon surgery then, and never pitched for the team before getting traded to the Mariners. But he became familiar with two members of the Giants’ coaching staff who are now with the Guardians, Albernaz and Kai Correa.

He also made a friend who played no role in his decision to sign with Cleveland, seeing as how he was still with the Giants at the time.

Cobb.

“After my first surgery, I leaned on Alex a lot in San Francisco,” Boyd said. “I had a setback, I wasn’t feeling like I thought I would be feeling. He was a friend and a mentor in that moment, guiding me.”

Boyd returned with the Mariners in Sept. 2022, posting a 1.35 ERA in 10 relief outings, and also made one appearance in the team’s Division Series loss to the Houston Astros. He then rejoined the Tigers, the team that in 2015 acquired him from the Toronto Blue Jays in the David Price trade, on a one-year, $10 million free-agent deal. After only 15 starts, he required Tommy John surgery.

When the current season started, Boyd was an unsigned free agent, rehabilitating at his home in Sammamish, Wash. He coordinated his rehab efforts with his surgeon, Dr. Keith Meister; a former Mariners rehab coordinator, Matt Toth; specialists who worked for his agent, Scott Boras; and physical therapists from his previous team, the Tigers. The Uniform Player’s Contract dictates a team must incur a player’s reasonable medical and hospital expenses for up to two years from the date of initial treatment of an injury.

Boyd spent time with his family, coaching T-ball and his daughter’s softball team. He said it was refreshing to see the trees bloom. And he watched plenty of major-league games, quickly noticing the Guardians were much-improved over last season when they finished 76-86.

“You just knew something special was going on,” Boyd said.

It didn’t take long, however, for the Guardians’ rotation to be depleted by, among other issues, the three-month absence of Williams, the season-ending loss of Shane Bieber and struggles of Triston McKenzie. In a tight market for starting pitching, the Guardians were looking for creative solutions. And Boyd, looking for opportunity, was well aware of the team’s reputation for getting the most out of its pitching.

“Man,” he thought, “that’s where I want to be.”

Boyd agreed to a major-league contract, then began a rehabilitation assignment 16 days after signing. He made five minor-league starts before the Guardians promoted him. In his first two major-league outings, he completed 5 1/3 innings. In his past two, he went six. He said this is probably the best he has felt since 2019.

At the start of last week, the Guardians lost three straight at home to the Kansas City Royals, falling into a first-place tie for the division lead. They then fell behind 5-2 in the seventh inning of the series finale before rallying to win, 7-5. Neither Boyd nor Cobb pitched in the series. But both were impressed by the resiliency of their teammates and the steady hand of Vogt.

“We were down in that fourth game and had every reason to roll over. And man, guys just fought right back. The vibe in the dugout was good all the way through. It was like, ‘We got this.’ There wasn’t any panic or distress. It was, ‘Hey, let’s go do it.’”

The Guardians keep doing it, playing their chaotic brand of “Guards Ball,” but also finding new ways to win. Boyd and Cobb, after all their injuries, all their years of playing for losing clubs, almost can’t believe their good fortune. They tell each other, “We get to be part of this now? They’re letting us be part of what they’ve done all year?”

Boyd said Cobb had perhaps the best analogy, comparing the two of them to kids at an amusement park who suddenly found themselves beating a long wait to get on their favorite ride.

Think of it as their little secret.

“We jumped the line.”

The Athletic’s Zack Meisel contributed to this story

(Top photo of Matthew Boyd: Mike Stobe / Getty Image

Kyle Glaser
@KyleAGlaser
The Guardians designated RHP Scott Barlow for assignment this morning and selected the contract of LHP Anthony Gose.

Barlow had struggled as of late, allowed 12 hits and 11 earned runs in his last 11 2/3 innings.
2:55 PM · Sep 8, 2024

Zack Meisel
@ZackMeisel
·
1h
The Guardians are calling up reliever Andrew Walters, their second-round pick from 2023 who has a 2.32 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 50 innings in the minors this season.

Alex Cobb to the IL

How Guardians All-Star Steven Kwan is handling a flirtation with .300 after flirting with .400 KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - SEPTEMBER 03: Steven Kwan #38 of the Cleveland Guardians hits a two-run single in the eighth inning against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on September 03, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Ed Zurga/Getty Images)
By Zack Meisel
5h ago


CLEVELAND — At 1:20 p.m. ET on June 20, Steven Kwan doubled to right field off Seattle Mariners starter Luis Castillo to lead off the bottom of the first inning.

For 32 minutes, until a strikeout on his next trip to the plate, his batting average sat at .400.

This was shaping up to be the Summer of Steven. As he flirted with history — no big-leaguer has hit .400 in 83 years — he received a ton of attention. He topped the American League All-Star lineup. He fulfilled daily interview requests. He tormented opposing pitchers.

Through it all, he tried not to buy into the hype. He downplayed reporters’ questions about his torrid pace. He advised his dad to ditch social media whenever he sent his son stats or posts lauding his latest feat.

Kwan entered the Cleveland Guardians’ series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday with a .290/.361/.419 slash line. That’s worth commending, especially considering his jump in power, lack of strikeouts and ever-stellar defense in left field. On balance, Kwan has enjoyed another great season.

Since that early-summer surge, however, Kwan’s offensive numbers have plunged. He’s no longer flirting with .400. He’s flirting with .300.

And, as he noted, when mired in a funk this profound, it can be difficult to ignore the noise.

Kwan has never endured a stretch like this, and because it followed a stretch that had the baseball universe talking, it seems even more glaring, even if that’s unfair.

Kwan is Cleveland’s catalyst, always plugged into the top spot in manager Stephen Vogt’s order. He’s the primary reason José Ramírez and Josh Naylor have ranked among the league leaders in RBIs all season. The Guardians offense functions at its optimal rate when Kwan’s in a groove.

So why has it been so challenging to rediscover that groove?

Hitting coach Chris Valaika said he’s been working to keep Kwan thinking positively, which typically isn’t a concern for the steady left fielder, who is adamant about remaining neutral whether clicking or slumping. During a recent conversation between the two, Kwan said he was a bit naive in thinking that, in his third season in the majors, he had seen it all and knew what to expect.

“Then, it’s like, ‘Wow,’” Kwan said. “I see something new. I don’t know anything. I’m still so young.”

Kwan’s career has been defined by counteracting pitchers’ ever-shifting approach to him.

“Every year,” Valaika said, “there’s been something he’s had to grow and adjust to.”

Kwan broke into the big leagues with a smoldering bat, and pitchers quickly learned not to overlook him. He flaunted an elite contact ability and recorded a five-hit performance in his third career game.

Last season, pitchers realized Kwan preferred not to offer at the first pitch. Only Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman registered a lower first-pitch swing rate, so pitchers started attacking Kwan early in the count. So, Kwan started to swing more. (He once again ranks second, behind Rutschman, by the way.)

Vogt served as Seattle’s bullpen coach last season, and he said the Mariners’ game plan against Kwan was to throw it over the plate. Let him slap a single somewhere or hit it at a fielder. There was no use in attempting to convince him to chase some junk. There was no benefit in wasting pitches against a guy with an unparalleled grasp of the strike zone and an unmatched contact ability.

So, entering this season, Kwan made a concerted effort to capitalize on pitches he knew he could handle, even if it meant occasionally misfiring with a more aggressive swing. If pitchers were going to pepper the strike zone and invite him to turn a fastball down the middle into a harmless single, he had to present a more imposing threat.

As a result, he has more than doubled his career high in home runs, with 13 (and that’s while missing four weeks with a hamstring injury). Those home runs follow a pattern. Of the 13, all came on pitches over the middle of the plate or inside. Almost all are on heaters. Twelve of the 13 were pulled to right or right-center. (The other still landed on the right side of center field.)

It’s no secret: Those are the types of pitches Kwan intends to damage. He’s never targeting the outfield seats. He hasn’t fallen in love with a home run stroke. It’s merely a product of being more aggressive when the opportunity arises. He credits his “short limbs” for being able to turn on an inside pitch.

Pitchers have once again adjusted.

“That’s the cat-and-mouse of this,” Valaika said.

• Kwan’s first-half slash line: .352/.407/.513
• Kwan’s second-half slash line: .198/.297/.281

Pitchers are respecting his propensity to yank a fastball inside the foul pole. So they’re instead tossing him secondary stuff low and away and challenging him to sock a line drive to left field.

“He hasn’t gotten a lot of those mistakes of late,” Valaika said, “and when he has gotten them, he’s been missing them. He just needs to cover that hole right now and take his hits the other way to earn back the other side of the plate where he’s done his damage.

“That’s what the game’s asking right now. Go over there, take your hit, close that hole to allow yourself to do what you normally do.”

Kwan’s popup and whiff rates have soared. His line-drive rate has tumbled. His average exit velocity — already a low figure — has plummeted. Valaika said he has noticed more defensive swings, an atypical sight for a customarily confident hitter who knows exactly how he wants to attack a pitcher.
Kwan’s whiff rate

June: 3.9 percent
July: 10 percent
August: 8.6 percent
September: 15.9 percent

It’s natural for any hitter to desperately wave at any pitch that floats toward the zone to escape a skid. Kwan and Valaika said you can’t walk your way out of a slump, but you can exhibit more selectivity to earn a pitch you can handle. As such, Kwan has drawn 18 walks in his past 22 games and eight in his past six games. He also has recorded a hit in four consecutive contests, the first time he’s strung together a stretch like that in a month.

It’s a far cry from the sort of facts that accompanied his name earlier in the season, when he had nearly as many three-hit games as strikeouts. But Kwan never thought he’d hit .400 all season.

“If we were to end (the season) today,” Valaika said, “(about) .290 with 13 homers and almost an .800 OPS? Pretty damn good year.”

What’s helping Kwan persevere through a slide? The team’s place atop the standings. He said any struggles were far more debilitating last season when the Guardians fell out of the playoff chase in the middle of the summer. Why dwell on individual disappointment when there’s so much else to appreciate?

“You can justify a lot of things,” he said. “‘OK, I didn’t have the day I wanted, but I helped the team today.’ Our goal is to win the World Series. If you can contribute to that in any way, you feel like you’re helping the team. When you’re in a funk, it hurts to do poorly, but it hurts more to let your guys down around you.

“When you’re not playing meaningful baseball and then you’re not hitting and playing as well as you want, then a lot of noises get really loud and you have too much time to think about things that really aren’t important. Thankfully, today it’s like, ‘We need to win this game.’ And tomorrow it’s, ‘We need to win this game.’”

Peter Gammons
@pgammo
For more than a decade, the Cleveland Guardian Indians has been the model of leadership, from Shapiro to Antonetti to Chernoff, from (HOF) Francona to Vogt tearing up because of teammates' interactions is a morning light that will never dim

9:20 AM · Sep 17, 2024
·

#Guardians roster moves:

-Placed LF Steven Kwan on the 10-Day injured list.

-Called up OF Myles Straw from Triple-A Columbus

-Designated RHP Carlos Carrasco for assignment.

Meet the Cleveland Guardians’ unsung heroes who are helping fuel a run to October CLEVELAND, OHIO - SEPTEMBER 19: The Cleveland Guardians pose for a photo after beating the Minnesota Twins 3-2 to clinch a playoff spot at Progressive Field on September 19, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Lauren Leigh Bacho/Getty Images)
By Zack Meisel
Sep 24, 2024



ST. LOUIS — This playoff season for the Guardians has revolved around the stars, with José Ramírez eyeing a 40/40 season, Emmanuel Clase challenging for the American League Cy Young Award and Steven Kwan flirting earlier this summer with a .400 batting average.

This season has revolved around a relentlessly dominant bullpen, which, for much of the season, has ranked atop the league leaderboard in ERA by a substantial margin.

But the Guardians’ march to an AL Central title was made possible by many people, including some unsung heroes who stepped in when others were injured or inconsistent and some new faces who provided a lift when the team needed it most.
Ben Lively, SP

There’s not some ear-splitting heavy metal screeching serving as the soundtrack to Lively’s warmup heaves at Progressive Field. No, it’s Ringo Starr’s unassuming voice echoing throughout the ballpark on “Yellow Submarine,” the whimsical tune The Beatles recorded a quarter-century before Lively was born. It’s a peculiar choice and makes for a bizarre scene before his home starts, but Lively insists it keeps him calm, even though he throws every pitch like he’s trying to detach his right arm from its shoulder socket.

“If I miss by a foot and yank it the other way, I’m getting pissed off,” he said, “but I think that keeps me competitive and fired up.”

Lively pitches mad. He channels every ounce of energy he can muster into his right arm and explodes toward the plate with the ferocity and vigor of a flamethrower whose heater can touch triple digits on the radar gun.

Lively’s fastball, however, clocks in at about 89 mph, one of the slowest in the majors. But you wouldn’t know it from the effort he puts behind every pitch.

“When I’m out there,” he said, “I’m trying to go 100 mph at all times.”

He said he inherited that intensity from his dad, a charter boat captain whom Lively imitates by yelling about hunting protocols in a raspy baritone. That emotion used to get him in trouble when he didn’t know how to properly harness it.

“I’ve freaking taken myself out of games punching stuff, being an idiot, letting things eat at me too long and then (it leads to) making bad pitches,” he said.

But now he’s 32, having made stops with five MLB organizations, plus a three-season stint in Korea. He’s not some hot-headed kid anymore who, as he said, thinks he has “it figured out.”

“That gets you nowhere,” Lively said. “It hurts you more. Wasted energy annoys me more now.”

After each season with the Samsung Lions in Korea, he hoped for an offer from a big-league team. The phone never rang. He wondered if he had pitched his final game in the U.S., having logged an unfulfilling 120 innings with the Phillies and Royals from 2017-19.

A year and a half after the Reds drafted him in 2013 — Cleveland actually selected him out of high school in 2010, but he didn’t sign — Cincinnati traded him to Philadelphia for Marlon Byrd. He made 20 starts for the Phillies over two seasons, but while on a rehab assignment in Buffalo, he fell off a hoverboard and separated his collarbone. He had plenty of experience riding the vehicle, but he hit a divot in some soft dirt and landed squarely on his shoulder.

The injury was supposed to end his season. He was fined and screamed at, and a month later, when he had made an expedited return to throwing, he was placed on waivers.

The Royals claimed him and stuck him in the bullpen, which he didn’t love. He bounced to the Diamondbacks, but when he was toiling away in Triple A, he received the call to pitch in Korea. He spent three seasons there, including some lonely weeks and months during COVID-19. He rejoined the Reds in 2022 and Pat Kelly, his first-ever pro ball coach, was his manager at Triple-A Louisville.

The journeyman pitcher lifestyle allowed him to be at peace with whatever happens next.

“When I actually did start relaxing, things were better,” he said. “You can’t worry about things that are outside your control.”

When he signed a big-league deal with Cleveland last December, he thought his role would be as a long reliever. Then, he caught a virus in spring training, the Guardians’ rotation suffered from injuries and inconsistency and he’s been a mainstay ever since, with a 3.80 ERA in a career-high 147 innings. In nearly two-thirds of his starts, he has logged at least five innings and limited the opposition to two runs or fewer.

Even as one of the elder statesmen on the roster, he’s having a breakout season.

“I still feel like a 22-year-old little psychopath,” he said.
Brad Goldberg, bullpen coach

What, exactly, does a bullpen coach do?

“I just answer the phone,” says Goldberg, a first-year member of Cleveland’s coaching staff.

There’s more to it than that, of course, even if he refuses to take any credit for the league’s most prolific bullpen — and one of the best in recent memory.
Best bullpen ERA, last 30 years
2003 Dodgers

2.46
2013 Braves

2.46
2013 Royals

2.55
2014 Mariners

2.59
2002 Braves

2.60
2024 Guardians

2.61

Goldberg is a local, a product of Beachwood High School and Ohio State University. He grew up a fan of Cleveland’s perennial playoff-contending baseball teams. Now, he’s coaching at the same ballpark he frequented as a kid. One of his brothers still attends most games. His family is glued to the Guardians’ results.

So, is this the dream? Well, it’s a dream. He said he has greater aspirations than being a bullpen coach, but admitted there are certain days “when I drive in and I’m like, ‘This is pretty sweet.’”

It helps that his pupils have thrived since Opening Day. Clase has planted himself in the American League Cy Young Award conversation and could finish higher than any reliever has in more than 15 years. Cade Smith became the first Cleveland reliever to record 100 or more strikeouts in a quarter-century. Tim Herrin and Hunter Gaddis, in their first full seasons as big-leaguers, have posted sub-2.00 ERAs in setup roles, even though they weren’t expected to make the roster out of spring training.

Goldberg prefers to sidestep any credit.

“I live vicariously through them,” he said.
Emmanuel Clase is one of several Cleveland relievers thriving under Goldberg. (Jason Miller / Getty Images)

But a survey of relievers and fellow coaches reveals he has a knack for saying the right thing at the right time to the right pitcher. Several relievers credited him with being a resourceful sounding board. Goldberg was a 10th-round pick by the Chicago White Sox in 2013. He reached the majors for 11 appearances in 2017. He said he learned from triumphs and failures along his path to the majors. He knows what a reliever should be thinking and what information a reliever should have as he jogs to the mound.

“The bullpen is a high-stress environment,” Goldberg said. “My job is to add zero stress. I’m there to feed confidence, help prepare them and create a culture of, hopefully, a bunch of low-heartbeat, fun-loving and really competitive dudes.”

Mission accomplished.

The degree to which Cleveland’s bullpen has dominated has shaped the club’s strategy. Its formula for winning in October revolves around the fact that the Guardians can deploy an imposing reliever to cover four, five, maybe six innings.

“He speaks to them as if they’re going to go get it done,” manager Stephen Vogt said.
Jhonkensy Noel, RF

Noel was a big, powerful kid in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, who could hit ropes to the opposite field. He was skinny, but had stout legs, which he said comes from his mom.

Noel’s parents pulled him out of school and placed him in a baseball academy when he was 12. There was no backup plan, especially when a brief soccer trial ended with a turned ankle, which had him swear off the sport forever. He does wonder if another sport might have worked for his edge rusher frame.

“If I were born (in the U.S.), maybe the NFL,” he said.

Instead, he’s living the big-league dream as he always hoped, since he idolized his stepbrother, Victor Igsema, who spent five years in the Pirates’ farm system. Noel smiles when fans call him “Big Christmas.” He cherishes every chance to learn from Ramírez. He covets the memory of his first major-league at-bat, a rocket that landed beyond the center field fence in Baltimore. He knows his exit velocity was 107 mph, and he’s not sure how his nerves allowed him to uncork such a mighty swing.

He can’t wait for an opportunity to take similar hacks in October, especially since his dad, Rafael, will be making his first visit to the U.S. He and his dad tend to engage in light-hearted baseball disputes. His dad, for instance, will ask why he didn’t swing at a pitch down the middle.

“Sometimes I tell him, ‘Hey, go hit yourself,’” Noel said, laughing.

Noel hit plenty upon his promotion to the majors in June. He provided thump at a time when Cleveland’s lineup sorely needed it. As Kwan and David Fry cooled off and Ramírez and Josh Naylor went through temporary power outages, Noel supplied a lift. He tallied 12 home runs in his first 124 at-bats, an Aaron Judge-like pace. Noel has slumped in September, but every time he squeezes his 250-pound frame into the batter’s box, he offers a power threat.

“Whenever he takes a full swing at a pitch,” Kwan said, “I feel like we all recoil in the dugout, thinking, like, ‘That’s the one.’ We’re all invested in his at-bats a ton.”
Pedro Avila, RP

A year before the Padres signed him, Avila couldn’t lift his right arm. He had wrecked a tendon in his shoulder and doctors in Venezuela told him he wouldn’t be able to pitch for several years.

That was a bit of an inconvenience. His future was on the mound, not at shortstop, as his uncle constantly reminded him. And if he couldn’t prove himself as a 16-year-old, he would have a difficult time finding a path out of Caracas, Venezuela, to the major leagues.

Avila took a year off from throwing, instead running and exercising. But he couldn’t wait any longer without risking that he would age himself out of teams’ plans. He returned to the mound in 2014 and the Padres signed him. Since then, he’s gone from a guy who couldn’t pitch to a guy who never stops pitching, covering innings whenever Vogt summons him from the bullpen.
Pedro Avila has been one of Vogt’s most trusted arms, always willing to take whatever assignment is needed. (Photo: Adam Bettcher / Getty Images)

Avila cherishes the role. He craves the regular action. In fact, he landed a partnership with a local donut shop after he noticed fans dubbing him the team’s hungriest innings eater.

Avila said he was humbled when the Padres cut ties with him in April. The Guardians scooped him up and he has cemented himself as a key cog in the league’s top bullpen.

His tenure began in mop-up duty, as he covered multiple frames when Cleveland’s shaky rotation leaked oil. Over time, though, he earned more leverage opportunities and filled a variety of needs. He pitched in long relief. He pitched the middle innings of close games. He pitched on consecutive days.

The day after Avila threw 31 pitches on June 18, his third appearance in four days, Vogt approached him at his locker and thanked him for his willingness to accept any assignment. In late August, Avila made five appearances in seven days and totaled 99 pitches. The night before the fifth outing, he stopped at the manager’s office on his way out and assured Vogt, “If you need me for one tomorrow, I got you.”

Through it all, he’s compiled a 3.33 ERA, with 71 strikeouts in 73 innings. He has logged more than one inning in 30 of his 49 appearances.

“We wouldn’t be here,” Vogt said, “if it wasn’t for Pedro.”

Class A, Cleveland ... Cooperstown? The journey of Lindor and Ramírez

September 20th, 2024

The pregame fungo drill would begin with routine plays for Lake County’s infielders, allowing them to find their rhythm while scooping up the ground balls off the bat of manager Dave Wallace. But once that rhythm was established, Wallace would pick up the tempo and begin to challenge the Captains players with smoked shots to their right and to their left.

It was a game of elimination. Boot a ball, and you’re out. Make the play, and you stay in.

Inevitably, in that summer of 2012 in Single-A, Francisco Lindor and José Ramírez would be the last men standing.

“Next thing you know,” Wallace recalls, “the whole team is on the field watching them.”

Lindor and Ramírez would egg Wallace on, imploring him to hit the ball harder and to test their talents with bounding balls up the middle and down the line. And with each magnificent stab and on-target throw, the two teammates raised the stakes for one another.

“They each used the other one to help fuel their work ethic, their drive to be better,” Wallace said. “Each one wanted to be the best player on the field.”

It worked.

These two switch-hitting infielders both came up in the Cleveland system, exceeded their rookie limits in MLB within a year of each other (Ramírez in 2014, Lindor in 2015), led Cleveland to an American League pennant in 2016 and simultaneously began to enjoy All-Star selections, Silver Slugger salutes and MVP support.

“It was a good partnership in the infield,” Ramírez said through interpreter Agustin Rivero, “because we understood that we wanted the same thing. We wanted to win.”

Added Lindor: “We competed against each other in a good way. It was, ‘Let’s go get this done.’”

They’ve both done a lot.

And now, they are both quietly sneaking up on Cooperstown cases.

As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, it’s notable that the Hall of Fame is still relatively light on Latino players. But this year, with another pair of stellar seasons, Guardians third baseman Ramírez, a native of the Dominican Republic, and Mets shortstop Lindor, a native of Puerto Rico, both appear to be on track for eventual selection.

Their career numbers tell the story of simultaneous stardom (stats through Sept. 18):




Lindor, who is in his age-30 season and was traded to the Mets prior to the 2021 season, has received four All-Star selections, three Silver Sluggers, two Gold Gloves and a Platinum Glove. Ramírez, in his age-31 season (he turned 32 this month) and a career-long Clevelander, is a six-time All-Star and four-time Silver Slugger honoree.

To put their WAR marks into context, the average career bWAR for a Hall of Fame shortstop is 67.7, while the average for a third baseman is 69.4.

So while neither player has won an MVP, they both have a shot at Hall of Fame selection if they can remain healthy and productive deep into their 30s.

“The coolest part,” said Terry Francona, who managed the players when they came up in Cleveland, “is I don’t think they’ve changed one iota. They may own more expensive cars, but, when the game starts, they’re baseball players. Some guys turn into entertainers. [Expletive] that. We’re baseball players. And if you play baseball the right way, it’s entertaining. These guys do that.”

Lindor and Ramírez were both blessed with speed, range and quick hands. But to watch them for any length of time is to be struck by their instincts, how they put themselves in position to make plays before they happen, how they know when to be aggressive on the basepaths and how they exude both joy and swagger.

“How they play the game,” said Wallace, “is very fundamental and very focused, and that is not easy to do.”

While they’ve shared so much and performed so similarly, Lindor and Ramírez took very different paths to this point.

Lindor’s family uprooted and moved to the Orlando, Fla., area when he was 12 years old so that he could pursue better developmental opportunities than what was available in his native Puerto Rico. He attended Montverde Academy, a prestigious private high school, where he attracted the eye of scouts, and he was taken by Cleveland with the eighth overall pick in the 2011 MLB Draft. He received a $2.9 million signing bonus and was already a celebrity by the time he opened the 2012 season in Lake County at age 18.

“He came with all the labels,” Wallace said. “It was the first-round, golden-boy type of thing. And what you saw, from the very beginning, was that he was usually the youngest player on the field but also the best player on the field. And when I say best player, that’s not only the most talented, but the best player. He ran hard, he was engaged on every pitch, he had all those intangibles. And because he’s bilingual, he really did a great job of connecting the team. He had leadership skills.”

The Captains struggled in the first half that year. They were 31-38 at the break. But over on Cleveland’s short-season rookie ball club in Mahoning Valley, there was this short and stocky, 19-year-old middle infielder who had signed for just $50,000 as an amateur free agent in his native Dominican Republic in November 2009 and was now making unexpected noise with his bat.

Ramírez was not touted as a top prospect. He had to earn his at-bats in the pros. But this was nothing new to him. He grew up poor, playing with a glove that was too tight on his hand, on a square of dirt filled with rocks and weeds. And he played to support his family. He signed at 17, which is old for a Latin American amateur, after impressing a Cleveland scout at a showcase event where he had served as a fill-in for an absent player.

So while Lindor was an alpha dog, Ramírez was an underdog. But Ramírez carried himself -- then and now -- with a confident strut, and he began to command attention on the field. Cleveland was so impressed with Ramírez’s 4-for-11 showing with the Scrappers that the organization moved him up to Lake County after only three games.

Mahoning Valley manager Ted Kubiak called Wallace to give him a scouting report on his new player.

“Wally,” Kubiak said, “I’m sending you the pennant.”

He was right.

With Lindor and Ramírez forming a formidable 1-2 punch atop the lineup, the Captains cruised to a 40-30 record to win their division’s second-half title in 2012.

From there, Ramírez made a rapid ascent, skipping over Triple-A to make his debut as a September callup in 2013. In his first game, he was a pinch-runner. The next two years, he bounced between the Majors and Minors. He was initially cast as a utility player and hit sparingly, giving little indication of the star-caliber performance lurking within.

Lindor, meanwhile, methodically moved up the ladder one rung at a time. And when he was brought to the bigs in June 2015, he was there to stay -- an instant starter and an impact player. He finished second to fellow shortstop Carlos Correa in the AL Rookie of the Year voting.

But in 2016, it became clear that both players were worthy of a starting and starring role. While Lindor earned his first All-Star selection, Ramírez stepped in for an injured Michael Brantley in left field and turned the opportunity into a showcase. He wound up playing four different positions that year (left field, third base, second and short) and performed ably at them all while slashing .312/.363/.462.

That year, Lindor finished ninth in the AL MVP voting, and Ramírez 17th.

“As they were starting to get established, everybody wanted to talk about Frankie -- and I get it, because he had the personality, the smile, the talent,” Francona said. “But I would tell people, ‘Don’t forget about that guy next to him.’ He was quietly becoming a really good player.”

From 2016 through 2020, Lindor and Ramírez were one of the best teammate tandems in MLB. In that span, they both ranked in the top 10 among all players in extra-base hits -- Ramírez fourth with 325, Lindor eighth with 306.

“We went as they went,” Francona said.

Off the field, the two never gave off best-buddy vibes. But they weren’t enemies, either. They were simply two players confident in their abilities and fixated on winning games.

“I think it was more like a friendly competition,” Ramírez said. “It was never this negative, ‘I want to be better than you.’ It was just to show, ‘I can do it like you or better.’ It made us better as a team.”

Alas, the powerful pairing ended when Cleveland, unable to reach an extension agreement with Lindor, traded him to the Mets in January 2021. Soon after, Lindor set a new shortstop standard with a 10-year, $341 million extension with New York. A year later, Ramírez signed a seven-year, $141 million deal that keeps him in Cleveland through 2028.

“We had different mentalities in terms of where we wanted to be,” Ramírez said. “But it doesn’t make a difference, because [Lindor] is such a hustler that, wherever he was going to be, he was going to be a good player.”

Though Lindor was essentially a league-average bat in his first season with the Mets, he was a top-10 MVP finisher in 2022 and ’23, and this year he has challenged Shohei Ohtani for the NL MVP by posting a career-best 136 OPS+ and sparking the Mets to contention with his performance out of the leadoff spot.

“I’m not surprised to see what he’s doing,” Ramírez said of Lindor. “He was meant to be that type of player.”

Ramírez, meanwhile, has taken on the solo spotlight with Lindor gone and remained one of the most reliable run-producers in baseball. His 137 OPS+ over the last four seasons is even better than what Lindor has produced in this MVP-caliber year.

“I’m proud of the person he’s become,” Lindor said of Ramírez. “He comes from very little and goes from not even getting much mention to becoming the face of the franchise -- someone who, at the end of his career, is going to have a statue in Cleveland and his number will never be worn again.”

From their time trying to outdo each other in pregame drills in Lake County to the present day, in which they are leading their clubs to October, Ramírez and Lindor have walked different yet parallel paths.

Those paths might one day converge in Cooperstown.

[

2013 Caribbean Series

All-Star Team[edit]
C: Francisco Peña, Escogido (.176/.176/.529, 2 HR)
1B: Donell Linares, Escogido (.259/.323/.370)
2B: José Ramírez, Escogido (.226/.385/.387)
SS: Miguel Tejada, Escogido (.300/.405/.533, 2 HR, 6 RBI)
3B: Mario Lissón, Magallanes (.261/.261/.522, 2 HR)
OF: Marlon Byrd, Obregón (.222/.313/.370, 4 2B, 6 RBI)
OF: Ricardo Nanita, Escogido (.276/.364/.414, 6 R, 7 RBI)
OF: Doug Clark, Obregón (.393/.414/.500)
DH: Bárbaro Cañizares, Obregón (.318/.483/.591, 6 RBI)
RHP: Luis Mendoza, Obregón (2-0, 0 R, 5 H, 12 K in 13 1/3 IP)
LHP: Efrain Nieves, Caguas (1-0, 1.50)
Middle Reliever: David Reyes, Obregón (1 H, 7 K, 0 R in 5 1/3 IP)
Closer: Saul Rivera, Caguas (0 R, 5 K in 3 IP, 2 Sv)
Manager: Audo Vicente, Escogido

The Bani native .312/.362/.389 with 22 runs and 22 RBI in 38 games for the 2012-13 Toros del Este. He was among the Dominican League leaders in average (3rd, behind Jean Segura and Oscar Taveras), RBI (tied for 7th), OBP (4th after Ricardo Nanita, Hector Luna and Rhyne Hughes) and steals (10, tied for 4th with Jose Constanza). For the Leones del Escogido in the 2013 Caribbean Series, he was the main second baseman, forming a double play combination with Miguel Tejada. He hit .226/.385/.387 and made four errors, but was named to the Series All-Star team at 2B. He had a couple big plays, both off Luis Ayala. In the 11th inning of the first meeting with eventual champion Obregon, he singled off Ayala and came around with the winning run on a hit by Nanita. In the rematch, he hit a three-run homer off Ayala.

AS a 20 year old, playing in the 2013 Series del Caribe, one of the youngest players in the league, playing against guys 4-5 years older, held his own. This was about the time that all the talk was surrounded around Francisco. He was highly regarded and was getting all the hype.

On the other hand, Jose Ramirez signed with the Cleveland Indians as an amateur free agent on November 26, 2009, He signed with the Indians, receiving a $50,000 signing bonus.

After his performances as a 19-20 year old in the Dominican winter league, the best of the 4 winter ball leagues. I suggested that we should be aware of a young kid named Jose Ramirez. At the time, I felt that Ramirez could be as good and maybe better than Lindor. The graphic above shows how close the two battled over their careers.

It was nice to read Tony's article.

Two truly great players. Too bad we couldn't keep Lindor in the fold. We could quite literally had a dynamic duo.

<

Cleveland Guardians playoff roster projection and questions CLEVELAND, OHIO - SEPTEMBER 24: Lane Thomas #8 of the Cleveland Guardians celebrates with teammates in the dugout after hitting a two-run home run during the first inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Progressive Field on September 24, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
By Zack Meisel
Sep 27, 2024



CLEVELAND — Two years ago, Shane Bieber and Triston McKenzie anchored Cleveland’s playoff rotation. Emmanuel Clase, James Karinchak and Trevor Stephan covered the late innings.

Those five were expected to play significant roles again in 2024. Aside from Clase, who set Cleveland’s single-season saves record, the other four combined for 18 big-league appearances this year. Bieber, Karinchak and Stephan spent the season rehabbing injuries. McKenzie spent much of the season at Triple A.

And so, the pitchers carrying the club in October might not be the pitchers you anticipated when you concocted your wildest Guardians playoff fantasies in the spring. You probably didn’t dream of Hunter Gaddis and Tim Herrin jogging to the mound for a high-leverage situation on a nationally televised game that determines whether the team survives another day in the postseason.

But here we are, a little more than a week away from the start of Cleveland’s 2024 playoff opener. And that means we have a little more than a week to debate which 26 players the club should stick on its playoff roster.
Position players

The locks

Catchers: Bo Naylor, Austin Hedges

David Fry’s inability to catch because of a lingering elbow injury hamstrung the club in the second half. He did catch some bullpen sessions recently, but manager Stephen Vogt didn’t sound optimistic that anything would change with Fry’s defensive status. So, that leaves Naylor and Hedges as the catchers. Since Fry left the catching mix in late June, Naylor has started about two-thirds of the games behind the plate (57 starts compared to 26 for Hedges).

Infielders: José Ramírez, Andrés Giménez, Brayan Rocchio, Josh Naylor, David Fry, Kyle Manzardo

Outfielders: Steven Kwan, Lane Thomas, Will Brennan

This is pretty straightforward. Everyone here is a member of the starting lineup, with Fry and Manzardo splitting designated hitter duties. Manzardo’s emergence has been one of the most encouraging September storylines for the Guardians. (Thomas’ late-season surge, too.)

That leaves room for two or three bench bats.

The candidates

Angel Martínez, Daniel Schneemann, Tyler Freeman, Myles Straw, Jhonkensy Noel

The Guardians optioned Straw to Triple-A Columbus on Wednesday to clear a spot for Kwan, though Vogt did acknowledge that Straw would be eligible to return for the ALDS, since there are 10 days between his demotion and Game 1. Straw spent the year at Triple A, came up for a week, participated in two champagne celebrations, then disappeared again.

“We really value what Myles brings,” Vogt said, “and all of our options are still open.”

The guess here would be Noel pairs with Brennan and Schneemann fills the utility role, since Martínez has not played shortstop in the big leagues. Noel has had a miserable September, but a power bat could pay dividends in October. Then, they’d presumably choose between Straw, Martínez or an extra pitcher. Given the abundance of off-days leading into and during the ALDS, the Guardians can probably afford to carry an extra position player for the first round.
Pitchers

The locks

Starters: Tanner Bibee, Matthew Boyd

Relievers: Emmanuel Clase, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis, Tim Herrin, Eli Morgan

Who had Boyd being the club’s No. 2 playoff starter back in March … or even July? It says a lot about his seamless return from Tommy John surgery and, well, about the ever-chaotic state of the team’s rotation in 2024.

This is all pretty convoluted, though. The Guardians could carry 12 or 13 pitchers. Bibee and Boyd have wrapped up starting spots. The way off-days are lined up, they only need three starting pitchers for the ALDS. (And that’s assuming that they steer clear of a bullpen-day approach. There’s no way they’d deploy that in the postseason, right? Right?)

Beyond Bibee, Boyd and the cadre of dominant relievers, there are a million ways they could arrange this. Oh, and be honest: Did you know Morgan has a 1.52 ERA this season?
Gavin Williams will make the roster, but it’s unclear whether he’ll be used as a starter or reliever. (Nick Cammett / Getty Images)

The candidates

Starters: Alex Cobb, Gavin Williams, Ben Lively, Joey Cantillo

Relievers: Nick Sandlin, Pedro Avila, Eric Sabrowski, Andrew Walters

There are essentially 15 pitchers for either 12 or 13 spots.

Let’s start with the rotation. Bibee and Boyd will throw simulated games until the ALDS. They will not face the Astros this weekend. The Astros are lined up to potentially face the Guardians in the ALDS. Vogt wouldn’t answer directly about whether they’re trying to keep Houston’s hitters from seeing the starters, but hinted that it’s something they’ve discussed.

Cobb hasn’t pitched since Sept. 1 because of a blister, and has only made three starts since Cleveland acquired him at the trade deadline. Vogt said Cobb should soon be able to throw a simulated game. Is that enough to convince them to start him in an ALDS game?

There are other options, in Williams, Lively and Cantillo. All three will pitch in the Houston series, though Williams (and possibly Cantillo) won’t start. The Guardians want to try out Williams in relief, in case that’s his assignment in October. He’ll make the roster in some capacity.

As for the relievers, Sandlin has allowed multiple baserunners in 11 of his last 20 outings, but Vogt regularly praises him for his contributions to the bullpen this season. He’s a safe bet to make the roster. The manager has also lauded Avila’s multi-inning efforts; it’d be surprising if he were omitted.

Sabrowski has yet to allow a run in 11 1/3 innings since his promotion to the majors. Andrew Walters has yet to allow a hit in 7 2/3 innings since his promotion to the majors. He’s one of three pitchers in league history to start their career with eight consecutive hitless outings, along with the Giants’ Jonathan Sanchez in 2006 and the Twins’ Garry Roggenburk in 1963. If both Walters and Sabrowski make it, that would leave one spot, at most, for whoever is squeezed out of the rotation (Cobb, Lively, Cantillo).

The approach to roster construction would likely change if the club advances to the ALCS, in which only two off-days split up the seven-game series, including three consecutive games in the middle. Then, the Guardians would need a fourth starter.

long article ranking the top 50 free agents; no Bieber on the list. Austin Hedges is there. So are former Clevelanders including Santander-- he'd still look good in RF; Carlos Santana and Josh Bell.

Guardians’ path to a long-awaited World Series starts with their dominant bullpen CLEVELAND, OHIO - SEPTEMBER 16: Closing pitcher Emmanuel Clase #48 of the Cleveland Guardians celebrates after striking out Royce Lewis #23 of the Minnesota Twins for the save at Progressive Field on September 16, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Guardians defeated the Twins 4-3. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
By Zack Meisel
4h ago


CLEVELAND — Moments before first pitch, David Fry and Austin Hedges find their spots on the Guardians’ bench. Fry turns to his fellow catcher and mimics their manager.

Hey, how soon do you want to go to Cade Smith? Second inning? Let’s do it.

It’s become a regular gimmick, two players tasked with keeping their teammates relaxed, loose and, often, cackling, imitating their boss to defuse any pregame tension.

There’s plenty of truth behind the parody. For Stephen Vogt, a first-year manager navigating a playoff season, the Guardians’ bullpen has been his best friend.

It was supposed to be Emmanuel Clase rebounding from an erratic year, with James Karinchak, Trevor Stephan and Sam Hentges bridging the gap to the ninth inning. Clase did submit one of the most dominant relief seasons in the sport’s history, but the other three spent most or all of the season on the injured list. Instead, a few first-timers breezed through the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to help construct baseball’s best bullpen.

Just as everyone predicted, the greatest threat to the franchise’s 76-year title drought is a cadre of inexperienced yet undaunted relievers named Cade Smith, Tim Herrin and Hunter Gaddis.

Cleveland’s bullpen registered a 2.57 ERA, more than a half-run better than any other team and a full run better than 25 other clubs. It’s the fourth-lowest bullpen ERA of the wild-card era, which stretches back 30 years, and this group covered 150 innings more than the ones ahead of it on that list.
Lowest bullpen ERA, last 30 years
2003 Dodgers

2.46
2013 Braves

2.46
2013 Royals

2.55
2024 Guardians

2.57
2014 Mariners

2.59
2002 Braves

2.60

With an abundance of off days and urgency in October, the Guardians will lean on their bullpen early, late and often. They haven’t won the World Series since 1948, when bullpens were the last resort, not the first line of defense.

Their quest to end their championship hex starts with their stars, José Ramírez and Steven Kwan fueling the lineup and Tanner Bibee anchoring the rotation. But it involves significant participation from those relatively anonymous executioners in the bullpen. At least, that’s how any manager would approach it.

“If I were managing,” Fry said, “I’d just say, ‘Let’s go. Let’s go to the bullpen.’ They’re so stinking good. It’s incredible.”

On Aug. 11, Clase loaded the bases in the ninth inning of a game the Guardians desperately needed. In the visitors’ dugout at Target Field, Vogt’s anxiety was swallowing him whole. At least, until he fixated on Clase and noticed how unmoved the closer was.

The Guardians had snapped a seven-game skid the night before. Their AL Central lead had all but evaporated. Clase was teetering on the brink of disaster. But he wasn’t sweating it, so why should Vogt?

“That dude didn’t take a deep breath,” Vogt said. “He didn’t gather himself. He didn’t flinch. He just reared back and hit 102 (mph).”

First, Clase emerged triumphant in an eight-pitch war with Willi Castro, who struck out on a 102.2 mph cutter. Then he induced a game-ending double play. Another scoreless frame. Another save secured.

Clase allowed one earned run after the All-Star break. Opponents mustered a .392 OPS against him this season. He sapped the suspense out of ninth innings.

The last time a Cleveland club featured such an advantage with its late-inning pitching setup, Andrew Miller was the reliever who jogged to the mound as virtual flames filled the Progressive Field scoreboard. Miller’s barely mortal effort in October 2016 guided the Indians to within one win — one run, really — of vanquishing that World Series drought. And he has taken notice of what Clase and the current Cleveland bunch can achieve.

“Incredible,” Miller said. “His stuff is insane.”

Clase can deploy that triple-digit cutter and wicked slider more often. There won’t be as many restrictions with the season on the line, especially with off-days scheduled between Games 1 and 2, Games 2 and 3 and, if necessary, Games 4 and 5 of the ALDS.

Clase made only one multi-inning appearance this season, a two-frame cameo at Yankee Stadium in a late August clash that reeked of playoff baseball. He pitched the ninth, returned to the dugout and assured Vogt he was fine to log another inning. He pitched the 10th, returned to the dugout and Vogt delivered a different message.

“He said, ‘I can’t go three?’” Vogt said. “I said, ‘No, absolutely not.’”

In October, though, rules are meant to be broken.

Clase won’t be alone, either. Fry was joking about summoning Smith in the second inning of a game, but Vogt will call upon his chief stopper whenever danger arises. Smith became the first Cleveland reliever in a quarter century to eclipse the 100-strikeout mark. His fastball, per Statcast, was the most lethal pitch in the league this season. He entered games in the fourth or fifth innings to neutralize opponents’ threats. He covered the sixth, seventh or eighth in tight games. He gained plenty of experience pitching more than one inning. And nothing ever seemed to faze him.

“He’s a machine,” said fellow reliever Erik Sabrowski, “in a nice way.”

Because of the flashy numbers Clase and Smith posted, Gaddis almost flew under the radar, concealed behind his bushy, chestnut-colored beard. Gaddis allowed an earned run in only 10 of his 78 appearances. (Only Oakland’s T.J. McFarland logged more outings.) He kept his ERA below 2.00 from late May until the end of the season.
David Fry and his fellow Guardians are riding high on good vibes in the clubhouse. Can it take them to the Fall Classic? (Rich Storry / Getty Images)

Two winters ago, Herrin rushed to the back of a Lululemon store to take a call from Cleveland’s director of player development, who informed him he was being added to the 40-man roster, which earned him an invite to big-league camp. Now, he’s the team’s primary lefty reliever and recorded a 1.92 ERA across 75 outings. He has gone from selling gear to runners and riders to slinging fastballs, curveballs and sliders. (Sorry.)

“He’s such a quiet, respectful, reserved kid,” Vogt said. “As he said, very monotone, ‘We’ve got that dawg in us.’”
go-deeper

GO DEEPER

Trivia, robots and football: Stories behind 3 Guardians relievers fueling MLB's best bullpen

The bullpen has sprinkled its fairy dust on new members in recent weeks, too. Sabrowski and Andrew Walters combined for 21 1/3 innings in September. They allowed seven hits, tallied 25 strikeouts and didn’t allow an earned run.

“‘Sabrowski, go make your debut. Oh wait, you’re just not gonna give up runs,’” Fry said. “‘Walters, you look really rattled, man.’ He’s just like, (nonchalant pitch), 98 (mph), you’re out, see you later.’ … Where do we find these guys?”

In January, three weeks before the official start of spring training, Fry, Will Brennan and Bo Naylor were facing minor-league pitchers in a live batting practice session on a back field at the club’s complex in Goodyear, Ariz. The three were unfamiliar with Walters, a second-round pick the previous summer. Brennan stepped in against him, struck out on three pitches and retreated to his two teammates. “That seemed fast,” he told them. They checked the data on an iPad and noticed Walters was throwing 97-99 mph the entire outing.

“OK,” Fry remembers saying, “well, he’s gonna be good.”

Walters was destined for the majors ever since the Guardians committed nearly $1 million to him. Sabrowski’s journey to the big leagues was far more implausible.

Shortly after the Padres drafted him in the 14th round out of Cloud County Community College (Kansas) in 2018, Sabrowski underwent Tommy John surgery. He was completing his recovery when the pandemic wiped out the 2020 minor-league season. He needed another elbow reconstruction in 2021. To get through it all, he turned to what he deems “a little bit of dark humor.”

“My reaction to a lot of it,” he said, “was a sick laugh.”

He considered bailing on baseball and pursuing a career as a social studies teacher. In October 2022, after a setback in his recovery from the second surgery, he told his agent he had fallen out of love with baseball. His agent, a Toronto resident, said he would fly to Sabrowski’s home in Edmonton “and kick my ass if I quit.”

Could he actually do that?

“No,” said Sabrowski, listed at 6-foot-4, 230 pounds, “but it was enough to help me out.”

Sabrowski realized people in his corner saw his potential, even if he hadn’t had many opportunities to showcase it. The Guardians saw enough to grab him in the minor-league portion of the Rule 5 Draft that winter.

He spent this summer wondering how he could break into a relief corps that had proven invincible. But there he was, spraying champagne twice in three days as the Guardians clinched a playoff berth and an AL Central crown.

“Who’s got it better than me?” Sabrowski said. “That’s what I think. Like, first-place team, popped champagne twice, best bullpen ever. It’s been incredible.”

Hedges and pitcher Matthew Boyd have assured him this isn’t the norm. “This isn’t normal. Teams aren’t this close. Teams don’t have this much fun,'” Sabrowski said. “Teams don’t win this much. Remember what this is like. And, one day, when you’re hopefully a vet in the locker room, you can let people know this is what the expectation is, and this is what it should be like.’”

A couple of months ago, Sabrowski was at Triple A, recovering from a concussion suffered when a catcher’s throw to second base conked him in the back of the head. Now, he’s gearing up to pitch in October, and so far, he has looked the part.

This is a team — and, especially, a bullpen — that has welcomed young players into the fold and placed expectations upon them. Fry can’t fathom how they’ve thrived.

“My first at-bat,” Fry said, “I’m just thinking, ‘All right, how can I not look like an idiot? Don’t trip going to first base. Don’t throw your bat. Don’t do anything dumb.’”

Smith, meanwhile, struck out five in two scoreless innings in his debut. Sabrowski struck out a pair of Royals. Walters didn’t allow a hit in his first eight appearances.

Such is life in the Cleveland bullpen.

“When they do give up runs,” Vogt said, “we’re like, ‘What happened?’”

Last week, Fry noticed new scoreboard videos and animation at Progressive Field in preparation for October’s full crowds and frenzied atmosphere. He stood beside Bibee as Gaddis entered from the bullpen while “Hoist the Colours” blared from the ballpark speakers.

“Can you imagine him in the playoffs?” Bibee said.

Then, they daydreamed about Smith smacking Naylor’s mitt with 97 mph heaters. They thought about Clase, no longer tethered to stringent pitch counts. They thought about the best way for this Guardians team to navigate October.

“Every single guy,” Fry said. … “It’s gonna be really fun to watch.”

(Top photo of Emmanuel Clase: Jason Miller / Getty Images)
Zack Meisel

Zack Meisel is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Cleveland Guardians and Major League Baseball. Zack was named the 2021 Ohio Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association and won first place for best sports coverage from the Society of Professional Journalists. He has been on the beat since 2011 and is the author of four books, including "Cleveland Rocked," the tale of the 1995 team. Follow Zack on Twitter @ZackMeisel

Guardians’ playoff season built on trash talk, coaches’ bond: ‘This is who we are’ CLEVELAND, OHIO - APRIL 09: Manager Stephen Vogt #12 talks with bench coach Craig Albernaz during the eighth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Progressive Field on April 09, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. The White Sox defeated the Guardians 7-5. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
By Zack Meisel
6h ago


CLEVELAND — Stephen Vogt and Craig Albernaz — former teammates and forever pseudo-brothers — rested their elbows on the white tablecloth at Mastro’s Steakhouse in late April 2022, a Bay Area gust from Union Square.

After they polished off their ribeyes, Vogt sipped an espresso martini as Albernaz downed a glass of cabernet and tore through a mound of warm butter cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Albernaz is an avowed sugar fiend and Vogt insisted he would gain weight if he even glanced at the dessert.

As is customary when the two converse, their baseball-centric conversation escalated. Back and forth they argued in the dimly lit restaurant, two proud baseball minds growing impatient with the other’s refusal to wilt as their voices gradually overtook the crooner’s vibrato in the corner of the room.

Vogt, in his final season catching for the Oakland Athletics, wouldn’t cave. Albernaz, the San Francisco Giants bullpen/catching coach, was jumping at the chance to play devil’s advocate, always at the ready with a rebuttal, regardless of whether he believes in the cause. Knowing that he’s exasperating his buddy is worth it.

“If I get to you, I keep going,” Albernaz said. “I don’t stop.”

Finally, the server approached to ask whether everything was OK. They assured him they were fine and shooed him away.

“We’re good,” Vogt remembers saying. “This is who we are.”

It’s who they are in a steakhouse with an upscale dress code, as if they had rented out the upstairs dining room. It’s who they are in Vogt’s office before and after games, when debating the next day’s batting order or assessing why they were cornered into demoting a player to Triple A. It’s who they are in the dugout, when Albernaz shields his mouth with a lineup card to stymie any expert lip-readers at Progressive Field who would otherwise deduce their pinch-hitting plans.

It’s who they were more than a decade ago, when both were catchers in big-league camp with the Tampa Bay Rays, who appreciated their work as extra bodies in spring training but didn’t have plans with either. Albernaz was an undrafted signee invited to catch extra bullpen sessions. Vogt was a third-stringer in A-ball itching to switch to coaching.
Stephen Vogt and Craig Albernaz have been friends for a decade. Their dynamic helps shape the way team operates. (Joe Robbins / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

They pushed each other to improve, to find their path to the big leagues, whether as a player, a coach or both. Those journeys included plenty of heated conversations that always came from a caring place, just as they did that evening in San Francisco 2 1/2 years ago.

“It’s how we always interact,” Albernaz said. “We’re talking s— to each other. We just get in the zone where it’s just us, like there’s no one around.”

During a game last week, Vogt sat on the bench in the third-base dugout in Cleveland. He leaned against the blue-padded railing in front of him. Albernaz stood to his right and supplied signs to the fielders. He turned to Vogt and muttered a few words in the manager’s ear.

Such is the standard scene in the Cleveland Guardians dugout. The two never stop gabbing during a game. They rose through the Rays ranks together, catchers competing for opportunities. They interviewed for the same managerial opening last winter but helped each other thrive through the process.

Now, as manager and bench coach, they continue to engage in contentious baseball debates. But those squabbles helped fuel the Guardians to the postseason.

“It’s really special,” catcher Austin Hedges said. “They love each other a lot. And they talk a lot of trash to each other.”

When Albernaz attended a pre-draft workout with the Rays in 2005, a scout assured him he would be a second-day draft pick. Albernaz returned home to Somerset, Mass., and told all his buddies to follow the draft to witness his moment of glory. After all, he dubbed himself a “cocky f—ing player” as an undersized catcher at Eckerd College, a private liberal arts school in St. Petersburg, Fla., with about 2,000 students.

He went undrafted.

“That was the most humbling moment I’ve ever had in my life,” he said. “I went home with my tail tucked between my legs.”

He played in a men’s league later that summer, then the Rays changed regimes and the scout who initially coveted his skills gained more authority. Tampa invited him to catch bullpen sessions in minor-league spring training in 2006. He threw out every runner who dared to dash to second base that spring, which garnered him attention and made him a favorite among coaches.

He knew his role, though. He was in camp to help the pitchers. He wasn’t a top prospect. He was a self-described “minor-league grinder.” He never hit enough to suggest he deserved daily playing time. But he left an impression a couple of years later on another young catcher new to the organization.

“This guy can freaking catch,” Vogt remembers thinking.

They first met in spring training in 2008. Three years later, they were in big-league camp together and were tied at the chest protector. They were technically competitors, trying to earn opportunities, but they decided the best way to approach the situation was to boost each other, not outmaneuver the other. Vogt’s bat eventually propelled him through the system, and Albernaz bounced between the upper levels of the minors.

One day at Double-A Montgomery, Tampa’s field coordinator, Jim Hoff, pulled aside Albernaz before batting practice and asked whether he had ever considered coaching. “I think you’d be really good at it,” Hoff told him.

“I was like, ‘Oh, s—,’” Albernaz said.
Craig Albernaz spent four years with the Giants as a bullpen/catching coach. (Andy Kuno / San Francisco Giants / Getty Images)

Late in his playing career, when Albernaz was reassigned to minor-league camp during spring training, Rays manager Joe Maddon predicted Albernaz would one day flourish as a coach or manager.

Those votes of confidence finally convinced Albernaz. “This is probably happening,” he thought.

For five years, he occupied a variety of coaching roles, including minor-league manager, in the Rays system. The Giants hired him after the 2019 season, and he spent four years as their bullpen/catching coach.

During the final week of the 2023 season, the Guardians called him. Albernaz reached out to Rays manager Kevin Cash, who previously coached in Cleveland and spoke highly of the environment. The Giants fired their skipper, Gabe Kapler, two days later. There would be turnover on San Francisco’s staff, and the club was particularly interested in Vogt.

Albernaz interviewed with the Guardians the Tuesday after the season ended. He met with club officials over video call and then visited their offices at Progressive Field. He supplied Vogt with insight into the Giants’ inner workings.

Then, the Guardians called Vogt about their vacancy. Vogt called Albernaz to keep him apprised.

Even while competing for the same managerial job, they worked together. No bit of insight was off-limits.

“It may not be the norm,” Vogt said, “but that’s our norm.”

The interview process confirmed everything Albernaz had heard from Cash.

He called Vogt and told him: “This place is it. This is the spot.”

On Sept. 16, after a walk-off win vaulted the Guardians to the brink of an AL Central title, Vogt’s eyes welled up as he reviewed his club’s late-inning heroics.

“I love these guys,” he said, his voice trembling.

Those moments, in a marathon season full of hurrahs and hurdles, tend to force his emotions to the forefront. It’s never more apparent than when one of his decisions dictates a player’s livelihood.

Earlier this year, as Vogt reflected on his first call to the big leagues, he started to cry. He was joining the Rays for Opening Day in 2012, and as his wife dropped him off at the Raleigh-Durham airport, he looked at his 6-month-old daughter and told her: “You have no idea what today means. It’ll change your life forever.”
The authenticity that Stephen Vogt operates with goes a long way with players. (Justin Edmonds / Getty Images)

As he retold that story in January in the dining room of his Olympia, Wash., home, he glanced at his daughter, now 13, and apologized for getting emotional. That authenticity, though, goes a long way with players when he welcomes them to the team, or when he has to deliver news they don’t want to hear.

“He’s so invested in each guy and he cares about them deeply,” Albernaz said. “It crushes him to send them back down.”

On each occasion, Vogt and Albernaz dissect how they arrived at the decision. Was it a coaching failure or a developmental misstep? Could this have been prevented, and can they prevent it from happening again? Where did it start to go downhill?

“I don’t ever want it to be easy,” Vogt said. “I want to feel the emotion, because I’ve been there. Having that empathy, I don’t ever want that to go away.”

That’s what made Vogt such a sensible managerial candidate. He has absorbed every curveball that baseball can sling at a player.

He made two All-Star teams, despite being a 12th-round pick from little-known Azusa Pacific University. He was never a prized prospect, and after an injury-riddled 2009 season, he was ready to fast forward to the coaching phase of his career.

He was designated for assignment, demoted, traded, overlooked and underappreciated. He spent an entire winter stuck on zero career hits in 25 at-bats, and woke up in a sweaty panic every night having tricked himself into thinking he had been cut by the Rays.

Eventually, he was.

Through it all, he knew he always wanted to manage. Those experiences allow him to commiserate with every player who has ever struggled in a game built on failure.

And it had the Guardians brass impressed, even though his only formal coaching experience was one season as Seattle’s bullpen coach, stationed 400-some feet from the dugout.

“Five minutes in,” said Cleveland general manager Mike Chernoff, “there was a feeling of, ‘Wow, this could be the guy.’”

The day Vogt got the job, after he took a break from shoveling horse manure to accept the Guardians’ offer, he and his wife video-called Albernaz and his wife. Within 24 hours, Vogt was recruiting Albernaz to his coaching staff. It made too much sense, given their ever-tangled baseball journeys.

“We’ve been the player who isn’t getting playing time and is fighting,” Vogt said. “We know where their brain is because ours went there. We had to scratch and claw for everything we ever earned in this game.”
go-deeper

GO DEEPER

The wild highs and lows that prepared Stephen Vogt to be the Cleveland Guardians' manager

Two or three times a day, Hedges will walk past Vogt’s office, toward the end of a narrow hallway at Progressive Field, and notice Albernaz sitting beside the manager’s desk, often with a laptop resting on his legs. Sometimes, the two are discussing a game plan. Other times, they’re sitting in silence, waiting for the next challenge to surface.

The Guardians catchers, staples at every hitting and pitching meeting, have a front-row seat to the Vogt-Albernaz rapport. David Fry referred to them as “a married couple.” They debate everything from lineup construction to pitching matchups to which flavor Celsius they should consume in Vogt’s office before first pitch. During games, Vogt said, they’re “constantly talking crap.”

“A guy will check his swing,” Fry said, “and Vogt will be like, ‘Swing it, Albie. That looks like you, man.’ … For guys like me, who know they eventually want to coach, that’s your dream, to be a manager in the big leagues with one of your best friends as bench coach.”

In the dugout, Vogt and Albernaz carry on conversations resembling the ones they held as players in the Rays farm system, when they devised plans to help teammates improve and they fantasized about what buttons they would push if they were the manager. Albernaz spends his afternoons thinking up every possible scenario that might arise during a game so Vogt isn’t caught unprepared. Vogt dubbed him “the hardest-working person in baseball,” an “Energizer Bunny” who stays up “all hours of the night diving into one small thing if it can help one of our players get just a tick better.”

“Yes, he’s the manager, I’m the bench coach,” Albernaz said. “But also, that’s my good friend. I want to make sure he’s in the best spot to succeed.”

They’ll exchange ideas and counterproposals throughout the nine innings, with the intensity of the conversation often matching the heated dialogue they broadcast at Mastro’s Steakhouse.

“Albie will bring up something and Vogt’s like, ‘That’s dumb,’” Fry said. “Vogt will bring up something and Albie will be like, ‘Well, that’s dumb.’”

Ultimately, the decision lands with Vogt. The process has worked wonders in Year 1 as the Guardians embark on a postseason run.

“He’s killing it,” Albernaz said.

The Guardians’ winning formula looked familiar in Game 1: ‘Today was the first step’ CLEVELAND, OHIO - OCTOBER 05: Lane Thomas #8 of the Cleveland Guardians reacts as he rounds the bases after hitting a three-run home run during the first inning against the Detroit Tigers in Game One of the Division Series at Progressive Field on October 05, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
By Zack Meisel
55m ago


CLEVELAND — Six minutes after the final out of the Guardians’ ALDS Game 1 victory, the familiar twang returned.

Rocky Top, you’ll always be

Home sweet home to me

Sometime in August, Cleveland pitcher Ben Lively loaded “Rocky Top” by the Osborne Brothers onto the team’s postgame playlist to light-heartedly initiate newcomer Lane Thomas, a native Tennesseean. The song sticks out in a sea of EDM tracks, but it has become a clubhouse staple. Even Emmanuel Clase, who hails from a rural Dominican Republic town 1,400 miles from Knoxville, danced with abandon to the southern ditty during the club’s playoff clinch celebration last month.

There it was again, moments after the Guardians secured a 7-0 win, a win similar to so many of the 92 they amassed during the regular season. A dominant bullpen. Some timely hitting. And a toast to the Volunteer State — an appropriate tribute after a Thomas three-run blast.

This is the blueprint to ending a 76-year drought and awarding Cleveland an early November parade down E. 9th Street, past the Erie Street Cemetery and the statues of Larry Doby and Bob Feller, members of the city’s most recent championship baseball team. Just enough starting pitching and offense to set the table for an overbearing bullpen built to squeeze the life out of the opposition.

This is the October showcase they’ve been scripting all along.

It just looks nothing like the original version sketched in the spring, aside from the cloudless sky, national anthem flyover and capacity crowd. The script has been scrapped and rewritten a handful of times as the winning formula took shape.
go-deeper

GO DEEPER

'Pitching Chaos' takes on new meaning as Guardians thump Tigers in Game 1: Takeaways

The path to victory on Saturday afternoon started with Tanner Bibee, who tossed 4 2/3 scoreless innings after spending the week nursing what he described as “a lead block” of nerves in his stomach. With a couple more sterling efforts on the big stage, catcher Austin Hedges declared: “No one’s going to be calling him ‘Bibby’ anymore.”

No, it’s “BYE-bee,” for any outsiders introduced to Cleveland’s ace in Game 1. And that’s different from Shane Bieber (BEE-burr) and Tyler Beede (BEE-dee), two other parts of the Guardians’ Opening Day pitching puzzle. Or, as Hedges referred to the trio by their nicknames: “Biebs, Beeds and Bibes.”

There’s less confusion now. Bieber spent last weekend in Scottsdale constructing a crib, not gearing up for a playoff start. He’s six months removed from Tommy John surgery and will hang around the club during its postseason journey. He supplied guidance to Bibee on Saturday morning to help eradicate his nerves.

Beede doled out $550 for the Guardians’ famed wrestling belt, handed out to the star of each win. But he disappeared to Triple A after a month on the roster. There’s no Triston McKenzie or Logan Allen. Gavin Williams has been relegated to the bullpen.

Things are different, and yet they still work because of the bullpen’s sheer dominance. The four horsemen — Clase, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Tim Herrin — all logged sub-2.00 ERAs during the regular season, and they pieced together 4 1/3 scoreless frames in relief of Bibee on Saturday. Clase is the renowned stalwart who had sealed an All-Star Game. The other three were unknown commodities when this team started plotting its path to October. They started racking up zeroes in April and never stopped.
go-deeper

GO DEEPER

Tanner Bibee has a fiery competitive streak. The Guardians are counting on it in Game 1

When Vogt removed Bibee in the fifth, the starter did his typical look-up-at-the-sky maneuver as if a lack of eye contact with the manager might convince Vogt to do a 180 and retreat to the dugout. But Bibee understood the decision, especially when the bullpen door swung open and Smith, the 6-foot-5 Canadian cyborg, jogged toward the mound.

“It’s just so comforting,” said catcher David Fry, “being like, ‘All right, Cade Smith, here you go. You’re going to strike out pretty much everybody you face.’”

Not “pretty much.” He did strike out all four hapless hitters he faced on Saturday. Fry and Hedges conducted their customary pregame routine in the dugout in which they imitate Vogt and bench coach Craig Albernaz. They mimicked the coaches suggesting they turn to Smith in the second inning. And, truly, who could argue such a strategy?
go-deeper

GO DEEPER

Guardians' playoff season built on trash talk, coaches' bond: 'This is who we are'

“There’s no heartbeat,” Vogt said of Smith’s icy demeanor. “There’s no pulse.”

No, only the DNA of the league’s most lethal fastball.

The Guardians will lean on Smith, Clase, Gaddis and Herrin until they topple over. But for six months, they’ve barely budged.

Throughout the season, Hedges preached that the Guardians were treating every game like a playoff game so that when they ultimately reached the postseason, nothing would seem any different. There would be no daunting atmosphere, no new sense of urgency, no debilitating dread of the moment.

On Saturday, everything unfolded as they had hoped.

Hedges leaned against the wall beside his locker after the game, sporting a Cleveland Browns winter cap and a white Cleveland Cavaliers playoff T-shirt.

“I love this place,” he said. “These people deserve a World Series. This organization deserves a World Series. It’s been too good for too long.”

The Guardians have the blueprint. And if they can reach the mountaintop for the first time since 1948, that would mean another round of “Rocky Top”.

“Today was the first step,” Hedges said. “Ten more.”

Guardians needed Emmanuel Clase to be super again in Game 2, but it turns out he’s human CLEVELAND, OHIO - OCTOBER 07: Emmanuel Clase #48 of the Cleveland Guardians reacts after giving up a home run to Kerry Carpenter #30 of the Detroit Tigers in the ninth inning during Game Two of the Division Series at Progressive Field on October 07, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
By Jason Lloyd
Oct 7, 2024

CLEVELAND — It was supposed to land in the dirt. Instead, it landed in the seats 423 feet from home plate.

Emmanuel Clase didn’t have his cape for Game 2. He didn’t have his typical command, either.

Those days when the superheroes lose their superpowers are a bit unsettling for the rest of us to watch. Clase giving up any home run is a record-scratch moment. Giving up a three-run homer to Detroit’s Kerry Carpenter in the ninth inning of a scoreless game feels like longer odds than the Tigers faced in getting here.

go-deeper
GO DEEPER

Tigers pierce stellar Guardians bullpen to tie up ALDS: Takeaways

Clase allowed five earned runs all season.

He gave up three on one pitch in the ninth on Monday.

This has been one of the most dominant seasons for any reliever in the history of the game. But if there was ever a debate over who deserves the American League Cy Young award this year (there’s not), Tarik Skubal’s blaring, chest-thumping performance to beat the Guardians on the road in Game 2 should settle it.


Skubal led the American League in wins, ERA and strikeouts. Then he shouted, stomped and shoved the Tigers back into this series with seven brilliant shutout innings in Detroit’s 3-0 win.

Cleveland needed Clase to get four outs over the eighth and ninth innings. He got three.

Skubal hasn’t allowed a run in 13 postseason innings over two starts. He is far and away the best starter in the American League, and if the Guardians don’t win both of their games in Detroit this week to end this series, The Reaper awaits them again in a potential closeout game here next weekend.


Clase has been a type of dominant we’ve rarely seen by a reliever and he’s done it by increasing his cutter usage. He can pitch two or even three days in a row because he seeks efficiency over strikeouts. It keeps his pitch counts low and his arm fresh despite so many appearances.

When he’s right, it’s incredibly difficult to put his cutter in play with any real chance of success. While he was typically around a 2-to-1 cutter-to-slider ratio the last couple of years, he increased it this year to around 4-to-1.

All of which makes it more surprising that he threw Carpenter three consecutive sliders in the ninth inning. The last one landed in the seats in right field.

Clase’s cutter is so good he doesn’t have much need for anything else. But his command Monday night was off with both pitches. He hadn’t allowed a home run off a slider since 2022, back in the Stone Age when baseball didn’t have a pitch clock. He said he was trying to throw the last one in the dirt to get Carpenter to chase. It worked a few batters earlier when Spencer Torkelson chased Clase’s slider in the dirt for strike three. This time, not only did Clase miss the dirt, he threw it over the middle of the plate against one of the few Tigers hitters capable of really punishing mistakes.

“He can change the scoreboard,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “He can change the game. He does it time after time.”

Before Carpenter’s homer, Jake Rogers singled on a cutter that Clase also left over the plate and the pitch before the home run to Carpenter caught even more of the plate; Carpenter just missed it.

“I missed some pitches,” Clase said through an interpreter.

Getting Skubal out of a tie game — albeit scoreless — felt like a small victory and a game the Guardians should win. Once it becomes a bullpen game, the Guardians will always have the advantage. The fact it didn’t work this time sets up two big games in Detroit.

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt followed the same plan in Games 1 and 2. It’s not likely to change for Games 3 and 4. He squeezed out 4 2/3 terrific shutout innings from Matthew Boyd on Monday — the same number of outs Tanner Bibee recorded in Game 1 — before unleashing Cade Smith, Tim Herrin, Hunter Gaddis and Clase.

Getting to the bullpen as fast as possible remains Cleveland’s best path to postseason success. It just didn’t work this time.

“He’s been nearly perfect,” Vogt said of Clase. “He’s human, too.”

The Pulse Newsletter

MLB to Take Over Cleveland Guardians' TV Broadcasts

The MLB will take over the Cleveland Guardians' TV broadcasts from Bally Sports.


The Cleveland Guardians officially have a new plan in place for their television broadcasts for the 2025 MLB season.

After Bally Sports opted to not renew the Guardians for next season, fans wondered what would end up happening to their teams broadcasts. That answer has now been given.


According to a Mandy Bell, the Cleveland reporter for MLB.com, Major League Baseball will handle the TV rights for the 2025 season.


Bell mentioned that games will be able to be watched on television, which channel information being revealed closer to Opening Day. The new agreement will also eliminate local blackouts.


Needless to say, this is good news for Guardians fans



Next season, Cleveland will be one of the most popular teams in baseball. Right now, they're fighting with the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS round of the MLB postseason. They look to have a championship window open for some years to come.

Fans will be able to watch games and the drama with Bally Sports is over.

Hopefully, if all goes according top lan, Guardians fans will gear up to watch new broadcasts about the defending champions. Cleveland certainly has a chance to make a run at a World Series this season.


While most of the focus right now is on the Guardians and their playoff run, this is big news in Cleveland. It will open up the ability for many fans to watch the team.

Quite a few teams will be going the same route. It's a major switch, but one that should be a plus for all fans of the teams who are involved in this.