News and Notes: The Guardians are Bad Right Now

News and Notes for Tuesday, July 23rd, 2024

The Guardians lost again, this time 8-2 to the Detroit Tigers.

Cleveland collected 12 hits, 2 walks and 1 hit-by-pitch but could only manage two runs against Tarik Skubal and company. They also allowed Skubal to pitch seven innings which may have ticked me off more than anything else, given that Detroit is set to throw two bullpen games in this series. The lack of runs is probably because 10 of those 12 hits were singles.

You know it’s bad when you waste a game where Austin Hedges gets on base three times. But, that’s what Cleveland did. Carlos Carrasco can’t really be expected to give up less than four runs in five innings, and he then gave up two more runs in the sixth inning. Tim Herrin had a rare hiccup and gave up a homer and then newly arrived Peter Strzelecki also surrendered a bomb. Just a reminder - Detroit is not a good offensive team. Except when they play Cleveland.

Steven Kwan and Josh Naylor are in a big rut. Not much is going to happen good for this team when that’s the case. Brayan Rocchio went 0 for 4 with four strikeouts. That’s called a Golden Sombrerocchio. Rocchio has been so disappointing. I spent so much time watching his Double-A at bats and felt like he was rediscovering his pulled-fly-ball abilities in Venezuela. But, he had a 71 wRC+ in April, a 77 wRC+ in May, a 96 wRC+ in June and 54 wRC+ so far in July. And that’s just not going to cut it. Seems like it’s time to see Angel Martinez, Tyler Freeman (who was 3 for 4 in last night’s game), Daniel Schneemann and maybe Juan Brito and let Rocchio try to fix his issues in Columbus. If that’s even possible.

Austin Hedges offered some sanguine philosophizing after the game. Worth listening to even if it doesn’t help a lot:

Stephen Vogt is maintaining a brave face in the middle of this crisis:

Around MLB:

The Royals and Twins both won, both beat good teams, and the Guardians’ lead is down to four games. So, there’s that.