The Cleveland Guardians are not a serious team.
As Nick recapped for you last night, the f Guardiansound a way to lose again. Yes, Cade Smith was again at the center of things with a meltdown in the 9th. He had Wyatt Langford down in the count and lost him by letting him hit a single which Angel Martinez routed to poorly allowing Langford to turn it into a hustle double. Then he left a splitter up to Corey Seager and put a fastball down and in the middle to Joc Pederson. And that’s how you lose baseball games.
I believe in Cade. He’ll figure it out. However, I can live without seeing Maton vs. Kyle Manzardo again, and I can also live without seeing any more Carlos Santana AB’s. Yes, he got a double off of Nate Eovaldi. Mazeltov. I just can’t do it any more with him.
In other news, I have neglected to inform you that ESPN appears poised to become the new provide of Guardians’ TV games. Sounds like that those wanting to watch Guardians’ games will need to have access to ESPN AND pay an extra fee to watch the Guardians. No word on if blackout restrictions will still apply or not, yet. I believe some NHL teams have a similar arrangement. I feel like this is going to eliminate a lot of older people who won’t be able to navigate this or want to pay an extra fee for the cable they already pay through the nose for. But, baseball has demonstrated time after time that they don’t particularly care about accessibility of their product, so this should come as no surprise.
I have grieved the Guardians’ season a while ago, so I am not devastated right now. But, I am melancholy. They deserved to win that game last night after Jose’s clutch double and I do not believe Cade is a bad closer. But, things are bad for our guys again, and who knows why things can’t be good? Why do the baseball gods make us feel the questions if they’re not gonna give us any answers?
But, hey, George Valera hit for the cycle last night. I’m sure the team is just about to let Valera take over right field and give Kayfus full-time reps at first base. Any day now. Yep.
The Royals los… you know, who really cares? The Red Sox beat the Yankees again, and that will never not make me happy. The Dodgers have figured things out again and will probably win the World Series. Because they struggled midseason, baseball pundits will still be able to say, “This was not a foregone conclusion! The game is NOT broken” and that’s all that really matters. Meanwhile, the Guardians will not sign Kyle Schwarber, Cody Bellinger, or even Ryan O’Hearn this offseason, but will desperately hope Rhys Hoskins can have a career year left in him on a one-year deal while also hoping that Chase DeLauter, Travis Bazzana, Juan Brito and Daniel Espino are magically healthy and good because they don’t have a TV deal that gives them $300M a year AND they DO have owners who are way to risk-averse to push some chips in to break a 77 year drought.
It’s all spit, Larry. It’s all spit.