CLEVELAND, Ohio — In a rare moment of public criticism, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt didn’t mince words following Cleveland’s listless 4-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday night. The defeat, which was more lopsided than the final score suggests, highlighted a concerning trend for a team supposedly battling for a wild card spot.
“I thought we came out flat,” Vogt said immediately after the game, shifting the narrative away from Logan Allen’s pitching performance to address his team’s alarming lack of energy. For a club in a playoff chase, it was a damning assessment.
The Guardians arrived in Tampa around 3 a.m. Thursday morning and never seemed to wake up. But veteran reporter Paul Hoynes wasn’t buying travel fatigue as an excuse.
“It’s not like they’re traveling by covered wagon here. They’re on a charter flight. They’ve got all the room in the world. They’re eating good food. Then they sleep in a luxury hotel,” Hoynes fired back on the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. “Come on, let’s go, let’s play baseball. Let’s show some energy. Let’s act like you care that you’re in a race.”
The criticism is especially pointed given where the Guardians stand. Despite having what many consider one of the weakest offenses in recent Cleveland history, they remain within striking distance of a postseason berth. The opportunity is there — with upcoming series against direct wild card competitors like Kansas City and Texas — but the effort seems questionable.
Pre-game routines were disrupted by Florida rain showers that prevented on-field batting practice at the Rays’ temporary home. Vogt attributed some of the team’s ‘flat’ play to young players being unable to adjust their routines.
“This is the 139th game they played. I mean, if they don’t have their routines down now, if they don’t know how to compensate when the weather gets involved, what are they doing?” Hoynes questioned. “This is the big leagues. You adjust.”
The frustration extends beyond just one game. Cleveland has shown flashes of competence interrupted by stretches of offensive futility all season. Their Jekyll-and-Hyde performance has kept them hovering around .500, but time is running out for them to make their move.
With just 23 games remaining, the Guardians face a crucial stretch that includes three more against Tampa Bay and four with Kansas City — both teams they’re chasing in the wild card race. A strong showing over the next week could vault them back into serious contention.
But first, they need to show they actually want it.
“They’ve got one of the worst offenses in baseball, maybe one of the worst offenses in Cleveland history that we’ve been watching day in and day out, and they’re still in it,” Hoynes emphasized. “And if these guys don’t realize it, shame on them.”
The message from both the clubhouse and observers is clear: This team has a legitimate shot at October baseball despite their offensive struggles, but that window is closing fast. The remaining question is whether they’ll play with the urgency and energy befitting a team in a playoff chase — or continue sleepwalking toward an early offseason.
Want to hear the full, fiery breakdown of the Guardians’ energy crisis? Listen to the latest Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast for more unfiltered commentary on Cleveland’s playoff push.
Podcast transcript
Joe Noga: Welcome back to the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast. I’m Joe Noga, joined by Paul Hoynes. Hoynsie, the Guardians dropped the opener of a four game series in Tampa Bay on Thursday night. They lose four to two. But it wasn’t even that close. It was a four nothing lead for the Rays heading into the ninth inning. Jose Ramirez and Kyle Manzardo each hit solo home runs back to back to open that ninth inning. But Pete Fairbanks righted the ship climbing, closed out the game and the Rays win for what, the seventh consecutive time? They’re, they’re on hot streak. You’re, you’re running into the Rays, a team that’s in front of you in the wild card chase in the American League at the, at the worst possible time because they seem to be clicking on all cylinders offensively and the Guardians, not to, to make any excuses but they, they got into Tampa about 3am on Thursday, early Thursday morning, uh, came to the ballpark and never really, uh, never really found that energy, never really found that, that, that groove to get the, the series started. Went hitless over the first five innings against Ryan Pepio and Logan Allen, even though he threw the ball pretty well, didn’t get the results because his teammates were sort of sleepwalking behind him.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, Joe, just a disappointing showing by the Guardians after, you know, two encouraging games in Boston where they, you know, combined to score 15 runs on 22 hits. You felt like, okay, you know, they, they still got beat in the Boston series two to three. You know, they lose two out of three games. But the offense was coming around. You were encouraged. They were going to Tampa Bay to play the Rays. The team like you said, is right in front of them in, in the wild card race and, and they lay an egg like that. Just really disappointing. And you could tell in votes in his, you know, in his post game comments that he was disappointed with the ball club. Joe, you know, I, I, I, I get the idea, get that they’re playing 17 games in 17 days and they get, you know, there’s weariness and fatigue come in into this. But okay, they get into to Florida at 3am in the morning. It’s not like they’re traveling by covered wagon here. They’re on a charter flight. They’ve got all the room in the world. They’re eating good food. Then they sleep in a luxury hotel, the Vanoy. I’ve been there in St. Petersburg. Come on, let’s go, let’s, let’s play baseball. Let’s show some energy. Let’s act like you care that you’re in a race.
Joe Noga: Yeah. And I think Stephen Vogt sort of echoed those comments. You know, when we asked him to start his postgame comments, we asked him about Logan Allen and how Logan Allen threw the ball, and he immediately went to. I thought Logan threw a great game. I thought we came out flat. That was, you know, he immediately shifted the narrative in his first response away from Logan Allen and how he played and, you know, towards how the Guardians just didn’t show any energy. He used the word flat. He said, we came out flat. I said, we’re going to learn from this. And he sort of chalked it up to the Guardians, you know, their young roster, you know, not being able to adjust their routines. When you get in late. And then, of course, you’re playing in Tampa, you don’t have the dome here in Tropicana Field. We’ll talk about the ballpark here in a minute.
Paul Hoynes: But.
Joe Noga: But they were not able to take early batting practice or early fielding practice on the field because as it does in Florida, anywhere in the 2 o’ clock to, you know, 6 o’ clock range, you get a shower or a rain shower. The tarp was on the field. No baseball activities on the infield at all. And it really sort of screwed up some of the routines for these guys. But Stephen Vogt said, we have to make adjustments. We have to come out and we as a coaching staff have to sort of tell the young players how to. How to make adjustments. Ballpark situation is a big adjustment in the first place of playing in a minor league stadium. But right now, if they can’t get out there and do their work, it shouldn’t lead to a game where they’re committing errors and kicking the ball all over the place during the. In the first couple innings.
Paul Hoynes: You know, this is the 139th game they played. I mean, if they don’t have their routines down now, if they don’t know how to compensate when the weather gets involved, you know, what are they doing? You know, this is. This is a, you know, this is the big leagues. You know, you adjust. You kind of. You adjust and you adapt and you move forward. I mean, come on. I mean, it’s like these guys haven’t been playing baseball since they’ve been 10 years old. They’ve never ran into a rainstorm or, you know, a delay in game. Game. Come on. They. This, this was, you know, this was not, you know, you didn’t, they didn’t put their best foot forward last night. And, and it’s Disappointing. Now they’re what, there’s 23 games left in the season. You know, are they in this thing or not? Do you, do you get that vibe that they think they are or do they get?
Joe Noga: Whether I think they did, they are or not. They actually are. Just because of the schedule ahead of them and the teams that they play in front of them. They’ve got three more with the Rays. If they sweep those three games, as crazy as it sounds, they climb that much closer to Seattle. Another team that’s in front of them right now is the Royals. They play them four times next week, a four game series at home. You’ve got the Royals. You could make up a ton of ground in that. You just have to get hot. And right now this team doesn’t seem like it’s got the potential to, to do that, to sustain any sort of hot streak. You know, they can, they can win a couple of games back to back if the guys swing the bats the right way, but I just haven’t seen it out of them. The, the ability to sustain any sort of, you know, streak long enough to get them back into a spot in the wild card race.
Paul Hoynes: They, they’ve been Jekyll and hiding it all year. You know, we’ve seen them on hot streaks, we’ve seen them on cold streaks. And this is, you know, this is an opportunity of, of the season sitting right in front of them. I mean, they played.500 baseball almost the whole year. They’ve got one of the worst offenses in baseball, maybe the, one of the worst offenses in Cleveland history that, that we’ve been watching day in and day out, and they’re still in it. And if these guys don’t realize it, shame on them.
Joe Noga: Yeah. You understand that the home runs by Manzardo and Ramirez last night helped them avoid their 16th shutout. I had it already written up and ready to go as a, as a shutout loss. And they hit those two home runs. It’s like, it’s nice to see, but it causes me extra work there at the end of the night, you know, 16. Right now they’re at 15 shutout losses. The last time they had 16 losses by shutout, 1991. It’s been that long.
Paul Hoynes: They lost 105 games. A franchise ricker.
Joe Noga: Yeah. The franchise record for most shutout losses in a season is 24. That goes back to 1914. I mean, you’re talking about level of futility with this offense that they haven’t seen in at least 30 years. They lead the major leagues right now. With 18 games where they’ve, they’ve collected three hits or fewer in a game. Last night they had three hits. Two of them left the ballpark. But, you know, three total hits, 18 times in this, this season so far, that, that, that’s, that’s a lot. That’s a lot of games being held. A three or fewer hits. And, you know, Jose Ramirez looked like he finally got back on track last night. His first two at bats drove the ball deep to center field. Then he had the, the base hit to the gap and the, the home run in the ninth. But Ramirez, since Aug. 14, when the Guardians were coincidentally within a half game of the wild card at that point, he’s just not looked the same since the middle of August. Just really been struggling over that stretch.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, he’s just been taking bad swings. I don’t think he’s complete. You know, he’s not healthy for sure. Joe, There might be something with his hands maybe. It seems like he’s kind of limping around a little bit. But, you know, I don’t think he’s. Well, I know he’s not 100%. And who is, you know, at this time of the year? But Joe, look at, when you look, look at the lineup these guys run out there day in and day out. This is, this is the lineup. This is the batting averages for last night’s lineup after the game. Quan, 272. Schneemann, 215. Ramirez, 280. Manzardo, 232. Naylor, 180. Jones, 214. Arias, 221. C.J. cafes, 200. Rocchio, 233. And he’s one of your hottest hitters. I mean, and you know, the, the average major leaguer in the big leagues. The average major league batting average in the big leagues today is.246. They’ve got two players into over 246. I mean, it’s amazing to me that they are where they are. And I have no explanation for it, Joe. I mean, how can they be on the, on the ver. On the edge of, of, you know, making the postseason with this lineup?
Joe Noga: Yeah, it’s, it’s pretty impressive that they’ve been able to maintain being competitive for this long. You just wonder how much longer it’ll hold out. And like you and I were talking about before we started recording, by the end of this next week, after they, they finish up with Tampa Bay, after they finish up with Kansas City, we’re going to know where they stand in terms of that wild card and you know, the three teams between them and Seattle. Texas is playing well. So it’s going to be hard, you know, and Texas comes to Cleveland for the last, the last series of the season. So it going to be hard to count them out completely. But you know, we’ll know one way or another probably by the end of next week. Want to talk about, you know, the ballpark that, that they’re playing in. We mentioned, you know, the difficulties getting on the field pre game because it’s an open air stadium because you know, Tropicana Field not an option. Hoyncy in the, the visitors clubhouse at George Steinbrenner Field. When you walk in the clubhouse on the wall they have one of those big mural photographs and it’s looking up from the infield at Tropicana Field after the devastation of Hurricane Milton. The roof is torn off and you know, there’s all sorts of scaffolding and everything is just a mess. It’s a full size mural, you know, sort of photo on the wall there in the visitor’s clubhouse. So that basically anybody who walks into the clubhouse and says, you know, man, this stinks. We’re in a minor league ballpark. We’re, you know, we’re major league players in a minor league ballpark. It’s a, it’s a stark reminder as to why you’re in a minor league ballpark. It’s because, you know, there’s no other option. The ballpark that you were supposed to be playing in was basically torn asunder. I thought that was sort of an interesting approach for the clubbies there in Tampa to take and as a subtle reminder to the, the players, hey, it could be a lot worse.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, definitely. I heard the Yankees put a lot of money into that, into the ballpark. Joe. Just to bring it up to major league standards.
Joe Noga: I’m telling you the, the single A Tampa Tarpons are the, the team that plays there during the, the regular season and it’s the, it’s the Yankees obviously their spring training home, but it’s for a single A team. This is the nicest ballpark I’ve ever seen in terms of, you know, for that level. It’s a really nice park. You know, the stands are nice and everything is set up, but it’s still got a minor league feel to it. They announced the crowd is 8,000 last night. You know that that’s, that that’s not going to cut it. There’s no, there’s no third deck on that. You get that major league feel when you walk into a ballpark and you look up and there’s that, that third deck. And they don’t have that here. They do. They do try to do a lot of nice things. You know, yesterday, pregame ceremony, they officially gave a citizenship ceremony, U.S. naturalization ceremony. There were about, you know, 25 people on the field. There’s a real minor league feel to the, to the game. I don’t know if it affects the guardians and their play as much. You know, guys like Kyle Manzardo had played there when he was with the Tampa organization. Austin Hedges, he mentioned that he had played there when he did spring training with the, the Pirates. So it’s not a big deal for them. The thing that’s kind of unique is the dimensions of the ballpark are an exact replica of the dimensions at Yankee Stadium. So you’ve got the short porch in right field, the 314ft down the right field line, and, you know, the deep, deep, sort of left and left center gaps there. But for Jose Ramirez, who’s got a.393 career batting average in Yankee Stadium, I think his OPS is up over 1100 at Yankee Stadium. It’s no wonder that he’s had two hits and one of them was a home run last night.
Paul Hoynes: Good for him. Yeah, definitely. I covered a couple games there, Joe, when the Indians were in winter Haven, trained there. Can’t. I really can’t remember too much. I don’t. What was the press box like?
Joe Noga: Small and the, the sight lines weren’t very good. I was sort of behind a, a window post and all that, so not, not the greatest. The, the press dining wasn’t all that. They had fried chicken. It was not great, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Last year at, at Tropicana Field, I thought the press dining was, was a lot better, but again, I’m not a guy who misses a lot of meals, so it just, it really just goes to the, the feeling of, you know, they were sort of rushed getting in last night and you know, on top of that, you’ve got the, the stadium situation. It all added up to, to them coming out without a lot of energy. And, and Stephen Vogt, for the first time, I thought, really sort of criticized his team, you know, saying, you know, hey, you know, we’re coming. We came out flat. We need to come out with more energy. We’re going to learn from this.
Paul Hoynes: Tell.
Joe Noga: He didn’t think that it was acceptable the way that the team played.
Paul Hoynes: I’m glad he did, Joe. It’s about time somebody said something, you know, I mean, this is, this has been going on so long and Joe, I mean, you know, what, what is Volt going to do with this lineup? I mean, he’s basically got the same guys day in and day out. They haven’t changed. They can’t, you know, change what, 26 guys at this point of the season. So you got to run these guys out there, you know, when, when all is said and done at the end of this season. This is a bad reflection on the front office, the way they put together this offense. I mean, I just don’t, I just don’t get it, Joe. I just don’t see why they didn’t add to this offense, especially coming off a year where they went to the alcs. And I know this is kind of a, you know, looking back, I mean, this is like, you know, an obvious cheap shot, but, you know, it’s just, you know, I think it’s more of a reflection on the organization than anything Vogt has done. I mean, he’s, you know, he’s got to play the players that are in the clubhouse.
Joe Noga: Yeah. And he’s got to keep everything positive. And that’s what we’ve heard from him all year. Even in the, the most sort of dire situations, he stayed positive. And I, you know, give him credit for that. But sometimes it’s, you know, what are we doing here? Is sort of the, the question before the game. Nick Enright placed on the 15 day injured list. Enright, sort of a, you know, a really, a really great story this year. So it’s unfortunate to see him have to go down. Right elbow inflammation and forearm inflammation. And that’s never a good sign when you’re talking about, you know, a pitcher. You know, generally those, those issues where that could lead down the road to a Tommy John surgery. They start when, you know, you get the forearm inflammation, the tightness there. They said that Enright, you know, after his outing against Seattle last week, he felt something. They put him, they, they didn’t pitch him for four days. He went back out there, pitched against Boston two thirds of an inning and felt it again the next day. So they put him on a plane heading back to Cleveland and he’ll get checked out, I would assume at some point, either today or early next week. But not a great situation for Enright, who had. Had worked himself into sort of a leverage role with this club.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, he’d done a great job, Joe. You know, he’s one of those guys that came up and helped them you know, especially. They’ve done a good job with that bullpen, you know, mixing and matching. Enright was one of them. And just a great story like you referred to, you know, a cancer survivor, a guy that’s still undergoing cancer treatments. What, for Hodgkin’s. You know, I think he’s got, what, two. One or maybe two more at the end of the season to go. So, you know, I hope everything works out for him with the elbow. Maybe it’s just a sprain, maybe just needs some rest and, you know, we’re not looking at, you know, any kind of surgery.
Joe Noga: Yeah, it’s. It’s. I think we looked it up. He. He hadn’t reached, like, his. His career high in innings or anything like that. So, you know, it might not be like a. An overuse sort of injury or anything like that, but, yeah, you’re right. This is a guy who’s overcome so much just to make it to the big leagues. You talk about the, you know, beating cancer, and he’s. That’s well documented what, what he’s gone through. But. But like you said, I think his last 14 outings, he’s only given up two earned runs since he came back in July back to the roster after being optioned to Columbus. But he had. He’d sort of gained Stephen Vogt’s trust. And after the. The Emanuel Class A suspension and where everybody sort of shifted their roles in the. The bullpen, you know, he sort of benefited from that by being a guy who came in as a fireman and, you know, had, you know, been given some of those. Those leverage innings. They’re going to miss his presence. They. They promoted Zach Kent. So Kent is back after. I think he was a day off and a day back on because of the injury. So he was back in the clubhouse. He told one of the clubbies that, yeah, he had flown all the way to Columbus after being optioned and then had to fly all the way down to Tampa. So you want to talk about somebody who was a little bit. A little bit jet lag that was definitely Zach Kent. Prior to yesterday’s game, Hoynsi wanted to mention something we saw in two things that we’ve seen that the. The Houston Astros right now, a hotbed of controversy all over the place. Two incidents in the last couple of days, you know, sort of raised some eyebrows. A team that’s always sort of in the spotlight because of the success that they’ve had. A couple of days ago, Framber Valdez gave up a grand slam after his catcher Waved him off and said, hey, step off the rubber, step off the rubber. He stayed on, he threw the pitch, got hit for a grand slam. The very next pitch, Valdez crossed up his catcher, hit him with a fastball right in the chest protector. A lot of people saw the video, saw this and said it’s pretty obvious that he did it on purpose based on his body language, based on a lot of other things. Have you ever seen a pitcher intentionally hit their catcher or with a pitch because they were angry at them?
Paul Hoynes: That’s a first. Joe. Seen the, you know, a pitcher, you know, when the umpire, you know, squeezed him and they must have had a sign where the catcher doesn’t catch the ball and it, and it hits the. Hits the umpire and.
Joe Noga: Yeah, the tiger.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah, I’ve seen that, but I’ve never seen a pitcher hit his own catcher, cross up his own catcher and intentionally hit him. Joe. Like I watched that a couple times and, and it was right down the middle. I don’t, you know, unless this called a strike. Yeah, I don’t see how he missed it unless he was expecting a breaking ball or something. But I mean, it was right down the middle. So, I mean, I don’t know. But then the way Valdez just turned and didn’t even look at him, and the look on the catcher’s face, it looked like he wanted to kill the guy.
Joe Noga: Yeah, it was pretty obvious. I think Valdez coming up on a free agency year. So what. What does that do for his, you know, and it’s, it’s not going to matter. Some team, probably the Yankees going to pay for Amber Valdez quite a bit of money. You know, this is. You can, you can behave like that, I guess, if, if you know you’re going to get paid, you know, wherever you wind up.
Paul Hoynes: Yeah. And the catcher, I think was, had just been called up. Right. I don’t think he.
Joe Noga: Right. Yeah, he’s a rickety.
Paul Hoynes: He caught him very much so who knows what was going on there. That was weird.
Joe Noga: Well, fast forward to another weird incident. Incident last night as the. There was a bat controversy. When was the last time we had a good bat controversy in baseball? You know, you go back to the torpedo bats that the Yankees were using early in the season, and everybody wanted to sort of take advantage of that. Well, now it’s the Yankees calling out Taylor Tramel from the Astros. Aaron Boone had Tramell’s bat confiscated in the ninth inning last night. As, as umpires were looking at it, they said that it was too shaved, that the trademark area the label area on the barrel of the bat had been shaved down, had been sanded down in some way. And Boone said that made it illegal. The bat was removed and the Yankees went on won the game 8 to 4. Hoynsey, when was the last time you saw a come out a little bit of gamesmanship there late in the game and pull players back?
Paul Hoynes: Well, that goes back TO I think 1994, Joe, when Gene Lamont of the White Sox came out and confiscated Albert Bell’s bat at Comiskey Park. And all sorts of stuff happened after that. But history was made that Jason Grimsley.
Joe Noga: Remembers that as the, the night that he crawled through a heating duct to, to, to switch the bat out, huh?
Paul Hoynes: Yeah. And put Paul Sorrento’s bat in there instead of another one of Albert’s bats because all of Albert’s bats were corked that he took on the trip. And that started like a feud between the White and the Guardians. And then what the next year in 95, when Albert hit the home run against Boston in, in game one of the ALDS or the first round of the postseason, they confiscated that bat and they sawed it in half and it was not court.
Joe Noga: So yeah, that was, that led to the, the immortal image of Albert Bell flexing his bicep across the, the diamond pointing into the, the Red Sox dug out and you, you did something wrong there when you, you angered Albert at that point. But that night, weren’t you, weren’t you in the bowels of Jacob’s Field at 2:30 in the morning watching the American League president saw the bat in half?
Paul Hoynes: I think we saw the bat. I can’t remember. I think Dennis, Dennis Manoloff was chasing that. Dennis was, was on the prowl for, for the bat. And I think who was the president was Bobby, Bobby Brown. I think Dr. Bobby Brown was the president and the American League president at that time. They saw the bat in half and it was, thankfully it was not cork.
Joe Noga: Well, you know, I’m watching the video of this incident last night and you know, they gave the bat to the authenticators, the guys that authenticate the balls and things that sit there, you know, just off to the side of the dugout. You know, they’re Taylor Tramell gesturing into the Yankees dugout. You know, hey, nice job, guys. Way to go. You took my bat. Congratulations.
Paul Hoynes: And they didn’t want anybody switching that bad either. So.
Joe Noga: No, it was, it was authenticated right after he hit a double off the wall in left field there in the, the ninth inning. They were waiting they were biting their time. I think Aaron Boone had had that one all all chalked up. So definitely something to what, you know, what’s going to be the next fun incident that comes out of Houston. I’m sure they’re not done, Hoynsie. That’s going to wrap up today’s edition of the Cleveland Baseball Talk podcast. We’ll be back next week with a full week of of shows. We’ll talk to you then.
Paul Hoynes: Good deal.
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