{"id":677009,"date":"2026-04-16T15:48:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677009\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:48:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:48:28","slug":"cleveland-guardians-drop-two-straight-but-key-offensive-stat-offers-encouragement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677009\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland Guardians Drop Two Straight, but Key Offensive Stat Offers Encouragement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">The Cleveland Guardians are beginning to spiral. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">And unfortunately, they don&#8217;t have much time to catch their breath and take a second to pause and reflect. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">On Wednesday, April 15, the Guardians played in the series finale <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/guardians\/onsi\/guardians-drop-back-to-back-games-against-cardinals-lose-second-straight-series-01kp99r07k5g\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">against the St. Louis Cardinals from Busch Stadium, falling, 5-3<\/a>. With another bullpen collapse late in the game, the Guardians have now dropped two games straight for the first time in the 2026 campaign. They&#8217;ve also lost back-to-back series. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">But although the Guardians haven&#8217;t looked the best, this statistic unearthed by Guardians reported in St. Louis shows that the team is fighting to keep games alive.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6s\">According to MLB.com freelance reporter Zach Sweet, over the last seven games of action, the Guardians have scored 20 of their 39 runs with two outs. On the season as a whole, Cleveland has plated 38 of its 75 runs with two outs, good enough for 50.7% of the time, the highest rate in the American League.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Over their last seven games, the Guardians have scored 20 of their 39 runs with two outs, more than half (51.3%). On the season, Cleveland has plated 38 of its 75 runs with two outs (50.7%), the highest rate in the American League. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GuardsBall?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#GuardsBall<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Zach Sweet (@by_ZachSweet) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/by_ZachSweet\/status\/2044530248247574792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6y\">In Wednesday&#8217;s loss, both catcher Bo Naylor and first baseman Kyle Manzardo were able to contribute RBI for the team. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/gameday\/guardians-vs-cardinals\/2026\/04\/15\/823071\/final\/box\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Naylor went 1-for-3 with a double and two RBI<\/a>, while Manzardo went 2-for-2 with an RBI. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"71\">\u201cI think it just goes back to the identity,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/guardians\/news\/guardians-hit-well-with-two-outs-in-loss-to-cardinals\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Naylor said about the Guardians&#8217; clutch hitting with an inning on the line.<\/a> \u201cUnderstanding that we\u2019re never out of it, no matter what the situation is \u2026 just always being ready to fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"74\">For a young team like the Guardians, and one that&#8217;s still relatively inexperienced at the big league level, this statistic shows that the team is standing in and fighting to keep innings alive. They know that runs, at least right now, are hard to come by and they can&#8217;t just give up on an inning. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"77\">When asked about how he felt about the eye-grabbing numbers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/guardians\/onsi\/news\/cleveland-guardians-players-coaches-react-after-monday-night-win-over-cardinals-01kp60d71893\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Guardians manager Stephen Vogt <\/a>attributed quality at-bats to the high percentage.  <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7a\">&#8220;Just quality of bats, you know, up and down, we just have to find a way to get more,&#8221; Vogt said in his postgame press conference. &#8220;You know. I think we want to be greedy. We want to score more runs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Guardians?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#Guardians<\/a> manager Stephen Vogt on what went into scoring all 3 runs today with 2 outs, but wants to see more out of the offense:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust quality of bats, you know, up and down, we just have to find a way to get more. You know. I think we want to be greedy. We want to score more\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mason Horodyski (@MasonHorodyski) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MasonHorodyski\/status\/2044516767029219736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 15, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7g\">On the 2026 campaign, Cleveland found various ways to score runs. Whether it&#8217;s the deep ball, gritty knocks getting into alleyways or scoring off errors, the Guardians have just been a gritty team when it comes to putting ticks in the scoring column. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7j\">However, as of recent, it&#8217;s been the pitching that has faltered, allowing games to feel out of reach. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7m\">On both Tuesday and Wednesday, arms from the bullpen came into the game and allowed hits, walks and runs, giving the Cardinals a bit of momentum down the back-half of the game. And while the Guardians&#8217; bats put up a fight, it was never enough to climb back ahead.  <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7p\">\u201cI thought overall, we played a pretty uninspiring game today [Wednesday],\u201d manager Stephen Vogt said. \u201cWe need to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7s\">The Guardians, as mentioned, won&#8217;t have much time to relax, reset and retool, though, as their 13-straight game window continues into Thursday. They begin a four-game set from Progressive Field against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, April 16, with the first pitch set for 6:10 p.m. EST. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Guardians are beginning to spiral. And unfortunately, they don&#8217;t have much time to catch their breath&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,2565,538,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-677009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-guardians","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-guardians","11":"tag-clevelandguardians","12":"tag-guardians","13":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116415176649314266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}