CLEVELAND \u2014 The Cleveland Guardians tore through Detroit and Philadelphia en route to a 6-1 road trip that has them sitting comfortably atop the AL Central. In those seven games, they allowed 12 runs. Here are some more numbers to consider one-third of the way through the season.<\/p>\n
6th: The Guardians\u2019 rank in starting rotation ERA<\/p>\n
The group has registered a 3.46 ERA, following another gem from Parker Messick on Sunday. Ho hum, another year in which the Guardians\u2019 strength is one of the league\u2019s most proficient rotations. Over the last two weeks, their starters\u2019 ERA is 2.16. Here\u2019s what that looks like in the form of earned runs allowed each game: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4. The simplest way for a team to get on a roll? Consistently great starting pitching. Maybe more teams should just try to do that.<\/p>\n
139: The highest wRC+ of any hitter on the Guardians<\/p>\n
In simple terms, the Guardians\u2019 hitter who has been most adept at creating runs this season has done so at a rate 39 percent better than league average. Can you guess the identity of this mystery man? It\u2019s not future Hall of Famer Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez (111). It\u2019s not rookie sensation Chase DeLauter (126). It\u2019s not two-time All-Star Steven Kwan (78).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the other rookie sensation, Travis Bazzana, the club\u2019s new leadoff hitter. He went 3-for-4 with a home run on Sunday to blitz past a couple of his teammates. He\u2019s been everything the Guardians could have dreamed of and more, with a .294\/.400\/.424 slash line through his first 100 plate appearances as a big-leaguer.<\/p>\n
DeLauter\u2019s 126 wRC+ is tied for second on the team, with Brayan Rocchio, who has played at an All-Star level.<\/p>\n
1st: The Guardians\u2019 rank in walk rate and stolen bases in May<\/p>\n
This is like the patented \u201cGuards Ball\u201d on stero\u2014 nope, not that. Let\u2019s say it\u2019s like a turbo-charged version of \u201cGuards Ball.\u201d They\u2019re walking a ton and running a ton, and when they deliver timely hits or flex some muscle at the plate, the offense gets dangerous. Overall, it\u2019s been about a league-average attack, but that\u2019s light years ahead of where it was last year. Last season, the Guardians posted an 87 wRC+. This year (as of Sunday morning), they\u2019re at 99. In May, they\u2019re at 102, which ranks 10th in the league, and they also rank second in strikeout rate and ninth in home runs.<\/p>\n
55: Days between three-hit games for Steven Kwan<\/p>\n
Sam Merrill banked in a 3-pointer for the Cleveland Cavaliers during their Game 3 loss to the New York Knicks, which led broadcast analysts Tim Legler and Richard Jefferson to debate whether an errant-yet-fruitful shot could boost a cold shooter\u2019s confidence. Kwan entered the Guardians\u2019 series finale Sunday with the league\u2019s 10th-worst OPS (.572), but he beat out an infield tapper in his first at-bat, and that spurred him to his first three-hit game since March 30. Whatever it takes to get a hitter (or a shooter) on track, right? Kwan had three multi-hit games in the first five games. He has seven in 46 games since.<\/p>\n
2.48: The Guardians\u2019 bullpen ERA since April 18<\/p>\n
That\u2019s an arbitrary endpoint, conveniently chosen as the day after an eighth-inning meltdown against the Baltimore Orioles. Five weeks is a healthy sample, though, and in that span, the Guardians\u2019 bullpen has been the best in baseball. That\u2019s because Cade Smith once again looks like the soul-destroying strikeout artist who led all relievers in WAR each of the last two years (and ranks third this year). In his last 13 outings, he has allowed one earned run, with one walk and 21 strikeouts. He has converted 15 consecutive save opportunities.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also because Erik Sabrowski, who owns a career 1.43 ERA, continues to thrive in a setup role, because Colin Holderman has emerged as a reliable, high-leverage option and because Hunter Gaddis has looked like his old self lately.<\/p>\n
2: Number of Cleveland pitchers with 200 innings and 250 strikeouts in a season in the last half-century<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a long way to go, of course, but Gavin Williams is on pace to be the third. He\u2019d join Shane Bieber (2019) and Corey Kluber, who accomplished the feat in both of his Cy Young Award seasons (2014, 2017). Williams authored one of the best starts of his career on Friday, when he went toe-to-toe with Phillies ace Cristopher S\u00e1nchez and piled up 11 strikeouts over eight scoreless innings. Williams tossed five scoreless frames against the Phillies last May, too. Since, in 35 starts, he has recorded a 2.81 ERA, with 257 strikeouts across 205 innings.<\/p>\n
5: Number of starting pitchers the Guardians have used<\/p>\n
When a reporter mentioned this to Stephen Vogt in Detroit last week, the manager tapped his knuckles on the dugout bench for good luck. Even though Cleveland is known for its pitching factory and the rotation has been the club\u2019s backbone, it\u2019s actually the area in which they have the least major league-ready depth. Health and reliability have been paramount, and Vogt admitted they\u2019ve used caution at certain points so they can keep this group in one piece.<\/p>\n
Last year, the Guardians used 10 starting pitchers. The year before, they used 12, plus two relievers as openers. Eventually, they\u2019ll need a sixth starter, and likely more than that. For now, though, they\u2019re buying time for their depth to materialize, whether it\u2019s building up Austin Peterson or allowing Khal Stephen to fine-tune his secondary stuff.<\/p>\n
.806: The Columbus Clippers\u2019 team OPS<\/p>\n
That\u2019s actually come down a bit in recent days. (The International League average is .761, for what it\u2019s worth.) It\u2019s a good reminder that while DeLauter and Bazzana have graduated to the big leagues, there\u2019s plenty of backup two hours south.<\/p>\n
Kahlil Watson (.879 OPS) should factor into the outfield mix at some point this year. Vogt is a fan of his former teammate, Stuart Fairchild (.928 OPS), who could be a right-handed option in the outfield. Angel Genao (.865) and Ralphy Velazquez (.804) were recently promoted to Columbus and might be the organization\u2019s top two prospects. Catchers Cooper Ingle (1.157) and Kody Huff (.922) have thrived. Mil\u00e1n Tolentino (.770) could be a future utility infielder. Familiar faces CJ Kayfus, George Valera, Juan Brito and Nolan Jones are all in Columbus as well. There\u2019s a lot of talent \u2014 or, a lot of trade ammunition.<\/p>\n
4: Number of AL teams with a winning record<\/p>\n
The Tampa Bay Rays are cruising. The New York Yankees, like the Guardians, are nine games over .500. The Athletics sit one game over .500. And that\u2019s it. In other words, the AL is wide open, and the Guardians appear as competent as anyone. An entertaining summer (and fall) could await Cleveland. The front office ought to remain aggressive to capitalize on the lack of potent competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND \u2014 The Cleveland Guardians tore through Detroit and Philadelphia en route to a 6-1 road trip that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,2565,538,4],"class_list":["post-708298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-guardians","tag-baseball","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-clevelandguardians","tag-guardians","tag-mlb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116634920090918536","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708298","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=708298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}