CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The decision whether to activate starters Aaron Civale and Triston McKenzie from the injured list will come after their next rehab starts according to Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Francona.
“We’d like to see how they get through their starts,” Francona said Saturday afternoon prior to the Guardians second game against the St. Louis Cardinals. “I think we want to have as much information as we can and we won't have that until they pitch.”
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Civale will start Sunday for the Clippers at home against Indianapolis and McKenzie will start Tuesday for the Clippers at Iowa.
The goal is to stretch both out to about 85 pitches.
“I think that's where, when they get to that point, I think you can start to talk about them contributing to a Major League team without putting the other people in jeopardy or all the things that you talk about and themselves included,” Francona said.
McKenzie, who was placed on the injured list prior to opening day, was moved to the 60-day injured list with a right shoulder strain and Civale went on the injured list with a left oblique strain on April 10.
Tight rope – The Guardians’ 4-3 victory Friday night was their 23rd one-run game of the season, which leads baseball, and the team is now 10-13 in such contests. It’s the most one-run games the Guards have played since 1967 when the Indians went 9-14 in those contests.
Cleveland also leads baseball with 34 of their 50 games decided by two runs or less and the team is 17-17 in those games to date.
Magic number – The Guards improved to 14-5 this season when scoring at least four times in a game this season.
Clase of his own – Closer Emmanuel Clase picked up his Major League-leading 17th save Friday night. After striking out a pair of Cardinals in the series opener, Clase has 18 strikeouts in 26 appearances this season.
Although he has a four-save lead for the league lead, Clase has already allowed 10 earned runs this season after allowing just 11 in 72 2/3 innings last year.
Big draw – Another big crowd of over 30,000 fans is expected Saturday evening. 31,303 attended Friday night’s game. It was the largest non-opening day crowd for an April or May game since 2013.