CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – With 162 games on the schedule, every manager and player emphasizes not getting too high during winning streaks and don’t get low during losing streaks.
Through the first month of the season, the Guardians are baseballs streakiest team.
Outside of their opening series in Kansas City, they have been team sweep since. Is the streakiness a direct result of their youth?
“Could be, I don’t know,” manager Terry Francona said Tuesday afternoon following the postponement of their series opener against the Padres.
The Guardians swept 3 games from the Reds in Cincinnati only to come home and be swept by the Giants. A four-game sweep of the White Sox followed before a disastrous start to their road trip that saw them lose seven straight – a three-game sweep in the Bronx by the Yankees and then a four-game sweep in Anaheim before bouncing back to sweep the A’s in Oakland.
“It has been a little erratic that it’s happened like that,” Francona said. “Sometimes I think it’s more than that (youth). I think that maybe the game in New York – the second game – took something out of us for a couple of days. You’d like to think it doesn’t, but I think it did.”
Francona was referencing a walk off loss to the Yankees April 25 that saw fans in right field throw bottles, cans and other debris at Guardians players following New York’s win.
Always a Guardian – Mike Clevinger will be on the mound for the Padres Wednesday afternoon against the Guardians, but he remains beloved in Cleveland’s dugout.
“They may change uniforms but unless you’re playing them, which we will be [Wednesday], we love the kid,” Francona said. “Just because he gets traded it doesn’t change who he is or what he meant to us or what he means to us still. He’s a great kid. Hard worker, free spirit but fun to be around.”
Clevinger spent five years in the majors with the Guardians where he went 42-22 as a starter with a 3.20 ERA before he was traded at the deadline in August 2020 that netted outfielder Josh Naylor, right hander Cal Quantrill, catcher Austin Hedges and infielder Owen Miller – all current contributors – among the six players acquired from San Diego.
The new guy – The Guardians signed outfielder Anthony Alford to a minor league contract and assigned him to AAA Columbus Tuesday.
“He’s a guy that plays all three outfield positions,” Francona said. “Pretty good athlete. Barny and Demarlo both came across him at times and say he might be the nicest kid they’ve ever met. It’s never a bad thing, I don’t know how much that helps your batting average, but it’s never a bad thing to hear that.”
Alford, 27, has split his six-year MLB career between Toronto and Pittsburgh after being selected by the Blue Jays in the 12th round of the 2012 MLB Draft out of Ole Miss. He’s appeared in 102 career games and hit .209 with eight home runs and 20 RBI. He was designated for assignment by the Pirates and declared free agency last week.
13 strong – The Guardians will likely stay with 13 pitchers, but they’ll need a starter for Sunday thanks to the rain out Tuesday and Wednesday’s doubleheader.
Francona hopes that by finally getting his starters stretched out over the first month of the season following a truncated spring training, they will be able to stick with 13 pitchers.
