The Guardians are regaining their footing in the division, one rubber match at a time.
After being shut out by the Pirates in their Saturday night contest, Cleveland came back in a big way with a 6-1 victory in Sunday’s matinee finale, improving to 9-1 in rubber match games at Progressive Field this season.
The Guardians have struggled since the All-Star break, going 19-22 since the break prior to Sunday’s game, and lost a lot of ground in the division as their 9-game lead over the Twins and the Royals shrunk to nothing. But – slowly but surely – Cleveland is getting that lead back.
And the Guardians are doing exactly what they need to in order to cruise into the post season with a potential division win by taking 2 of 3 from the Pirates, who are currently at the bottom of the NL Central. And this series did a lot to ease up the rotation concerns with Matthew Boyd striking out 8 through six innings of work in his start on Saturday, and Alex Cobb pitching a near-perfect game in his return from the injured list on Sunday.
“Our rotation is in a really good place right now,” Stephen Vogt said of Cobb and Boyd following Sunday’s win. “Having two veteran guys that can pitch and go deep into games is huge.”
These newest additions to the team’s rotation know exactly what their role is, and are showing that they are the right people for the job.
“Hopefully some stability,” Cobb said when asked what he and Boyd to the rotation. “Both of us are coming back from injury, so it’s not as easy to get 7-8 [innings] out of us. But you do your best to at least go 6, and hopefully later in September we’re going to be able to push that 7-8 inning mark and give some of those guys a breather.”
Cobb pitched 6 perfect innings, becoming the first Cleveland pitcher to go for 6 or more perfect innings in a start since Triston McKenzie put up 7.2 perfect frames against the Tigers on August 15, 2021. The perfect game was broken up in the 7th when Cobb was dinged by a come-backer from Isiah Kiner-Falefa, allowing him to reach first safely.
Even if Cobb hadn’t given up two hits in the 7th, a perfect 9 was not likely in the cards for him.
“Realistically I wasn’t going to be able to go nine innings,” Cobb said, acknowledging that he knew he was on a pitch count since he was coming off of injury. “There’s this superstition in the game where you can’t warm anyone up when you have a no-hitter going…That’s silly to me right now, we need to go win this game. We’re trying to win a World Series. So, if you need someone to get hot so they’re not ambushed, make sure they are.”
The maturity and experience a pitcher like Alex Cobb brings as a veteran is palpable, and going deep into games isn’t the only thing he provides to the clubhouse.
“Alex, being the pro that he is, came up to me in the fifth inning and he said ‘hey I don’t care what happens, I know you need to take me out when you need to take me out,’” Vogt said, when asked if there was a difficult conversation as Cobb’s perfect game progressed.
Lack of experience has bitten this team in the post season in the past, and Cobb’s level-headedness and team-first attitude is exactly the veteran presence this team needs in the post season.
The other thing this team needs as we are one month closer to October? It’s offense. And that’s exactly what the team got this weekend.
Kyle Manzardo was called up to Cleveland on Sunday and he provided a massive boost in his role as DH, hitting not only his first big league home run, but his second as well – making his mark in club history as the 10th Cleveland player to hit their first two home runs in the same game.
Jose Ramirez singled and hit his 34th long ball of the season, surpassing Terry Turner for 10th-most hits in club history with 1,472, and broke his tie with Ken Keltner for 7th all-time RBIs in Club history with 851.
A few other offensive highlights from Sunday: Andres Gimenez hitting his second home run in 3 games, Josh Naylor notching multiple hits for the third time in the last four games, and Lane Thomas producing 3 hits for the first time in a Guardians uniform and the 5th time this season.
While the Guardians are not going to have it easy through the rest of the regular season, getting those series wins against weaker teams like the Pirates is going to alleviate a lot of pressure.
It’s easy to get caught up in each win and loss, getting high on the wins and low on the losses, but it’s important to see the forest for the trees – and right now that forest continues to increase their lead in the AL Central as the post season gets closer and closer. The World Series talk isn’t just lip service or fodder in the Guardians clubhouse. This team truly believes they have what it takes to make a deep run in the playoffs, and Sunday’s win is the type of momentum they need to ride to get there.