The first two games of the Cleveland Guardians’ series against the Tampa Bay Rays didn’t go in the home team’s favor. Even with multiple solid pitching performances from the Guardians, the bats just couldn’t pick it up and give them some support.
The tides turned during Wednesday’s series finale, kind of. Cleveland’s three runs were just enough to salvage the series finale against the Rays, as the Guardians won, 3-1.
Gavin Williams continues to put together one of the best starts of the year for any Major League pitcher with his outing on Wednesday. Cleveland’s starter threw a season-high 7.2 innings, gave up five hits, and allowed no earned runs.
Out of all the stats on the mound, the most impressive was the fact that Williams didn’t issue any walks, especially when you consider the conditions were wet, foggy, and damp, and he had to pitch in.
“We talk about it all the time; when Gavin throws strikes, that's what you get,” said Vogt after the game. “He looked under control from the first inning, and even until we took him out, it was under control, pound in the zone, not a whole lot of hard hit balls.”
“That was one of the better fastballs he's had, but he was just ahead the whole day. It seemed like every hitter. Get 0-1, got a lot of second pitch outs. A lot of weak contact. That was pretty special. Just the low pitch count, the attack in the zone was about as good as we've ever seen Gavin.”
After Wednesday, Williams’ season ERA is down to 2.70.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the Guardians came up with a timely hit, late in the game, with runners in scoring position. Even going back to Cleveland’s trip north of the border last weekend, the team just couldn’t come up with a clutch hit.
The Guardians had opportunities in the eighth and ninth innings in the first two games of the series, but failed to convert.
Chase DeLauter changed that narrative on Wednesday with a two-run RBI single in the fifth inning, putting Cleveland up 3-0 at the time. That insurance proved to be critical with Tampa coming up to score in the top of the seventh.
“Again, offense has been a little scarce the last week, and just for us to come through in those big moments; Great at-bat by Chase, great at-bat by Manzo to get the runners in from third,” Vogt said.
Now, the Guardians must continue this trend as they hit the road.
It’s no secret that Cade Smith has had a shaky start to the season, but he put up one of his better performances in the ninth inning on Wednesday. Cleveland’s closer pitched a clean inning with two strikeouts and ended Tampa’s hopes of a comeback in 12 pitches.
Vogt thought Cade’s“Fastball was good. I thought the split had some life to it, and, Cade’s been good. He's had some little hiccups here and there to start the year but, Cade's been looking better and better each time out.”
Again, hopefully, more clean innings like this from Cade are evidence in the right direction.
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