News and Notes: Guardians Fail First Test Vs. Braves

News and Notes for Saturday, April 27th, 2024

The Guardians didn’t fare well in their first test against one of the elite teams in Major League Baseball, losing 6-2 to the Atlanta Braves Friday night.

Chris Sale brought back recent memories of Cleveland’s struggles vs. left-handed pitching, allowing only two hits and one walk while striking out six in seven innings of one-run baseball. The lefty mashers David Fry and Ramon Laureano were not up to the task last night, which certainly happens. I would assume the leash on Laureano as a platoon player vs. LHP is probably not longer than the end of May, but it’s disappointing he hasn’t been able to continue his 120 wRC+ against LHP in his career into 2024 so far (obligatory small sample size caveat).

Brayan Rocchio looked overmatched. Gabriel Arias went 1 for 4. The offensive highlights were a leadoff home run from Steven Kwan

and a late double from Tyler Freeman. Josh Naylor is in a bit of a funk and may get a day off like Andres Gimenez got yesterday if Vogt’s recent trends are any guide.

Meanwhile, Logan Allen continued a trend of short, uneven performances for Guardians starting pitchers, giving up five hits, two walks, four runs and hitting a batter. He didn’t give up any homers, but Pedro Avila did. Tyler Beede was pretty bad for an inning and a third and won’t last long walking two batters and hitting a third if that’s the pattern. Hopefully, for his sake and the Guardians’, he can turn things around because he seems like a great dude with a fun story. Personally, I’d rather root for a good guy like Beede struggling than be a Braves fan forced to root for a bad guy like Marcell Ozuna succeeding.

Ah well, today is a new day and we will now see if Tanner Bibee can turn in a good performance against a good hitting team. This game and series aren’t going to determine much about my perspective on the 2024 Guardians, but I will say it’s becoming clear that this team needs Gavin Williams to come back strong from this elbow discomfort. Things aren’t sustainable with the current starting rotation production, and while I like Logan Allen, I do not want him to be more than my #4 starter, especially in a potential playoff series.

Another day, another Charlie Condon homer:

Another day, another Travis Bazzana homer:

Around MLB

The Twins beat the Angels. Carlos Santana scored his 1,000th run and Anthony Rendon tore his hamstring. Both of these events check out.

The Royals destroyed the Tigers. Are the Royals good?

The White Sox scored nine runs and won. The White Sox?? The team from Chicago???