News and Notes: Guardians Win, Twins Whine

News and Notes for Saturday, May 18th, 2024

The Guardians won a fun baseball game last night, 3-2, over the Minnesota Twins with a little help from homeplate umpire Roberto Ortiz.

Triston McKenzie and Simeon Woods-Richardson both had their way with the opposing lineups for the majority of the game, each giving up one run. And, both the Twins and Guardians scored a run while getting key hits off the other team’s lefty specialist (Steven Okert and Tim Herrin, respectively). In one case, certified lefty masher David Fry smoked a two-run homer to the home run porch:

In the other, certified lefty masher laced a double to centerfield. I do question the decision to throw Farmer four straight curveballs, but Herrin just hung the last one after Farmer had looked pretty hopeless against the curves prior to that. Just would have liked to see a 97 mph fastball to change his eye level and challenge his bat, there, myself.

Oh well, with the score tied 2-2, the Guardians faced elite Twins closer Johan Duran in the bottom of the 8th. After a bloop hit from Andres Gimenez, Gimenez was thrown out with an excellent throw from Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers, just perfectly placed. So, while I hate making outs in front of Jose Ramirez, I did feel Gimenez got a good jump and it took a perfect play to get him. And, somehow, I felt like Jose would make up for it. Which he did:

Interestingly, Duran threw two pitches that were clearly strikes that were called balls before Jose swatted a home run. But, also, hey, throw the man a splinker or a fastball. Don’t get beat on a curveball on the inside part of the plate where you’ve sped up his bat.

Finally, for the Twins’ manager Rocco Baldelli, who whined about the umpires after the game, maybe see if you can get Ryan Jeffers in a framing program like Bo Naylor, who is 3.7 runs above average as a framer while Jeffers is a 0.0 in that category. Bo used his framing skills to help closer Emmanuel Clase strike out Carlos Correa in the top of the 9th.

I was at the game and it was a packed stadium, the team shops were full of folks shopping for City Connect gear and the uniforms looked sharp on the players. And, everyone got to go home happy, so hopefully, the Guardians can get a series win here against the Twins and keep momentum going into what should be an easier part of their schedule. I’d also like to mention Hunter Gaddis getting a key strikeout to get Triston McKenzie out of trouble in the 7th, and Scott Barlow getting two big K’s in the 8th. Ramon Laureano and Gabriel Arias got surprise starts, apparently due to Woods-Richardson having some reverse splits. Laureano hit a couple lineouts fairly hard (95 and 89), but man is Arias going through it right now. Hopefully, Brayan Rocchio is feeling better after his collision with Tyler Freeman and can resume some improvement he’d been showing recently.

It was great to see McKenzie have a dominant start and make it into the 7th. Make sure you don’t miss his interview with Covering the Corner’s Brian Hemminger from earlier this week!

Catch Matt Dallas and I on the latest Disgusting Baseball Podcast where we discuss Gabriel Arias, Jose Tena, Daniel Schneemann, and Triston McKenzie.

Travis Bazzana set the record for most doubles for an Oregon State player and the most bases in a season for a Beaver last night:

Around MLB:

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