News and Notes: Guardians Lose Series in Kansas City, Return Home

News and Notes for Monday, July 1st, 2024

It was a rare disappointing weekend of the Guardians and their fans as Cleveland dropped three of four in Kansas City, losing on Sunday 6-2.

Entering their first off-day in 13 days, the Guardians seemed flat, which is not unusual for a team in those circumstances, but great teams find a way to fight through it. For the first time all season, it didn’t seem like the Guards were quite up to the challenge. Does it help to know that Cleveland’s expected batting average for the series was .272 and the Royals’ was .236, so we can assume that luck and the various bounces and contours of Kauffman stadium played a big role in the outcomes going the way they did? There are no moral victories, but that first loss of the series, 2-1 while leaving nine runners on base, looms large in why this series wasn’t a split.

Jose Ramirez had a double and an RBI, Josh Naylor had two hits including a double, Bo Naylor went 3 for 4, and Daniel Schneemann had a hit and a walk while filling in at centerfield, shortstop and third base in the same game. Logan Allen gave up six hits in four and a third but didn’t walk anyone, so that’s what we call progress. Eli Morgan returned and looked like he needed a little more of a tune-up at Columbus and Pedro Avila had a rare misstep in relief, also. Emmanuel Clase needed work so he pitched the ninth in his usual nine-pitch fashion. One nice thing about these latest games has been giving Clase a little breather.

Time to relax and regroup for a day and to come out ready to exact revenge on the Chicago White Sox for earlier season setbacks beginning Tuesday night.

Gavin Williams is back and Triston McKenzie is going to go sort out his mechanics in Columbus for a while:

Zack Meisel of the Athletic wrote about the Guardians’ attempts to address their starting pitcher issues.

Paul Hoynes reports Chris Antonetti saying that the team’s expectation is that they won’t know who they are picking number one until “moments before the pick is made.”

Wrapping up some recent mock drafts, Charlie Collazo of Baseball America has JJ Wetherholt going to Cleveland, Joe Doyle of Future Star Series has Chase Burns to the Guardians at 1.1, Dan Zielinski III of Baseball Prospect Journal has Travis Bazzana for the first pick, and, of course, MLB Pipeline still has Bazzana at number 1. We will know the answer in fewer than two weeks!

AROUND MLB:

The Twins and Tigers both won yesterday.