News and Notes - Royals Avoid Sweep in Guardians Loss

Guardians lose to the Royals 1-4

Ben Lively ended the quality start streak for Cleveland starting pitchers. Lively had a relatively difficult outing, throwing 78 pitches in 4.0 innings of work. Lively allowed 4 runs on 7 hits and 1 walk. Tommy Pham dealt the bulk of the damage against Lively with a 3-run home run in the bottom of the 4th. Stephen Vogt turned to Eli Morgan to relieve Lively. Morgan pitched 2.0 innings, allowing only 1 hit and striking out 4. Pedro Avila was brought in to pitch the 7th, but was only able to get two outs before Erik Sabrowski made his major league debut.

Sabrowski was called up from AAA Columbus a week ago on August 28th. Sabrowski finished the final out of the 7th inning and pitched the 8th inning. Overall, once his nerves settled down, Sabrowski was locked in, striking out the first batter he faced. Sabrowski and Morgan were vital tonight in ensuring the punchout pieces of the bullpen remained unused going into today's off day before the team heads out to Los Angeles to face the Dodgers.

Cleveland’s offense found themselves struggling again with runners in scoring position. In the top of the 2nd Will Brennan hit a 1 out double (that was originally ruled an E7) and Lane Thomas hit a 2 out single swinging bunt, advancing Brennan to 3rd. Unfortunately, the inning would end with runners on the corners. In the top of the 3rd Andrés Giménez doubled on a line drive to left field. José Ramírez brought Giménez home with another single to left field, putting the Guardians up 1-0. However, in his quest for a 40/40 season, José was caught stealing 2nd base, ending the inning.

All things considering, this team should still feel confident rolling into LA. The question flooding the various fan feeds revolves around a very much slumping Steven Kwan. Should they sit him? Should they let him continue to work through whatever “it” is that’s causing the slump? I do not see an easy answer for this, which is probably why there hasn’t been an obvious one provided yet. Perhaps changing the line up order will give Kwan a different type of pitch to shake things up, but then who leads off every day? Tyler Freeman lead off redemption era?

American League Central Standings*

*at the time of writing

Cleveland Guardians - 80-60

Minnesota Twins - 75-64 - 4.5 GB

Kansas City Royals - 76-65 - 4.5 GB

Detroit Tigers - 70-69 - 9.5 GB

Chicago White Sox - 32-109 - 48.5 GB

Cleveland Guardians News -

Around the League -

Cubs throw a combined no-hitter.

Every team’s most recent no-hitter.

White Sox beat the Orioles!