Game Recap: Guardians Rally in the 6th to Beat the Nationals.

Guardians win 8-6 behind a 7-run 6th inning to take the series against Washington.

The Guardians had another slow start today, as Nationals starter Michael Soroka finished the first 5 innings without giving up a run. But, in the sixth inning, Steven Kwan led off the inning with a single. From there, the Guardians were relentless. They scored 8 runs off 3 different pitchers on 6 hits and 4 walks/HBP. Santana got the party started with this bases-clearing double, and from there, the offense didn’t look back.

Speaking of Carlos Santana... the old man has been on fire since the calendar flipped to May. In annual Carlos Santana fashion, he started off the year horrifically... running a 0.595 OPS and a 73 wRC+. Then, since May 1st, he’s carried an 1.145 OPS (good for a 226 wRC+). He’s running an absurd 21.7% walk rate, tied for the highest mark among qualified Guardians hitters (with Manzardo).

After that double, the Guardians ran away with the game. Apart from some light bullpen (Matt Festa) tomfoolery in the bottom of the 7th, the bullpen (outside of Festa) combined for 4.1 innings of scoreless baseball (Cantillo-Herrin-Gaddis-Smith-Allard-Clase).

I was a little confused as to why Cade Smith was brought in again today (after he threw 20+ pitches in the first half of yesterday’s double-header), and he looked off during that outing. But, he got out of some trouble without allowing a run. I hope he gets a few days off to protect his arm.

The Guardians take another series, and are now 14-8 in their last 22 games. As of writing this, we’re one game back from Detroit (against whom we play later this month).

The Phillies come to town this weekend, so let’s keep this hot streak going.