Guardians 5, Brewers 0: Gaining a Win, Losing a Lively

Game Recap Monday, May 12, 2025

The Guardians bounced back from a two-game slide with an opening series win against the Brewers. But, in the process, they may have lost pitcher Ben Lively for at least a while.

The Guardians were still figuring out Freddy Perlata when Lively left after the third inning with what was later announced as right forearm inflammation. That's... not good. But, the bullpen stepped up and provided six shutout innings between Jakob Junis, Koby Allard, Cade Smith and Hunter Gaddis. "Why did Cade Smith throw when the Guardians had a 5-run lead," you ask? Well, he had warmed up earlier... plus it is a day that ends in "Y" so Cade Smith needs to pitch.

Offensively, the Guardians were paced by Kyle Manzardo going 2 for 4, Gabriel Arias going 2 for 4 including a 3-run RBI double, and Jose Ramirez who went 1 for 2 with 2 walks and three steals against a catcher who is very good at throwing out base-stealers. Angel Martinez and Steven Kwan also had steals, and the team totaled six walks including a bases-loaded walk from Carlos Santana.

Peralta is an excellent pitcher so it's very encouraging to see the Guardians put up four runs on him. Arias also jumped on a curveball up and on the outside corner first pitch for his big hit, noting an ability to approach a good pitcher with a plan to play to his strengths as a hitter. Arias has also looked sensational at shortstop over the past few days. ...I am so glad for the Arias truthers and so, so glad that I appear to have been wrong about him. Arias being a good, major league player would be (and is) such a great thing for this team.

It will be interesting to see what the Guardians do to help if Lively needs an IL stint. It would seem that Slade Cecconi would get the next opportunity to start, but they may call up an extra arm for the pen for the time being before Lively's next turn comes up.

We may get an idea by tomorrow night's game two, weather-permitting, scheduled for 6:10PM EDT with Logan Allen tangling with Quinn Priester. Neither pitcher has been good, so there may be some more runs scored. Or it'll be a 1-0 gem because that's baseball.