The Cleveland Guardians in many ways should not have a winning record.
Coming into Friday’s game against the Twins, they were below league average in runs per game (4.07), below league average in runs scored (598) and dead last in home runs with 138.
But the one thing the Guards seem to be very good at, especially against the Twins, is the ability to rise to the occasion and get those key hits when they need them the most.
It’s called clutch hitting, and that skill has eluded the Twins, particularly when they needed to strike back against the front-running Chicago White Sox. Instead, they dropped back-to-back series versus the South Siders, dropped a series to the Tigers and lost Game 1 to the Guards on what felt like a last-chance Friday. They took an early lead and then couldn’t build on it.
The Guardians scored the go-ahead runs in the seventh inning, the Twins tied the game in the home half of the inning, and then it all fell apart in the ninth inning, largely because Twins closer Yoendrys Gomez had a terrible outing.
The Guards also have shortstop Brayan Rocchio.
Brayan Rocchio?
That’s right. His numbers over the season are pretty pedestrian at .247/.307/.684, but in clutch moments they jump off the page. With the bases loaded he slashes .333/.412/.533, and with runners at second and third, as he faced Friday night, he also hits fairly well at .273/.333./.455, according to MLB.com statistics.
So with two men on in the ninth, Rocchio doubled off Gomez to give the Guardians a 5-2 lead and eventual win.
Connor Prielipp gets the ball Saturday.
Extra innings…
–The Twins fall to 69-78, which puts them six games back in the division and 5.5 games back in the wild card hunt. If it wasn’t over before, it sure is now.
–To put it frankly, Gomez shit the bed. He entered the game in the ninth and went walk, flyout, double, walk, wild pitch and finally served up the Rocchio double.
–The bullpen clearly had an off night. Before Gomez lost the game, reliever A.J. Minter blew the save, all of which wasted a nice start from Taj Bradley. Bradley struggled to find the strike zone with four walks, but he pitched around them to give the Twins six scoreless innings with only one hit allowed and six strikeouts.
–How good has Bradley been? He leads the team in wins (11), innings pitched (165.1) and strikeouts with 190.