Foster Griffin turned in the kind of road start that usually gets a team a win. Instead, the Guardians walked out of Fenway Park with another blank spot on the scoreboard and a 1-0 loss that fit their season all too neatly.
Griffin lasted six innings Wednesday night and gave up 10 hits, but only one earned run. He struck out seven and didn’t issue a walk, putting together what was easily his best outing since joining Cleveland. In a ballpark that chews up pitchers, he kept finding a way out of trouble.
On the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast, Paul Hoynes described it this way: “He pitched really well. He was like Houdini. He stranded like ten runners in, in his six innings of work.”
That’s what made the line so unusual. Ten hits and one run in Fenway doesn’t happen often, and Griffin managed it by avoiding the big mistake.
Hoynes said Griffin saw some of the same contact issues he had in a rough start in Baltimore, where “nobody really hit the ball hard.” The difference Wednesday was that “This time, unlike Boston - Baltimore, he was able to get key outs when he needed them.”
The exit velocity stayed down. The strikeouts showed up at the right moments. For a pitcher who had seen things unravel in a couple of August and September outings, it looked a lot more like the version of Griffin Cleveland expected when it traded for him at the deadline.
But none of that changed the final score.
The Guardians were shut out for the 16th time this season. Sixteen. For a club that spent weeks sitting on top of the AL Central and entered the final week still alive in the division race, that number is hard to wrap your head around.
“So you lose 1-0. That’s the 16th time they’ve been shut out.
It’s crazy. They’re among the league leaders in those games.
But, you know, you wouldn’t necessarily call this a great offense, but you wouldn’t call it a bad offense either. And to be shut out for 16 games, it’s kind of like, it’s mind blowing.”
It really is. Hoynes pointed out that Cleveland has hit 25 home runs in September alone, and the lineup has done enough over the course of the year to keep the team in a tight race. Still, the shutouts keep piling up, and each one wastes a strong night from the pitching staff.
That was true again in Boston. Parker Messick gave Cleveland five innings and one run on Tuesday, and Griffin followed with six innings and one run on Wednesday. As Noga put it, “11 innings, two runs allowed by the starters and two starts here at just a critical time in the season.”
If that kind of work holds up, Cleveland can be dangerous in October. But on nights like this, the margin is razor thin. Hoynes summed it up plainly: “They’re usually just one swing away from tying the game or taking a lead.”
And on Wednesday, they never found it.
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The approach speaks to the stakes as much as the matchup. Cleveland holds a one-game lead over the White Sox in the AL Central, and the margin for error is razor thin with the division title and a potential first-round bye still hanging in the balance. Every decision now carries extra weight, and this one shows the Guardians are willing to get creative if it helps them protect their position. [Read more 🡒]