The Guardians turned Tuesday night into a mess on the bases in Boston, and somehow still walked away with a win.
Cleveland was thrown out at the plate twice, stranded 15 runners at Fenway Park and went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position. That kind of night usually ends with a loss. Instead, the Guardians kept forcing the issue, kept putting pressure on the Red Sox, and eventually got the game-winning run in the ninth.
The specific flashpoint was the contact play, the kind of aggressive baserunning decision that can look brilliant when it pays off and reckless when it doesn’t. The Guardians used it twice Tuesday night, and both times it backfired.
The outs weren’t even dramatic. Paul Hoynes said on the Cleveland Baseball Talk Podcast, “The more I see it, the more I don’t like it,” and he didn’t soften that view when talking through the two plays.
“Throughout my career covering baseball, I think it’s a negative play instead of a positive play. I know I’ve seen it work before, but it seems like it’s almost - it goes the other way a lot more than it’s been successful.”
He was even more blunt about the throws that erased Cleveland’s runners.
“It wasn’t like those were two difficult throws,” Hoynes noted. “The one to second base was a lollipop.
That was a given. And even the one to the left side of the infield - those guys, the Cleveland runners, were out by 10 feet.”
Still, there is a reason the Guardians keep leaning into that style. Joe Noga pointed out that the contact play is built to make the defense execute cleanly every time.
If the throw or tag is off, the run comes home. And Hoynes said Nathaniel Lowe, who has seen Cleveland from the other side, explained why the approach can wear teams down.
“He said from his experience playing against Cleveland - this is what they do,” Hoynes relayed. “They always seem to get a lot of runners on base.
Maybe they don’t score a lot of runs, but that pressure of constantly having to make the right play, of having to throw to the right base because there are runners on base, kind of wears a defense down. And eventually you see a crack here and there.”
Noga tied that same idea to the late innings, arguing that a defense that has spent the whole night reacting to traffic can lose a little sharpness when the game tightens up.
“By the ninth inning, you’re not as sharp,” he said. “There’s something to being on your toes for an entire nine innings.”
That’s where the Guardians cashed in Tuesday, taking advantage of a Red Sox defense that finally blinked at the end. The process was ugly.
The baserunning was chaotic. But the result was still a Cleveland win.
In Other News...
Guardians Moved Within Reach Of October After A Win That Got Tense
The Guardians gave themselves another October boost with a fast start and enough steady work from the mound to hold off a late push. Angel Martnez, David Fry and Nathaniel Lowe all helped build the early cushion, and Parker Messick did his part in a five-inning start before the bullpen took over to finish the job.
Tim Herrin, Craig Yoho, Erik Sabrowski, Hunter Gaddis and Cade Smith each had a hand in protecting the lead, keeping Cleveland in control even as the game tightened down the stretch. The win leaves the Guardians with a magic number of two to clinch a playoff spot, and depending on how the other results break, it could shrink to one before long. [Read more 🡒]
Guardians Are Suddenly One Step Closer To A Clinch After Another Thriller
The Guardians kept finding ways to survive on September 22, outlasting the Red Sox 3-2 in another tight, late-September game that fit the tone of a team trying to finish the job. Nathaniel Lowe provided the decisive blow with a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, while Parker Messick did enough in his start to keep Cleveland in position before the bullpen took over.
Cade Smith finished it off and reached 40 saves on the year, a notable marker for a club that has leaned on its late-inning arm all season. The bigger picture is even better for Cleveland: its magic number to clinch a playoff spot is down to two, and the Guardians still sit atop the AL Central as the calendar turns toward the final stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Vogts Late-Game Guardians Move Is Becoming A Real October Weapon
Travis Bazzanas rookie season has come with the usual growing pains, and for Stephen Vogt, that has meant getting creative when games tighten up late. The Guardians manager has turned to Angel Genao as a defensive replacement in key spots, using his versatility around the infield to help shore up a young roster when the margin for error shrinks. It is the sort of September adjustment contenders make when every clean inning and every sure-handed exchange starts to matter more.
Against the Red Sox, that move paid off in a big way, as Genao made a crucial defensive play that helped close out the win and trim Clevelands magic number to clinch a postseason berth. The contrast between the two young infielders has become part of the clubs late-game equation, with Genao offering the steadier glove right now while Bazzana continues to work through the challenges of his first full season. For a team trying to lock down October, those small swaps can carry outsized weight. [Read more 🡒]