Stephen Vogt didn’t need to search long for the reason Tuesday night slipped away from the Guardians. After a 6-4 loss to the Tigers in the opener of a key series in Detroit, Cleveland’s manager went straight to the same issue that has haunted his club all season: the inability to cash in when runners are already on base.
“We’re doing a lot of things really well,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said of his lineup. “It seems to be the runners in scoring position that continues to give us fits.”
That diagnosis fit the box score exactly. Cleveland collected nine hits and seven walks, putting traffic on the bases all night, but finished 0-9 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners stranded.
It wasn’t an isolated miss, either. Entering Tuesday, the Guardians were hitting just .219 in those situations over their previous 17 games, good for 25th in the majors, and they ranked 29th in OPS with runners in scoring position on the season.
Chase DeLauter and Travis Bazzana both talked about the mental side of those at-bats, with DeLauter saying hitters have to treat a runner in scoring position the same way they would with the bases empty and simply look for a pitch to drive instead of trying to force something.
The defeat pushed Cleveland to a season-high four games under .500 at 58-62. The Guardians are now 7-16 since the All-Star break and 1-6 since their trade deadline additions arrived. They also sit two games behind the final Wild Card spot.
Vogt has already called a team meeting about the group’s mentality, and his message has stayed steady even as the losses keep piling up. The Guardians keep creating chances. The problem is finishing them.
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Bruihls path makes the situation look even a little more frustrating from the Cleveland side. The left-hander was only briefly part of the roster before moving on to St. Louis, where he has settled in and found a clearer role in the Cardinals bullpen. In a similar job to Festas, he has simply gotten more out of his opportunities, and he is now being leaned on in more important moments. [Read more 🡒]
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The Guardians have spent enough time putting men on base to know the problem is not always about traffic, but what happens once that traffic reaches the key spots. In the biggest scoring chances, Cleveland has been stuck near the bottom of the league at turning runners on third with fewer than two outs and runners on second with no outs into runs, a frustrating drag on an offense that has often found baserunners but not the payoff.
Stephen Vogt and Chase DeLauter have both pointed to the mental side of those situations, which fits the way the numbers have looked. For a club trying to squeeze more out of a lineup that has already created chances, the next step is less about finding baserunners and more about sharpening the approach when the game is asking for one clean swing, one productive out or one simple run-scoring play. [Read more 🡒]