MIAMI MARLINS NOTES:
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CLEVELAND GUARDIANS NOTES:
GUARDS HOLD ON TO DEFEAT DETROIT
The Guardians capped a 6-game road trip thru Washington (2-1) and Detroit (1-2) with a 3-2 victory over the Tigers on Wednesday afternoon at Comerica Park, snapping a brief 3-game skid.
JOSÉ RAMÍREZ drilled a pivotal 3-run homer (2) off Spencer Turnbull (5.1IP, 3H, 3R-ER, 3BB, 3SO, 1HR, 1HB, 82 pitches) in the 6th, plating STEVEN KWAN and ANDRÉS GIMÉNEZ, who reached on a lead-off walk and single, respectively…the timely blast stood up as enough to back CAL QUANTRILL’s first win of the ’23 campaign, as the right-hander scattered 4 hits across 6.0 scoreless frames (6.0IP, 4H, 0R, 1BB, 4SO, 83 pitches)…Spencer Torkelson and Zach McKinstry added a pair of late solo homers in the 7th and 8th frames to tighten the margin before EMMANUEL CLASE worked around a pair of singles in the 9th for his 6th save.
The Clevelanders return home to begin a 6-game homestand tonight against Miami & Colorado after dropping 4 of first 6 tilts at Progressive Field…Guardians (10-9) are 5-5 over last 10 games despite dropping 3 of last 4…club holds sole possession of 2nd place in AL Central standings, 1.0 game behind Minnesota (11-8).
SOUTH BEACH COMING NORTH
The Guardians play host to the Miami Marlins for a 3-game set at Progressive Field…the two clubs last squared off from April 30-May 1, 2019 in Miami, splitting the 2-game series…the Guardians are 11-11 all-time against the Marlins, holding a 6-5 record at Progressive Field and a 5-6 record on the road…the two squads first squared off in 2002, when Miami went by the Florida Marlins… Cleveland is an even 3-3 in season series against Miami and split a 4-game season series in 2019.
CUTTING IT CLOSE
After securing a 4-3 victory over Detroit on Wednesday, the Guardians have now gone 6-6 in 12 games this season decided by one run, leading MLB in such games, with 5 teams currently T2nd in MLB in one-run games at 7…Cleveland is the first team since the 1998 Philadelphia Phillies to have 12 games decided by one run through the team’s first 19 contests, going 6-6 in that span as well.
In 2022, Cleveland went 45-28 in games decided by one-run, finishing with the 4th-best winning percentage in MLB…Cleveland owns a .539 winning percentage (214-183) in one-run games during the Terry Francona era (since 2013), ranking 5th in MLB and 2nd in the AL behind New York-AL.
WINNING % IN ONE-RUN GAMES, SINCE 2013
TEAM W-L% RECORD
ATL .548 239-197
MIL .547 229-190
STL .542 239-202
NYY .542 231-195
CLE .539 214-183
7, 8, AND 9 ARE DOIN JUST FINE
Cleveland has seen consistent production this season from their 7-8-9 hitters who rank highly in several categories through 19 games…entering Friday, the Guards rank 1st in MLB with a .382 on-base percentage and 17 doubles from their bottom three hitters…they also rank 2nd in MLB with a .275 batting average, trailing Tampa Bay (.291)…their 29 walks rank 2nd in MLB/1st in the AL trailing only Los Angeles-NL (32)…the Guardians 53 hits from the bottom three is T3rd in MLB/2nd in AL behind Philadelphia (56) and Tampa Bay (59).
Among batters with 35-or-more at-bats out of the ninth spot in the lineup, MYLES STRAW ranks 1st in MLB in OBP (.413), 2nd in batting average (.270), 2nd in stolen bases (5), 2nd in walks (8), T2nd in runs (7), T3rd in RBI (4), and T3rd in doubles (3).
JOSÉ BEING JOSÉ
JOSÉ RAMÍREZ remains just one double away from tying Charlie Jamieson (296) for the 7th-most doubles in franchise history…he leads MLB this season with 4 intentional walks after tallying the most in baseball last year with 20…his 6 go-ahead RBI rank 1st in MLB this year and his 6 doubles rank T13th in MLB/T6th in the AL.
After his 194th career home run on Wednesday, Ramírez is only 6 away from tying Travis Hafner (200) for 9th all-time in club history…with 12 more extra-base hits, he will tie Nap Lajoie (535) for 6th all-time in franchise history… Ramírez also needs four more hits to pass Jack Graney and Brook Jacoby (1,178) for 20th in Cleveland history.
GUARDIANS OF THE BASEPATHS
With another steal Wednesday, Cleveland maintains the MLB lead with 26 stolen bases, just one swipe ahead of Baltimore’s 25… this marks just the 11th time in club history and the first time since tallying 27 steals in 1994 that Cleveland has 26+ steals in the first 19 games of the season…the last MLB teams before the Guards to tally 26+ steals through the team’s first 19 games of a season were the 2011 Royals (26) and the 2011 Padres (27).
MYLES STRAW ranks T6th in MLB with 7 stolen bases…the Guardians feature three players with 5+ SB (Straw, Giménez and Kwan) ahead of New York-AL (2) and Baltimore (2)…Straw has also showcased his speed out of the batter’s box as his 6 infield hits are T1st in MLB with NYM’s Brandon Nimmo.
ANDRÉS GIMÉNEZ’s 18 runs are currently T1st in MLB with ATL’s Ronald Acuña Jr. and TEX’s Marcus Semien…he is the first Cleveland player to have 18 runs through the team’s first 19 contests since Travis Hafner had 24 runs in 2006.
PATIENCE AT THE PLATE
STEVEN KWAN leads the AL with 377 pitches faced this season…as a team, the Guardians rank 3rd in the AL behind Los Angeles-AL (2,977) and Boston (2,991) with 2,942 pitches seen… Cleveland’s 23.1% swing and miss rate ranks 3rd in MLB behind MIA’s Luis Arraez and ChC’s Nico Hoerner and best in the AL, led by Kwan (9.9%, 3rd in MLB, 1st in the AL), JOSÉ RAMÍREZ (15.1%, 14th in MLB, 6th in the AL), and MYLES STRAW (15.4%, 17th in MLB, 7th in the AL).
TONIGHT’S STARTER – 34 ZACH PLESAC RHP
TONIGHT’S START
The 27 year-old right-hander is scheduled to make his fourth start of the season, his second at Progressive Field, on Friday night in the first contest of a 3-game series with Miami and the opener of a 6-game homestand…will be starting on an extended 5 days rest; is 11-10 with a 3.70 ERA (74ER/180.0IP) on 5 days rest…his best start of the season came at Progressive Field in a 7-6 victory over Seattle on April 9…he did not factor into the decision, despite twirling 7.0 innings, allowing 2R/ER.
LAST TIME OUT
Earned his first win of the year on April 15 at Washington in a 6-4 Cleveland victory…allowed 4R/2ER over 5.0 innings of work (5.0IP, 7H, 4R/2ER, 1SO, 79 pitches)…Washington did most of its damage on in the 1st frame, plating 3 runs, highlighted by an RBI-double from Jeimer Candelario…the Nationals would strike again in the 4th inning with an RBI-double from Keibert Ruiz…the Guardians bats would provide Plesac with 5 total runs of support en route to his first victory since August 27, 2022, a 4-3 win over Seattle.
MEETING THE MARLINS
This will be his first career start against the Marlins…it’s his fourth career start against the NL East, owning a 1-0 record and a 5.02 ERA (8ER/14.1IP) in 3 career starts, with his last outing against the division on April 15 at Washington.
Today marks his 13th interleague start, going 2-5 with a 3.71 ERA (28ER/68.0IP) in those outings…has only made consecutive interleague starts once in his career, dating back to his rookie year, facing Philadelphia and Washington in back-to-back starts…he did not factor into either decision while combining to allow 6R/ER over 9.1 innings with 9 strikeouts…Cleveland dropped both contests.
He made 4 interleague starts in 2022 with his last start coming on June 17 at Los Angeles-NL…Plesac did not factor into the decision after holding the Dodgers to one earned run across 6.0 innings with one strikeout and 2 walks in a 2-1 victory, becoming the first Guardians pitcher to allow one-or-fewer earned runs with one-or-fewer strikeouts across 6.0-or-more innings in an interleague start since Aaron Laffey (6.2IP, 4H, 1R/ER, 3BB, 1K 108 pitches) on June 24, 2008 vs. San Francisco.
JUST WARMING UP
Over his career, Plesac’s highest ERA by month has come in March/April, posting a 5.34 mark (36ER/60.2IP) across 12 starts in the season’s opening month…he improved on those numbers in 2022, going 1-2 with a 3.80 ERA in 4 March/April starts.
Through his first 3 starts of April in 2023, Plesac has gone 1-0 with a 6.92 ERA (10ER/13.0IP)…owns a 3.00 ERA (4ER/12.0IP) in his last 2 starts.
PLESAC BY MONTH, CAREER (since 2019)
Month Record GS ERA IP ER
March/April 3-5 12 5.34 60.2 36
May 3-2 11 3.97 65.2 29
June 4-4 11 3.09 67.0 23
July 5-4 15 4.04 78.0 35
August 6-6 17 4.30 96.1 46
September 5-4 14 4.19 86.0 40
KEEP IT ON THE GROUND
In his career, Plesac has yielded a 42.3% ground-ball rate…that is up to par with the rest of Cleveland’s pitching staff over the last two seasons, owning a 42.5% ground-ball rate in 2022 and 42.6% rate in 2021 as a staff…the righty has seen an uptick in groundballs through his first 3 starts of the 2023 campaign, posting a 58.0% mark, 13.3% higher than his career-high of 45.0% in 2021.
WHITE CASTLE SPECIAL
Since the beginning of 2021, batters are hitting .198 (68-for-344) in at-bats ending with Plesac’s slider…the pitch has accounted for 99 of his 208 strikeouts in that span…to start the 2023 campaign, batters are hitting .171 (6-for-35) against the pitch, with all 8 of his strikeouts this season coming by way of his slider.
