CLEVELAND GUARDIANS NOTES:
CLEVELAND CLAIMS D.C. SERIES WIN
The Guardians grinded out a second straight win in our nation’s capital on Saturday night, besting the Nationals by a 6-4 margin following rain showers that delayed a 4:05pm ET first pitch by one hour & 40 minutes…at the conclusion of today’s finale, Guardians will wrap current 6-game roadie with a 3-game set in Detroit… Cleveland opened the year with a 5-2 road trip before going 2-4 on first homestand of 2023…Guardians (9-6) have won 2 straight, 4 of 6, and 9 of last 14; club holds sole possession of 2nd place in the AL Central standings, 1.0 game behind Minnesota (10-5).
JOSÉ RAMÍREZ owned one of the contest’s more memorable moments in a decisive 5th inning, drilling a 3-0 breaking ball from Nats starter Chad Kuhl (4.2IP, 7H, 5R-ER, 3BB, 2SO, 1HR, 96 pitches) into the RF second deck for a go-ahead 2-run homer (1) that followed a one-out triple by AMED ROSARIO and put Cleveland ahead 5-4…each of the Guardians first 3 runs came on RBI-singles by MYLES STRAW (2nd and 4th innings) and WILL BRENNAN (4th)…JOSH BELL added an insurance tally with an RBI-double in the 9th.
ZACH PLESAC was touched for a pair of unearned runs in the Nats 3-run 1st inning, but steadied the ship to complete 5.0 frames for his first win of 2023 (5.0IP, 7H, 4R-2ER, 0BB, 1SO, 1PO, 79 pitches)…JAMES KARINCHAK worked around a pair of hits to strike out the side in a scoreless 8th…EMMANUEL CLASE used 11 pitches in the 9th to retire the side in order for his 5th save.
JOSÉ BEING JOSÉ
With his first home run of the season yesterday, JOSÉ RAMÍREZ (193 career HR) broke a tie with Al Rosen for 10th-most HR in franchise history…he now trails Travis Hafner (200) for 9th-most HR…his blast to right field is the fourth home run off a 3-0 slider in the StatCast era (since 2015), last done by Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2019…Ramírez (295) remains just one double away from tying Charlie Jamieson (296) for the 7th-most doubles in franchise history.
Ramírez leads MLB this season with 4 intentional walks after tallying the most in baseball last year with 20…his 5 go-ahead RBI rank T1st in MLB this year with Tampa Bay’s Randy Arozarena and Los Angeles-AL’s Logan O’Hoppe, and his 6 doubles rank T6th in the league…Ramírez also leads MLB in extra-base hits since 2017.
EXTRA-BASE HIT LEADERS IN MLB, 2017-23
PLAYER XBH
JOSÉ RAMÍREZ 424
Nolan Arenado 404
Mookie Betts 396
J.D. Martinez 393
MIDDLE INFIELD MAGIC
ANDRÉS GIMÉNEZ recorded a pair of runs yesterday and now has an MLB-high 17 runs scored through 15 games this season… the last MLB players to tally 17+ runs in 15-or-fewer games to begin a season were Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr. (20 runs) and Oakland’s Mark Canha (17 runs), who both accomplished the feat in 2021… Giménez is also just the 5th hitter in franchise history to score 17 times in 15-or-fewer-games.
MOST RUNS BY CLE HITTER IN FIRST 15 GAMES OF SEASON
PLAYER RUNS SEASON
Travis Hafner 23 2006
Hal Trotsky 20 1938
Grady Sizemore 18 2007
ANDRÉS GIMÉNEZ 17 2023
Matt Lawton 17 2002
AMED ROSARIO recorded his 144th single since 2022 in yesterday’s win, ranking him 3rd in MLB in that span…he also ranks T3rd in 3-hit games (18) and 4-hit games (5) in MLB since last season…Rosario legged out his first triple of the season yesterday, adding to his lead for most three-baggers among MLB hitters since 2021 (16), two ahead of LAA’s Shohei Ohtani.
GUARDIANS OF THE BASEPATHS
With three more steals yesterday, Cleveland broke a tie with Baltimore to take the MLB lead with 24 stolen bases…this marks just the 7th time in club history and the first time since tallying 25 steals in 1994 that Cleveland has 24+ steals in the first 15 games of the season…the last team before the Guards to tally 24+ steals through the team’s first 15 games of a season was when the 1999 Dodgers swiped 26 bases.
MYLES STRAW ranks T3rd in MLB with 7 stolen bases, trailing Chicago-NL’s Nico Hoerner & Baltimore’s Cedric Mullins (8)… the Guardians feature four players with 4+ SB (Straw, Ramírez, Giménez and Kwan), the most of any MLB team.
PATIENCE AT THE PLATE
STEVEN KWAN leads MLB with 325 pitches faced this season, with Atlanta’s Matt Olson and Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich trailing behind him at 314…as a team, the Guardians rank T2nd in the AL and rank 3rd in MLB behind San Diego (2,275) and Baltimore (2,419) with 2,409 pitches seen…Cleveland’s 22.5% swing and miss rate ranks 3rd-best in MLB and best in the AL, led by Kwan (10.6%, 4th in MLB) and JOSÉ RAMÍREZ (11.2%, 6th in MLB).
Since 2022, Kwan ranks highly in numerous categories among MLB hitters in regards to his patient approach at the plate…he has the smallest first-pitch swing percentage (8.7%), ranks 1st with 50.0% of swings put in play, is 2nd in swing and miss percentage (9.2%) and ranks 2nd with 61.9% of pitches taken.
GOING FOR A SWEEP
With yesterday’s victory, the Guardians have won their third series of the 2023 season, all of which have come on the road (also at Seattle and at Oakland)…Cleveland will attempt to sweep Washington for the first time in franchise history today, never sweeping the Nats in the eight series played all-time against the franchise…the Guards last series victory over Washington came just under 10 years ago from June 14-16, 2013…Cleveland had never won a series in Nationals Park before yesterday…in 2022, Cleveland totaled 12 series sweeps, 8 of which came on the road.
TODAY’S STARTER – #57 SHANE BIEBER RHP
WELCOME TO D.C.
The 2020 Cy Young winner is scheduled to make his fourth start of the season, third on the road, in the series finale against the Washington Nationals on Sunday afternoon…the 27 year-old right-hander is making his first career start against Washington…he has three straight quality starts to begin the year, posting a 2.37 ERA (5ER/19.0IP) with 14 punchouts and 4 walks…is making this appearance on an extended 5 days rest after his last outing on Monday vs. New York-AL; is 21-8 with a 2.52 ERA (75ER/268.1IP) across 40 starts on exactly 5 days rest…Cleveland has a 76-38 record in Bieber’s 114 career starts.
LAST START
The 27-year-old right-hander is coming off of his first win of the 2023 campaign after tossing 7.0 innings, allowing 2R/ER on 5 hits with 4 punchouts and 3 walks in a 3-2 victory against the Yankees on Monday at Progressive Field…he allowed 4 straight baserunners to start the game but managed to get out of the inning with 2 runs scored…after walking Gleyber Torres with 2 outs in the bottom of the 2nd inning, he retired 12 consecutive batters before a 2-out double from Willie Calhoun in the top of the 6th frame…his 99 pitches were a season-high.
THE ACE IN INTERLEAGUE PLAY
This will be his first career start against the Nationals…in 3 starts against the NL East, he is 1-2 with a 5.17 ERA (9ER/15.2IP) with 17 strikeouts, 2 walks and 4 home runs allowed.
Bieber is 10-3 in 17 interleague starts, owning a 3.71 ERA (41ER/99.1IP) with 121 strikeouts and 20 walks…his last interleague outing came on August 3, 2022 vs. Arizona, earning the win, allowing 2R/ER with 8 strikeouts against 0 walks across 6.0 innings…his .769 winning percentage in interleague play is the best in franchise history ahead of Carlos Carrasco (.667, 10-5).
ROAD RENEGADE
Bieber concluded his 2022 season with an 8-3 mark in road starts, bumping his career record away from Progressive Field to 34-11 (.756).
Since July 29, Bieber has maintained a six-game road winning streak that includes a 1.29 ERA (8ER/56.0IP), with two no-decisions against Seattle (8/26/22 and 3/30/23) and one against Oakland (4/4/23) sandwiched in-between.
Among AL pitchers in 2022 road starts, Bieber led the way in innings pitched (119.0) and tied for the lead in strikeouts (121) with NYY’s Gerrit Cole…he also ranked top 10 among AL pitchers in SO/ BB ratio (4th, 5.50), ERA (5th, 2.65), baserunners allowed-per-9.0IP (6th, 9.68), opponent on-base percentage (7th, .271) and WHIP (9th, 1.07)…among pitcher’s with 50-or-more road starts, Bieber’s 2.76 road ERA is the lowest road ERA in MLB since 2018, ahead of NYM’s Max Scherzer (2.78).
THREE AND FOUR ARE MAGIC NUMBERS
Dating back to June 15, 2019, Bieber has held opponents to 3-orfewer earned runs in 45 of his last 47 road starts…he has a 0.96 WHIP, 10.97 strikeouts-per-9.0IP and a 2.42 ERA in that span…he has not allowed more than 3 earned runs in any of his 3 starts in 2022.
In 2022, the Guardians posted a perfect 14-0 record when providing Bieber with 4-or-more runs of support…in those 14 wins, he posted a 1.70 ERA (18ER/95.1IP)…when Cleveland scored 3-or-fewer runs, their record was 6-11…in those 17 starts, Bieber went 1-8 with a 3.96 ERA (46ER/104.2IP)…the Guardians possess a 46-2 record when scoring 4-or-more runs of support during Bieber’s career, including an active 37 consecutive win streak…he has yet to receive 4 runs of support in a start in 2023.
WINS WITHOUT WALKS
His 4.6% walk rate posted in 2022 was a career-low…the righty is 11-2 with a 2.16 ERA (38ER/158.0IP) since the start of 2022 when walking one-or-fewer batters, and 2-6 with a 4.16 ERA (31ER/67.0IP) when issuing base on balls to two-or-more hitters…through 19.0IP this season he has issued 3 walks, a 5.5% walk rate.
WASHINGTON NATIONALS NOTES:
AVOID THE SWEEP
The Washington Nationals look to avoid their second sweep of the season on Sunday afternoon against the Cleveland Guardians…The Nationals franchise (MON/WSH) has never been swept by Cleveland since they started playing each other in 2002.
• The Nationals will enjoy another off day on Monday before welcoming the Baltimore Orioles to D.C. for a two-game series starting on Tuesday.
PLAYIN’ THE HITS
Washington ranks sixth in the National League in hits (128) and 10th with a .251 batting average…The Nationals have recorded double-digit hits in four of their last eight games.
• Lane Thomas leads the club and ranks tied for 10th in the National League with 18 hits.
• Nationals hitters have struck out just 98 times, the fewest in Major League Baseball.
SPEAKING OF HITS…
These two players have collected a bunch of them the last few games:
• Luis García has posted back-to-back multi-hit efforts, going 4-for-7 (.571) with a homer, RBI, two walks and two runs scored.
• Keibert Ruiz is 6-for-12 (.500) with a double and two RBI over his last three games.
DEFENSE NOT RESTING
Thanks to strong infield defense so far this season, Nationals opponents have a .218 batting average on ground balls, fifth-best in the National League (MLB avg: .247)…In 2022, the Nationals had the third-highest opponents’ batting average on ground balls in Major League Baseball (.260).
• Washington has turned 16 double plays this season, tied for fourth-most in Major League Baseball.
AMONG THE BEST
Slick-fielding first baseman Dominic Smith is off to a strong start on defense…He is one of two National League first baseman to accumulate at least one defensive run saved along with Arizona’s Christian Walker, per FanGraphs.com…According to Baseball Savant, Smith (1 OAA) is one of eight National League first baseman with at least one out above average.
BULLPENNING
Ricky Bones’ bullpen has inherited 18 runners over the last five games and only two of them have come around to score…During this five-game stretch, Nationals relievers have pitched to a 1.89 ERA (4 ER/19.0 IP) with 18 strikeouts and a .169 opponents’ batting average.
• On the season, the bullpen ranks in the National League in opponents’ batting average (4th, .230) and opponents’ on-base percentage (5th, .315).
5.0 ALIVE
Jim Hickey’s starters are tied for the National League lead in starts of at least 5.0 innings this season with 12…The rotation ranks tied for third in Major League Baseball behind the Minnesota Twins (14) and Kansas City Royals (14)…In 2022, the Nationals ranked 28th in Major League Baseball with 94 starts of at least 5.0 innings
OPPONENT
CLEVELAND GUARDIANS
The Nationals and Guardians will face off three times in 2023, all in D.C…Nationals outfielder Alex Call made his Major League debut for the Guardians in 2022 after spending four seasons (2019-22) in their system…Former National Josh Bell returns to Nationals Park for the second time since being traded to San Diego at the 2022 Trade Deadline.
TODAY’S STARTING PITCHER – #46 PATRICK CORBIN
Left-handed pitcher signed a six-year contract with the Nationals on Dec. 7, 2018…Was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series…Is a two-time National League All-Star (2018, 2013)… Has started at least 30 games for five consecutive full seasons (2017-19, 2021-22), joining Gerrit Cole as the only pitchers since 2017 to accomplish the feat.
LAST START
Earned his first win of the season on April 10 at Los Angeles (AL), the team that drafted him in 2009…Allowed four earned runs on seven hits with three walks and three strikeouts in 5.0 innings of work…Retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced.
vs. CLEVELAND
Is 1-0 with a 5.23 ERA in two career starts against the Guardians…Earned his lone win against them on April 9, 2017 (6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 3 SO) as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
THE SLIDE PIECE
Corbin’s signature slider has induced 20 swings and misses this season, the third-most of any lefthanded pitcher behind Clayton Kershaw (23) and Gregory Soto (21).
APPRECIATE THE SUPPORT, FELLAS
Since 2019, Corbin is 27-3 with a 2.63 ERA when he throws at least 6.0 innings and receives at least three runs of support…The Nationals are 30-3 in those games.
2023 SPRING TRAINING
Corbin went 1-3 with a 4.50 ERA in five Spring Training starts…He struck out 15 batters and walked just two in 18.0 innings of Grapefruit League action…One start was cancelled due to rain which led to a simulated game in it’s place.
• Corbin’s best start came on March 20 vs. New York (NL) when he tossed 6.0 innings of one-run, five-hit ball… He struck out five and did not walk a batter.
2022
Led Nationals pitchers with 31 starts and 152.2 innings pitched…Pitched to a 1.96 ERA (4 ER/18.1 IP) with 13 strikeouts and four walks in three starts from Aug. 21-Sept. 3…Enjoyed his best extended stretch of the season from Aug. 16 to Sept. 20, going 2-2 with a 3.35 ERA…Walked just six batters along the way…Threw his sixth career complete game on May 4 at Colorado (8.0 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 3 SO)…..Matched a career high with 12 strikeouts on June 28 vs. Pittsburgh (8.0 IP, 5 H, ER, 12 SO, 2 BB)…2022 Pitch Mix: Sinker (43.5%) Slider (29.4%) 4-Seam Fastball (18.8%) Changeup (8.3%).
A SEASON TO REMEMBER
Ranked in the National League in strikeouts (4th, 238), innings (5th, 202.0), fWAR (6th, 4.8), ERA (8th, 3.25) and strikeouts per 9.0 IP (8th, 10.60) in 2019… His 238 strikeouts ranked first among National League left-handed pitchers…His 2.40 home ERA ranked sixth in Major League Baseball, fifth in the National League and third in a single season in Nationals history (2005-pres.)…Held opposing left-handed hitters to a .248 slugging percentage (2 2B, 2 HR) and .190 batting average (26-for-137), the best marks among Major League left-handed starting pitchers.
• Made his career Postseason debut, starting in Game 1 of the NLDS…Went on to make two more starts (Game 4 NLCS, Game 4 WS) and five relief appearances…In Game 4 of the NLCS against St. Louis, he struck out 12 batters in 5.0 innings pitched and allowed four earned runs on four hits with three walks…He matched Stephen Strasburg for the most strikeouts in a Postseason game in franchise history and became the first pitcher in MLB Postseason history to log 12 strikeouts while not pitching more than 5.0 innings…He also became first pitcher in Postseason history to start a potential series-clinching game with four straight strikeouts in that game…Tossed 1.1 scoreless innings in Game 5 of the NLDS vs. Los Angeles and tossed 0.1 scoreless inning in Game 2 of the NLCS…Earned the win after tossing 3.0 innings of scoreless ball in Game 7 of the World Series.
