NEW YORK YANKEES NOTES:
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CLEVELAND GUARDIANS NOTES:
ZUNINO’S BIG NIGHT PUSHES GUARDS PAST YANKEES
The Guardians edged out the Yankees, 3-2, on Monday night at Progressive Field to open a 3-game series against New York-AL…coming off a 5-2 road trip thru Seattle (3-1) & Oakland (2-1) to start the season, club is 2-2 on current 6-day, 6-game homestand against Seattle (1-2) & New York-AL (1-0, two-to-play)…Cleveland (7-4) has won 2 straight and 7 of last 10…Guardians hold sole possesion of first place in the AL Central standings, one half-game ahead of Minnesota (6-4).
SHANE BIEBER recorded his first win of the season after limiting the Yankees offense to a pair of runs in the 1st inning (7.0IP, 5H, 2R-ER, 3BB, 4SO, 99 pitches), both coming on a bases-loaded 2-run double by Giancarlo Stanton…Bieber retired 12 straight and 13 of 14 at one point, beginning with the final out of the 2nd inning… JAMES KARINCHAK worked a scoreless 8th with a pair of K’s, overcoming a lead-off triple that resulted from an unsuccessful dive attempt by CF MYLES STRAW, who extended his hit streak to 10 games…EMMANUEL CLASE fanned a pair in a perfect 9th for his third save.
Cleveland’s scoring was book-ended by sac flies from WILL BRENNAN in the 2nd and JOSH NAYLOR in the 7th around a 4thinning RBI-double by MIKE ZUNINO, who tallied three two-sackers on the night…Guardians offense walked 9 times and swiped 4 bases.
LAST NIGHT BY THE NUMBERS
The Guardians lead MLB in steals with 19, two ahead of Arizona (17), and have only been caught twice in 21 attempts…last night, the Guardians had 4 steals, the club’s high-mark this season and most since September 23, 2022 at Texas (4)…it’s the seventh time in club history and the first time since a franchise-high 25 in 1984 (also 1979) that Cleveland has 19 steals in the first 11 games of the season…the last team to have 19-or-more steals through the team’s first 11 games was the 2002 Royals.
Cleveland hitters drew a season-high 9 walks, their most since collecting 10 free passes on June 30, 2022 vs Minnesota and T3rdmost in any game this season, behind Toronto’s 10 walks on April 1 at St. Louis and New York-NL’s 12 walks on April 7 vs. Miami…the Guards 56 walks on the season rank 1st in the AL and 2nd in MLB behind Los Angeles-NL (60).
With 2 sacrifice flies in last night’s contest, it is the second game this season the Guardians have had multiple sacrifice flies, with the other instance coming on April 3 at Oakland (3)…Cleveland’s 7 sacrifice flies lead MLB ahead of Los Angeles-NL (6).
Despite tying a season-low with 4 hits (also March 30), Cleveland got the victory…it’s the club’s first win with 4 hits-or-fewer since August 23, 2022 (4)…the Guardians went 2-12 in games with 4 hits-or-fewer in 2022…the club’s 5 home runs in the first 11 games are the fewest since 1984 (3)
A BASEBALL TRIPLE-DOUBLE
MIKE ZUNINO recorded 3 doubles on Monday night, marking the first 3-double game of his career and second game this season with 3 extra-base hits, with the other coming on April 2 at Seattle when he went 3-for-3 with 2 doubles, one home run and 3 RBI… he is the first Guardians catcher with three doubles in a game since Lou Marson on May 29, 2010 vs New York-AL and the first Cleveland catcher with two games of three-or-more extra-base hits in a single season since Victor Martinez had 2 in 2007…the last Guardians player with multiple 3+ extra-base hit games in a single season was JOSÉ RAMÍREZ, who had 2 games of 3+ extra-base hits in 2020…Zunino became the first catcher in MLB history with 3+ extra-base hits in 2 of the team’s first 11 games of a season.
MYLES PER HOUR
After going 1-for-3 last night, MYLES STRAW extended his hit streak to 10 games…he is one game away from tying his careerlong hit-streak of 11 games from Sept. 13-21, 2022…the center fielder has a slash line of .375/.524/.438 during his streak.
He is a perfect 6-for-6 on steals this season, leading MLB in steals…he is currently on pace for 88 stolen bases on the season… he stole a career-high 30 bases in 2021…Kenny Lofton set the franchise record for single-season stolen bases, swiping 75 bags in 1996.
Among hitters with 20-or-more at-bats out of the ninth spot, the center fielder is 1st in walks (8), 1st in .OBP (.548), 2nd in RBI (4), 3rd in batting average (.364) and T3rd in hits (8).
KEEPING IT CLOSE
With last night’s 3-2 victory, the Guardians improved to 4-2 on the season in one-run games…the club’s 4 one-run wins and 6 one-run
victories lead MLB.
In the Terry Francona era (since 2013), Cleveland has the AL’s highest winning percentage in one-run games (.5421, 212-179)…the win yesterday put Cleveland slightly ahead of the Yankees (.5413, 229-423).
WINNING % IN ONE-RUN GAMES, SINCE 2013
TEAM W-L% RECORD
ATL .5462 236-196
MIL .5432 226-190
CLE .5422 212-179
STL .5421 238-201
NYY .5413 229-201
PATIENCE AT THE PLATE
Though the season’s first 11 games, STEVEN KWAN leads MLB with 233 pitches seen, 13 more than ATL’s Matt Olson (220) …two other Guardians are in the top 25 in pitches seen with AMED ROSARIO ranking 7th (208) and JOSÉ RAMÍREZ 24th (193)…as a team, the Guardians lead MLB in pitches seen (1,789) ahead of the Atlanta Braves (1,681).
Kwan finished 18th among MLB hitters in pitches seen in 2022 (2,643), joining teammate JOSÉ RAMÍREZ (13th, 2,742) as the two Guardians among MLB’s top 25 in pitches faced…he finished 4th in the AL (15th in MLB) with 4.14 pitches per PA in 2022.
TONIGHT’S STARTER – 70 HUNTER GADDIS RHP
TONIGHT’S START
The 25-year-old right-hander is slated to make his third start of the season and make his 2023 Progressive Field debut this evening in the second game of a 3-game series against New York-AL… he was added to the Guardians pitching rotation after TRISTON McKENZIE suffered a right major teres strain in his final spring start on March 26 vs. Cincinnati…Gaddis struggled in two spot starts at Progressive Field during the 2022 season, finishing with an 0-2 record and 18.41 ERA…Gaddis’ last appearance at home was an 8-2 loss on Sept. 15 last season vs. Chicago-AL…the righthander was charged with the loss after allowing 7 runs (earned) on 8 hits with 3 strikeouts and one walk over 4.0 innings…his 5 home runs allowed in the start were the most allowed by a Cleveland pitcher since April 18, 1969 (Luis Tiant).
LAST TIME OUT
Gaddis got the nod in Cleveland’s final contest of their six-game road trip to start the 2023 season on Wednesday in Oakland…he put together his most complete MLB pitching performance to date (6.0IP, 1H, 0R/ER, 2BB, 4SO, 77 pitches), delivering 6.0 shutout frames and allowing one-hit-or-fewer for the first time in his pro career since May 19, 2022 for AA-Akron against Binghamton (6.0IP, 0H, 0R/ER, 1BB, 11SO, 89 pitches)…the A’s had two batters reach base via walk and fielder’s choice in the 1st and another hitter draw a walk in the 2nd…Gaddis then proceeded to retire 13 of the last 14 A’s hitters he faced…a Jesús Aguilar lead-off double in the 4th inning was the lone hit he allowed on the afternoon… despite the stellar outing, Gaddis did not factor into the decision after the A’s rallied with four runs to tie the game in the 8th inning… the Guards tallied two runs in the 10th to secure the 6-4 victory.
HUNTING DOWN HISTORY
With his start on Wednesday, Gaddis became the first Cleveland pitcher to twirl a start of 6-or-more shutout innings and allow one-hit-or-fewer within their first four career games since Addie Joss (9.0IP, 1H, 0R/ER, 4BB, 5SO) on April 26, 1902…heading into his start today, he is one of ten AL pitchers with 6-or-fewer hits allowed, a .172 batting-average-or-lower, and .95-WHIP-or-lower (min. 9.0IP).
2023 CACTUS LEAGUE
Made 2 starts in the Cactus League, allowing 3R/ER across 6.2 innings while striking out 9 batters against 0 walks…recorded two-or-more strikeouts in each of his five appearances during 2023 Cactus League play…finished 0-0 with a 3.27 ERA in 13.0 innings pitched…tied SHANE BIEBER for fewest ER (4) among all Guardians pitchers (min 10.0IP), ranked T2nd amongst club hurlers in strikeouts (17) with ZACH PLESAC and maintained the club’s 3rd-best K/BB ratio (5.67) this spring.
CAREER SNAPSHOT
2022: Split Minor League season between AA Akron and AAA Columbus, going a combined 8-6 with 4.01 ERA in 24 games/23 starts (121.1IP, 90H, 54ER, 41BB, 158SO)…was promoted from AA Akron to AAA Columbus on July 23 and made ML debut just two weeks later…went 3-1 with 2.42 ERA in 4 Sept. starts at AAA Columbus (22.1IP, 12H, 6ER, 3BB, 29SO)…tallied 6th-lowest ERA, 3rd-lowest batting average, and T8th-most SO in Sept. International League play…went 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA (4ER/26.0IP), 5 walks and 37 strikeouts from 4/26-5/19 with AA Akron…led AA Eastern League in strikeouts in that stretch…struck out a careerhigh 11 batters in 6.0 shutout innings on 5/19 vs. Erie.
2021: Spent the entire season with High-A Lake County, making 19 starts; his 4.16 ERA was 4th-lowest in the High-A Central, while his 127SO were tied for the league lead.
2019: Went 1-2 with a 3.12 ERA (6ER/17.1IP) in 7 games/5 starts in the Arizona Complex League, before posting a 2.30 ERA (4ER/15.2IP) over 6 outings w/ Low-A Mahoning Valley
