OAKLAND ATHLETICS NOTES:
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CLEVELAND GUARDIANS NOTES:
GUARDS COME FROM BEHIND, WIN IN EXTRAS
The Cleveland Guardians reeled off their third straight victory on Wednesday night, besting the Oakland Athletics by a 7-6 final in the middle installment of a 3-game set at Progressive Field…club is 2-0 to begin a 6-game homestand against Oakland & Milwaukee (3 games each)…Guards are now 5-2-1 over their last 8 series… Cleveland enters today with a chance to match club’s season-high 4-game win streak (March 31-April 3) and secure a series sweep for the first time in 2023.
Cleveland erased deficits of 4-0 and 6-4 in Wednesday’s come-from-behind victory on a night that also saw the MLB debut of 2021 1st round selection GAVIN WILLIAMS (5.2IP, 4H, 4R-ER, 3BB, 4SO, HR, 84 pitches) alongside the first MLB hit by BO NAYLOR, an 8th-inning single that helped set-up STEVEN KWAN’s decisive 2-run double to put Cleveland ahead 7-6…the 23-year-old Williams surrendered all 4 runs in the 3rd inning after giving up 4 consecutive hits to start the frame, including an RBI-single by Esteury Ruiz and a 3-run homer off the bat of Ryan Noda…the right-hander rebounded to retire 11 of the final 13 batters he faced…Cleveland’s offense responded to Oakland’s big early rally with a 3-spot of its own in the 3rd, scoring a pair on AMED ROSARIO’s single with the help of an OF error ahead of ANDRÉS GIMÉNEZ’s sac fly…a JOSÉ RAMÍREZ lead-off triple in the 5th set up JOSH NAYLOR’s game-tying RBI-single…Oakland broke the 4-4 tie with a pair of RBI-singles in the 7th before [Josh] Naylor cut the A’s lead to 6-5 by drilling a solo homer (9) off Sam Long in the bottom half of the same frame.
Cleveland (35-38) sits in 2nd place in AL Central standings, just 1.0 game behind 1st-place Minnesota (37-38) & 3.0 games ahead of 3rd-place Detroit (-4.0G, 32-41)…Guardians have won 10 of 16 and 13 of last 22, though have also dropped 32 of last 58 overall since starting the year 9-6.
I’VE BEEN WAITING TO USE THIS BROOM
The Guardians enter Thursday’s matinee seeking their first sweep of the season and first since taking 3 in a row against Texas from September 23-25, 2022…the club has only been involved in one sweep all season, losing 3 straight to New York-NL from May 19-21, Cleveland is 15-12 since that series…a win today will tie the club’s longest win streak of the season, the Guards won 4 straight from March 31-April 3…last night’s victory marked the 3rd time this season that the club has won 3-or-more games in a row.
The Clevelanders have won 10 of the last 12 contests against Oakland dating back to the start of last season, with 4 of the 5 matchups this season being decided by one-run…however, the A’s have won 9 of the last 15 matchups at Progressive Field since the start of the 2018 season…during the Terry Francona era, the Guardians are 32-31 against Oakland and 17-15 at Progressive Field…a win today will mark the Guards first sweep of the A’s at home since July 29-31, 2016.
J-NAY AND JOSÉ LEADING THE WAY
Last night, JOSÉ RAMÍREZ and JOSH NAYLOR combined for 7 hits, one triple, one home run and 2 RBI, marking the second time this season the two have combined for 7 hits out of the 3rd and 4th spots of the order (May 31 at Baltimore, 7H, 4 2B, 1 HR, 7RBI)… marks the third time Cleveland has accomplished the feat in the Statcast Era (since 2015) and the 4th time this season that the duo has each tallied 3+ hits in a game (last May 31 at Baltimore).
JOSH NAYLOR recorded his 3rd career 4-hit game and second in his last 3 games…all 3 of his 4-hit efforts have come since May 31st…since May 30 Naylor has been one of the best hitters in baseball (see table), hitting safely in 16 of 19 games with multiple hits in 11 of those 16 contests…over this stretch, his .436 (34-for-78) batting average trails only MIA’s Luis Arraez (.446) and his 23 RBI are second behind LAA’s Shohei Ohtani (25)… he’s driving in a run every 3.29 at-bats, 3rd in MLB, and has just 9 strikeouts in 85 plate appearances, a rate of 9.44 PA/SO, 5th in MLB…among primary first basemen he has the most RBI (55) and the 2nd-highest batting average (.295) behind LAD’s Freddie Freeman (.323)…he leads MLB with 25 RBI in the 7th-inning-orlater ahead of STL’s Nolan Gorman (24).
Following his 3-hit performance last night, JOSÉ RAMÍREZ passed Larry Doby (1,235) for 17th-most hits in club history and tied Bobby Avila (1,236) for 16th-most…marks his 7th 3-hit game of the season and the 92nd of his career passing Julio Franco and tying Doby for 14th-most in franchise history…since June 6, he has a slash line .414/.444/.810 with 5 home runs and 14 RBI, ranking highly in many categories (see table)…with one more RBI he will pass Carlos Santana (710) for 14th-most in club history.
BROTHERLY LOVE
BO NAYLOR recorded his first career hit last night and JOSH NAYLOR went 4-for-4…marks the first time since August 27, 2021 that two brothers have each recorded a hit in the same game on the same team when Austin and Andrew Romine each had a hit for Chicago-NL…since 2015, 2 other sets of siblings have each recorded a hit in the same game on the same team: Corban and Caleb Joseph (BAL, 9/24/2018), and B.J. and Justin Upton (SD, 9/29/2015).
LOCKING DOWN THE LATE INNINGS
Cleveland’s bullpen boasts a 3.02 ERA (79ER/235.2IP) and .216 opposing batting average, both 2nd-lowest in MLB behind New York-AL (2.75 ERA, .209)…the pen reached an ERA high point of 3.50 on May 21 but has lowered it to 3.02 due to a 2.34 ERA (21ER/80.2IP) in the 22 games since, good for 3rd in MLB during that stretch…during that span, the bullpen has nine 3.0+ shutout inning efforts in 22 games and is holding batters to a .193 average.
The Guardians lead MLB in inherited runners scored rate (20.9%), ahead of Toronto (22.3%)…out of Cleveland’s 86 inherited runners, only 18 have scored this season…ENYEL DE LOS SANTOS has allowed just one of 14 inherited runners to score (7.1%, 3rd in MLB) and SAM HENTGES has allowed one of 13 to score (7.7%, 4th in MLB)…NICK SANDLIN has inherited a team-high 21 runners and let 4 score (19.0%).
TONIGHT’S STARTER – 41 LOGAN ALLEN LHP
ALLEN AT HOME
W-L ERA G GS IP H R ER BB SO
2023 1-1 4.50 5 5 28.0 36 15 14 8 24
Career 1-1 4.50 5 5 28.0 36 15 14 8 24
ALLEN’S MLB CAREER
W-L ERA G GS IP H R ER BB SO
2023 3-2 3.95 10 10 54.2 61 25 24 19 53
Career 3-2 3.95 10 10 54.2 61 25 24 19 53
TONIGHT’S START
The 24-year old rookie southpaw is making his 11th career MLB start, sixth at home, in the finale of this 3-game set with the Oakland Athletics…marks his 3rd career start against the AL West, holding a 0-0 record with a 6.97 ERA (8ER/10.1IP).
He began his MLB career with 8 straight starts of 3-or-fewer runs, becoming the first Cleveland pitcher to accomplish the feat since AARON CIVALE, who did it in 9 straight starts from June 22-September 18, 2019…has gone 4 straight starts without losing a decision, holding a 2-0 record.
Allen was originally selected by Cleveland in the 2nd Round (56th overall) of the 2020 MLB Draft out of Florida International University…entered the season as Cleveland’s #8 prospect according to MLB.com…he is starting on extended 6 days’ rest; owns a 2.45 ERA (3ER/11.0IP) in 2 starts on 6+ days’ rest.
LAST TIME OUT
In his last time out, Allen struggled after not factoring into the decision in Cleveland’s 8-6 victory over the San Diego Padres on June 15…he lasted a career-low 3.0 innings, allowed a season-high 5 earned runs for the second straight start, allowed a season-high 4 walks, and threw 2 strikeouts on a season-low 77 pitches…
after walking Fernando Tatis Jr. and Juan Soto, he allowed a 3-run home run to Manny Machado before retiring the side in order to end the 1st inning…after recording two outs to start the 2nd, Austin Nola doubled before Tatis Jr. and Soto walked again… Allen escaped the bases-loaded jam by striking out Machado… after singles from Xander Bogaerts and Ha-Seong Kim, Brandon Dixon plated them both from a groundout…a foul out to end the 3rd capped Allen’s outing.
THE ALLEN WRENCH
In his most recent start, Allen tied TRISTON McKENZIE (2020-21) and Luis Tiant (1964) for 4th-most strikeouts through a player’s first 10 appearances in club history with 53…only SHANE BIEBER (58, 2018), Danny Salazar (65, 2013) and Herb Score (92, 1955) have more…on June 9, Allen became the 2nd pitcher in MLB history to throw 4.1+IP, allow 2-or-fewer-walks, and throw 3+SO in each of their first 9 career games, trailing only Minnesota’s Louie Varland (12, 2022-23).
With 10 strikeouts in his outing on May 29 at Baltimore, he became the 2nd Cleveland pitcher with three outings of 8+ strikeouts within the first 7 starts of a career, last done by Herb Score (5 times) in 1955…he is the 8th Cleveland pitcher to throw 10+ strikeouts in an outing within their first 7 career starts, last done by TRISTON MCKENZIE on 8/22/2020 vs. Detroit (10 SO).
On April 30 at Boston, he joined Score as the only two pitchers in club history to begin a career with back-to-back 8+ strikeout outings…in his first career start, a 7-4 victory against the Marlins on April 23, Allen’s 8 strikeouts were the 4th-most in Cleveland franchise history for a Major League debut…the left-hander also became the third pitcher in franchise history to throw 6.0+ innings, record 8+ strikeouts and hold an opponent to one-or-zero runs in an MLB debut, last done by TRISTON MCKENZIE on 8/22/2020… Luis Tiant first accomplished the feat on July 19, 1964, in a complete game shutout.
DON’T GRIMACE, IT’S ONLY CLOUDY OUTSIDE
In 4 career day starts, Allen holds a 2-1 record with a 1.52 ERA (4ER/23.2IP), 6 walks and 31 strikeouts…among MLB pitchers with 4+ day starts this season, he ranks in ERA (2nd, 1.52), FIP (2nd, 1.93), SO/9 (8th, 11.79) and OBP (10th, .263).
