News and Notes: Cleveland Falls in Complete Game Shutout

News and Notes for Thursday, April 18, 2024

The Cleveland Guardians fell to the Boston Red Sox in the first shutout loss of the season.

As aggressive as the Guardians have been so far this season, every once in a while another pitcher will come along and have a night. Boston RHP Tanner Houck was absolutely lights out in the Wednesday night matchup. Houck went 9.0 complete innings with 9 strikeouts and only 3 hits given up to Cleveland batters. The 3 hits came off of José Ramírez, Josh Naylor, and Gabriel Arias.

Interestingly Vogt had Arias play the game in center field tonight, giving Tyler Freeman the night off. This brings Arias to a baffling 6 defensive positions played so far this season, with only left field and catcher left for him to complete the collection.

Ben Lively had a lovely outing, making his season debut for the team after the Spring Training virus had him starting in Columbus. Lively was on a pitch count and went the scheduled 5.0 innings giving up 3 hits, 2 runs, and 1 walk with 7 strikeouts in 79 pitches. Boston’s first run was granted to the team after a balk that was leaving everyone scratching their heads. According to Steven Vogt in the post game interview, there is a new rule in play this season where a pitcher must declare for each batter if they are starting from the windup or from the stretch. Lively did not make the declaration for the new hitter resulting in the balk.

Lively’s only other run came off the bat of catcher Conner Wong, who made solid contact off of Lively’s 81 mph sweeper that sat in the middle of the plate.

The defense was relatively quiet for both teams with the exception of who else if not Platinum Glove second baseman, Andrés Giménez. While not as flashy as his typical plays, Andrés demonstrated, once again, that he has an unbelievably strong understanding of this game. He made a very simple tag after backing up a bad throw from pitcher Wes Parsons to the intended Josh Naylor. The runner ran down the line past first base, but turned just enough towards second base that he was tagged out by the ever present Cleveland second baseman. I wish there was a video to show here, but if you are able to rewatch the game archive, this play takes place in the bottom of the 7th. Sometimes watching the simple plays work is a nice reminder of a player’s full potential.

CLE 0 - BOS 2

By the way, does anyone know what a balk is?

Cleveland Guardians News:

Lots of news today for Cleveland. Guardians trade RHP Pedro Avila from the San Diego Padres for cash considerations.

The Athletic’s Zack Meisel reporting that Angel Martinez was sent to the 60-day IL with a bone fracture in his hand. This unfortunate move opened up a spot on the 40-man roster for Avila.

Cleveland.com’s Joe Noga gave the remaining roster moves for the Guardians. Eli Morgan was transferred to the 15-day IL with right shoulder Inflammation, Xzavion Curry was optioned to Triple-A Columbus, and Wes Parsons was recalled to the 26-man roster.

Around the League:

Orioles’ Cedric Mullins hit his first career walk-off home run.

Juan Soto hit his 500th career RBI.

Justin Verlander is set to make his season debut for the Houston Astros this Friday.

Both Padres’ Yu Darvish and Rockies’ Kris Bryant to head to the IL.