News and Notes: Angel Martinez Gets First Major League Hits, Guardians Sweep Blue Jays

News and Notes for Monday, June 24th, 2024

The Guardians somehow found a way to beat the Blue Jays 6-5 on Sunday, ending a homestand on a five-game winning streak.

Triston McKenzie was frustrating again, tantalizing fans with a 95 mph fastball and a great curve but little command, walking four and serving up meatballs periodically resulting in two home runs before rain came in, delaying the game. He has mechanical adjustments to make, but the promise is still there as evidenced by his six strikeouts yesterday.

The Guardians had loaded the bases with no outs against popular trade target, Yusei Kikuchi, as the rain began to fall, eventually scoring three runs on a Daniel Schneemann single, a Johnathan Rodriguez walk, and a Brayan Rocchio double-play ball. David Fry knocked in a run in the first inning, but was forced to leave the game with elbow inflammation. Manager Stephen Vogt said they believed Fry would be ok, but it’s something to monitor for the future.

After a typically clean inning from Tim Herrin (last seen endearing himself to me by clapping awkwardly to Shaquille O’Neil’s DJ set), Guardians fans got a taste of the Darren McCaughan experience. In two innings, McCaughan gave up balls hit 112.5, 108.6, 107.4, 107, 105.6, 94, and 92 mph and walked two batters... and it somehow felt worse than that. He miraculously only gave up two runs.

There was some debate on the game thread here and on social media about whether Stephen Vogt should have pitched McCaughan a second inning. While everyone is entitled to their opinion, I tend to believe that in a day your starter goes only three innings, in the middle of 13 straight games, in a game starting less than 18 hours after your previous one ended, you have to try to use your longman for at least two innings. Vogt did not choose McCaughan to be called up, but he has to use the arms he is given. I hope McCaughan can find his way to Columbus after a DFA today and the team can call up a more effective pitcher, but he can always remember a great pickoff move he made in the sixth to get him out of trouble.

Josh Naylor and Steven Kwan hit home runs, AGAIN, and both are on an absolute tear right now. Kwan’s power breakout is incredibly exciting. Bo Naylor had a double and a walk as he continues to find his way out of early season struggles, and Angel Martinez had three hard hit balls, two resulting in singles including his first major league hit.

Jose Ramirez had two hits while playing DH, which is big news considering his splits there. And, Sam Hentges had two scoreless innings while Emmanuel Clase closed out his fourth game in five days, hopefully earning himself a couple days off given the stress of the oppressive heat of this past week.

I really enjoyed this postgame interview with both Kwan and Naylor.

The Guardians now get to test their mettle against an excellent Baltimore Orioles team starting tonight.

AROUND MLB:

The Royals lost again and haven’t scored in 22 straight innings.

The Twins beat the Athletics and Pablo Lopez looked dominant for the first time in a long time.

The Tigers beat the White Sox.

Edwin Diaz of the Mets was removed from a game when umpires found some sticky substance on his hands.