News and Notes: Lively and Pen Secure Split Against the Rays

News and Notes for Monday, September 16th, 2024

The Guardians shut out the Rays 2-0 behind five strong innings from Ben Lively and the usual shutdown performance by the Guardians’ bullpen, to rescue a series split from the inauspicious beginning of the four-game set against Tampa.

Brayan Rocchio had an RBI single and Angel Martinez scored when Jose Ramirez was caught stealing at second base, and that was all the Guardians’ offense needed. When Lively ran into trouble starting the sixth, Manager Stephen Vogt went and got Cade Smith. Smith proceeded to throw three straight strikes down the middle to former Guardians’ prospect Junior Caminero, who watched them all. Tim Herrin, Hunter Gaddis and Emmanuel Clase followed Smith with three perfect innings, ending with this punctuation mark:

Morel flinched at the knee, seemingly thinking that pitch might come far enough inside to hit him. Folks, we need to get Emmanuel Clase a chance to close out some postseason games.

Yesterday was a reminder of why it’s so crucial to get in the playoffs. If you can get four or five innings from a starter, the Cleveland bullpen is ready to step in and annihilate the competition. All it takes then is a bloop and a blunder, and you’ve won a playoff game.

The crowds were pretty disappointing this weekend. Let’s hope fans come out in full support of this division leader with a big series against Minnesota on tap.

AROUND MLB:

The Royals lost to the Pirates. Magic number for the division is 9.

The Astros and Twins won, but the magic number for the two-seed is also 9.