News and Notes: Your Cleveland Guardians are American League Central Champions

News and Notes for Sunday, September 22nd, 2024

The Guardians lost to the Cardinals 6-5, but clinched the AL Central Division Title thanks to the Giants demolishing the Royals.

Matthew Boyd was solid for four innings, giving up only a 2-run bomb to Jordan Walker. However, his early exit guaranteed the Guardians would use Nick Sandlin. Sandlin was actually good enough to throw a scoreless inning, but thanks to some shaky command and an error by Andres Gimenez and an error by Josh Naylor, he had the opportunity to give up a three run home run that put the Cardinals up 6-1.

The Guardians would come back on a three-run homer from Jose Ramirez (who now has 37 homers and 40 steals!):

and a clutch double from Andres Gimenez. But, it wasn’t quite enough to complete a comeback win. Myles Straw batted with runners on base, which isn’t ideal. I don’t blame Vogt as his options at that point were Straw, Will Brennan, Daniel Schneemann or Austin Hedges against a left-handed pitcher. Despite Schneemann’s small sample size success against lefties in the majors, we can see he did not hit lefties very well at all in his time in the minors, so it’s unlikely he would have added much. And, Brennan (20 wRC+) and Hedges (46 wRC+) both have worse splits vs. LHP than Straw (69 wRC+). So, that one isn’t on Vogt but on the front office who apparently think Straw offers more to the roster than Johnathan Rodriguez would.

I can’t complain, because this front office has been proven right, over and over and over this season. I fully expect Myles Straw to steal three bases in a row at some point to clinch the #2 seed and make me eat my words for wanting him to have remained in Columbus because every time I doubt Antonetti, I regret it. I went back and read an article from February where I said that this would be an important season for evaluating whether or not this front office has lost a step. And, I think I was right to say that, and they have also answered the question, decisively: Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff remain top five executives in all of baseball. Well-done, gentlemen, to you and your entire team.

I want to also mention that Tim Herrin was absolutely electric in this game, entering with a runner on second and nobody out and then casually demolishing the opposition with a pop-up and two strikeouts.

If this game proves to the Guardians that Nick Sandlin should not be on the postseason roster and Erik Sabrowski and Andrew Walters SHOULD, it will have been a win, regardless of what the standings say.

Bo Naylor also homered:

and Will Brennan is now 6 for 12 as a pinch-hitter this year. Bat this man against right-handed pitching.

This team is just so special and so fun. I’m so glad we get to watch them play more games after this season is done.

AROUND MLB:

The Tigers and Twins won. We don’t have to care about that anymore.

The Astros won, so the number to clinch the #2 seed remains at three. Would be nice if the Angels would stop being the worst team in baseball for just a second.

The White Sox have now lost 119 games. I can’t help but be intrigued by how bad that number will end up being when it’s all said and done.