News and Notes: Guardians Defeat Best Team in Baseball

News and Notes for Saturday, July 27th, 2024

The Guardians beat the Phillies 3-1 behind the strong pitching of Ben Lively, Cade Smith, Hunter Gaddis and Emmanuel Clase to open the weekend series in Philadelphia.

The Guardians had an expected batting average of .213 in the game, barely topped by the Phillies’ own weak xBA of .221. But, if you look at the top 10 exit velocities in the game, only two of them were hit by Guardians and only one of those balls got the hitter on base (David Fry’s RBI single in the first). So, in other words, this was vintage disgusting baseball. It even featured a great bunt from Bo Naylor and great running from Andres Gimenez to score a run. Angel Martinez singled home the other run.

Josh Naylor got the night off and the Guardians still got a win, which is great news. Fry and Gimenez both got two hits in the game, which is also great news. And, where in the world would this team be without the absolute gamer we know as Ben Lively who gave up three hits, two walks and one run in six innings agains the best team in MLB. And, we can’t ever fail to appreciate the absolute dominance of Smith, Gaddis and Clase, three of the most intimidating relievers to face in baseball.

Interestingly, Joey Cantillo was scheduled to pitch in Columbus and did not. Kyle Manzardo also didn’t play. Is this because Cantillo will pitch on Sunday, with the news that Curry is now in the bullpen? Is this because one or both are being discussed in trades? Time will tell. Little birdies were also singing that Rays, Reds and Nationals scouts were in Akron. The Akron team has some interesting players to watch, so we’ll see if any trade comes. Johnathan India or Nick Martinez from the Reds? Zack Littell or Yandy Diaz from the Rays? MacKenzie Gore or Jesse Winker from the Nationals? It’s speculation season. Meanwhile, Matthew Boyd threw five scoreless for Akron and Parker Messick through four scoreless in relief of Boyd... two names to keep in mind for the near future, potentially.

Zack Mesiel wrote about the trade deadline and said that the Guardians are willing to add payroll for 2024 but aren’t going to add anyone who brings payroll up around $20 million for next season. That limits some of the options I’d considered (Blake Snell, Chris Bassitt and Kevin Gausman), but there are still names of interest out there.

Around MLB:

We saw some trades yesterday! Here they are:

Would have liked Eflin, but we’ll see what the Guardians end up doing (or not).

The Twins and Royals both won. And I hate the Tigers who can’t help us at all this season as they got waxed by Minnesota.