Munch Musings on another Guardians series win!

All good in my old neighborhood and on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario as the Cleveland Guardians knock off the Boston Red Sox 6-4 and win another series 2 games to one. BTW their record is now 18-7. Yup it’s early but that is better than so many scenarios and “hatas”…chill out and yes you look real bad in this oh so young season.

Amazing too that it has been the bats and the pen, not the vaunted starters especially since Shane Bieber went down for the year and longer after two classic Biebs outings!

Game 1

In Tuesday’s 4-1 Guards win it was the outstanding starting pitching of Ben Lively vs Tanner Houck plus the shut down of the Bosox by pen mates Barlow (6 pitches in .2 IP plus 5 strikes), Gaddis (14 pitches in 1 IP plus 10 strikes) and Clase (13 pitches in 1 IP plus 11 strikes)! Also not to be forgotten was Ben’s 6.1 IP with 7 K’s and ZERO free passes.

The Guardians also used their 7th inning on mojo, getting 2 in the bottom of the 7th after Abreau homered on Lively’s one mistake in the top of the frame. Add two more runs in the bottom of the 8th on a Jose solo shot and Florial double and that was it. This also was a classic Cleveland Guardians win as the gents got Lively’s back! It was another REFUSE TO LOSE CONTEST!

Game 2

Game two went to the boys from Beantown 8-0 as Carlos Carrasco made too many mistakes and the Red Sox jumped on them for 3 HR’s and 9 hits as Cookie lasted 5 IP. Beede and Avila got worked over but by then Skipper Vogt saw the bats were just not going to get going.

I was shocked as the Guards were hitting the ball on the screws vs Boston starter Cooper Criswell but hard hit warning track outs are outs! Cleveland managed 4 hits Wednesday night.

Game 3

Day baseball is always great anywhere and the Guardians used a solo shot by Chill Will Brennan and a GRAND SLAM by Jose to jump up 5-0 after 2 innings and get the win 6-4. The Guards did it early in this one tacking on just one for a little cushion in the 7th after the lead was cut to 5-4. Once again a starter was just average and this time it was Triston McKenzie. Yeah, his stats were “ok” but you need more than 4 from this guy. He threw 75 pitches, K’d 7 and walked 2 with 6 hits and 2 runs. We forget how dominating he was in 2022 even with an 11-11 record and I am shocked that overall he is 2026 in his 5 years in the bigs with Cleveland. Herrin pitched a .1 giving up 2 hits but 0 runs and 50/50 guy Nick Sandlin pitched 1 inning and gave up 2 runs on 2 hits. Why 50/50? He’s been a coin flip lately when it comes to trust BUT here comes the pen again! Gaddis, Barlow, Smith and Clase were fantastic and the Guards came away with the W!

On the Road….Again!

It’s on to Atlanta for 3 then Houston for 3 and back home one week from Friday when Mike Trout and the scuffling Halos are in town. Yes, TROUT is still worth buying a ticket to watch him play and make no doubt about it SO ARE THE Cleveland Guardians! I gotta ask the “Powers to be” to PLEASE give this team a break weather wise. Something else to be noted is that I must SHOUT OUT Arias and Brennan. Gabriel appeared to be on his way to being DFA’d and Will back to CBus and they both woke up. Not sure who said what but although Will scares me when he plays RF (takes awful angles to the ball and gets poor jumps) and be assured that Gabe will boot one ball a game, they are getting it done! WAY TO GO FELLAS!

Read more of my musings and thoughts plus “All Good” narratives at www.neosportsinsiders.com and yes indeed #MunchOnSports is powered by Ganley Chevy Of Aurora and the Ken Ganley Automotive Group.

.

Please take care of each other and it’s your world, pay attention. Always enjoy every sandwich and for now ADIOS AMIGO, long may you run.