Stephen Vogt recaps the Cleveland Guardians' Game 1 loss to the Detroit Tigers. 

The Cleveland Guardians had opportunities to score runs or prevent them from crossing home plate in their 2-1 Game 1 loss to the Detroit Tigers.

At the end of the day, Cleveland didn’t play their cleanest baseball, and that’s what cost them when all nine innings had been played.

Following the difficult defeat, Stephen Vogt gave his thoughts on what he saw throughout the nine innings.

Cleveland’s Costly Miscues

Vogt admitted right off the bat that there were a few moments that they would’ve liked to have back on defense.

One of them was Johnathan Rodriguez’s outfield error in the first inning, which allowed Kerry Carpenter to advance to second base and eventually come around to score the game’s first run. 

“The first inning, you can't give the extra 90 feet there. But it happens,” said Cleveland’s skipper.

The second detrimental mistake came in the seventh inning as Jhnonkensy Noel struggled to get his foot on the bag at first base.

Vogt acknowledged "that it was a heck of a frickin' play to knock that ball down,” but what happened next is what hurt the Guardians.

“That stuff happens. Our guys have played all year. You make mistakes. You hope it doesn't happen in a game like this, but it's going to happen,” 

Gavin Williams’ Strong Start

The narrative following Cleveland’s loss will undoubtedly focus on the costly miscues, but one player who deserves a ton of praise is Gavin Williams.

“He was outstanding. What an unbelievably pitched game we got to watch. Tarik Skubal was outstanding. Punched out 14. Couldn't get anything off of him. Gavin similarly. We gifted him a run in the first. Gavin was outstanding. Filled up the strike zone, landing breaking stuff, getting swing and miss. That was a well-pitched game by both sides.”

Tarik Skubal And Cleveland’s Quiet Bats

There are two ways to look at Game 1: Cleveland’s bats struggle, or Tarik Skubal dominated. Either way, there was very little offense for the Guardians.

“His stuff was -- he had everything,” said Vogt. “The fastball is up around 101. At times, he was hitting his spots. The change-up had a ton of depth. He was landing the slider up and away from the right. He was bouncing it, landed a few curve balls. Like I said, he had everything that he has. That's what big-time pitchers do.”