The Cleveland Guardians need another jolt in their lineup after a below-average month.
One of the key reasons the Cleveland Guardians got off to such a hot start earlier in April was the production they were getting throughout the lineup.
Chase DeLauter put together a historic start to his career, Angel Martinez and Daniel Schneemann started off playing some of the best baseball of their careers, and Travis Bazzana did the same at the start of May.
Cleveland’s offense is in a better spot than it was a year ago, and it’s hard to argue with that. However, the Guardians’ lineup is beginning to revert to some of the same offensive numbers that ultimately limited the team’s ceiling a year ago.
Over the last 30 days, the Guardians own a .232/.314/.388 slash line, and their .686 OPS ranks in the bottom half of MLB during that stretch. Another concerning number is that Cleveland’s 104 runs over the last four weeks rank in the bottom 10 in baseball.
The Guardians have had opportunities, such as during Friday night’s loss against the Texas Rangers, when Cleveland hit 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, but they just need something to help get that big hit to generate more runs.
“It's frustrating. We know that,” said manager Stephen Vogt after the loss.
"This isn’t who we are, and we're gonna keep working to get better at it. We’ve had stretches, we've had times where we're driving those runs, and we're executing, but tonight was one of those nights where, 0-for-3, with a runner on third with less than two [outs], and it's really hard to keep adding on runs when you're not getting those free 90 feet like that.”
From here, it’s pretty clear the Guardians need another big boost to hopefully re-ignite some life and energy into this lineup.
Perhaps, that life is another big series from Jose Ramirez, DeLauter putting together a nice stretch, or Steven Kwan getting it going in the back half of the lineup.
If that doesn’t come to fruition, maybe it’ll be time for Cleveland to dip back into the farm system for some help at the big league level. Ralphy Velazquez? If not, the Guardians will give themselves some decisions to make ahead of the trade deadline.
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