CLEVELAND, OH - The dog days of summer continued for the Cleveland Guardians (59-40) as they lost 8-2 to the Detroit Tigers (50-51), their third straight loss at home for the first time this season. The loss marks the team's seventh loss in their last nine games, as well as 14 of their last 22 games.
It's no secret that the team is coming to a crossroads, with the Twins and Royals closing in on the Guardians for the top spot in the AL Central, once a nine game lead is down to less than five. Guardians catcher Austin Hedges spoke after the game about trying to help the young roster get through this tough stretch.
“It's at the point of the season where motivation is no longer a thing,” Hedges said after the game. “You come into the season, [and] it's easy to be motivated but you can't rely on motivation. You [have to] rely on discipline and doing the boring stuff. We did a really good job of riding out some momentum, doing some discipline things. Right now, we have a young group that's responding to being such a good team. When you're such a good team, you have teams like the Tigers that are saving pitchers to face us. Your team's really game planning for us coming in with everything they got. We're right now figuring out how we're gonna respond to that.”
“It's not happening as quickly as we want, but I feel like we're still playing a version of our baseball,” Hedges continued. “It's just not leading to wins right now, but it's now our job to remember that it's allowed to be boring. We're allowed to do the same thing every day. There's not this crazy recipe to change things to start winning ballgames. There's not a secret recipe to have a game plan to go beat someone offensively. You go face a pitcher and you have a plan. But when nine guys have a plan, and do it together, it's really hard to beat us.”
“Right now, we [have] a lot of guys I think [are] putting a lot of pressure on themselves. Everybody wants to be the guy that turns us around, and that's why we're great. I love that from our guys. I want them to want that. Now, we [have] to lean on discipline a little bit and be like, I don't need to be that guy. I need to execute my plan in the box. When I'm pitching, I need to execute my pitches. And that is it. When you execute your pitches on the mound; execute your plan in the box, you play fundamental defense, you run the bases, you tend to win some ballgames. It's really simple. Doesn't make it easy, but it's not complicated. We've got to get back to doing that.”
Hedges tried to rally the team with a bases-loaded RBI bunt-single in the bottom of the second, but the club struggled all game long bringing runners home, stranding 12 runners on base in the game.
On the bump, Guardians starting pitcher Carlos Carrasco struggled in the first two innings, allowing four runs on 45 pitches, 27 of which were strikes. The 37-year-old right handed pitcher settled in and did not allow another run until the sixth inning. In his last seven starts, the veteran has pitched five or more innings in each start.
With the trade deadline fast approaching on July 30th, the need for additional adjustments, either in-house or from outside reinforcements both at the plate and on the mound, is glaringly apparent.
What's Next?
The Guardians will look to snap their season-long three game losing streak against the Tigers on Tuesday night at 6:40 PM. Right-handed pitcher Xzavion Curry (0-2, 5.19) will get the start for Cleveland at Progressive Field.
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