The Marlins Exposed One Of The Guardians Biggest Weaknesses
The Cleveland Guardians dropped their second straight series after falling to the Miami Marlins. Cleveland did come around to take the series finale and avoid the sweep as the bats finally woke up.
However, Miami did reveal a massive hole in Cleveland's offense over the three-game series.
The Guardians have struggled against lefties going all the way back to last season. This was displayed in the playoffs when New York's Nestor Cortes had his way with Cleveland during the ALDS.
This struggle against lefty pitchers has continued into 2023 as the Guardians have already seen a number of lefties on the mound. Unfortunately for Cleveland, Miami prepared for this and used it to its advantage.
Cleveland saw a total of seven left-handed pitchers against the Marlins who have a surplus of southpaws. This included all three of Miami's starters. Rick Manning said it perfectly on the broadcast, "They're lining them up for the Guardians," alluding to the Marlins continuously turning to their lefties.
The Guardians have struggled all season with left-handed pitchers on the mound. They're hitting .227 as a team with a .634 OPS. They've also managed to score just 25 runs against them.
Josh Naylor has most notably struggled against lefty pitchers as he's hitting just .173 against them this season. However, the rest of the team does need to step up too. One encouraging sign was that he got two hits off lefty Jesus Luzardo in the series finale.
It's now common knowledge that Cleveland struggles against the lefties and team's are going to take advantage of that. The Guardians need to be able to adapt to limit the damage and reverse the narrative.
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