What's The Secret With Cleveland's Stellar Bullpen?
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The Guardians bullpen has been without equal the second half of the season.
Tuesday night's win over San Diego was a bit strange for a team that has defied the offensive trends across the game. The Guardians hit two home runs and got one timely base hit late in the game to seal a 3-1 win.
But it was Terry Francona's bullpen once again that shined brightest as Cleveland knocked off the Padres.
Good grief have those guys been impressive.
Aaron Civale opened the game with 4.2 innings of solid work, striking out four and scattering four hits, while allowing just one run.
But he handed things over to a group of relievers that are downright on fire right now.
Nick Sandlin, who didn't often find himself working in high leverage situations early in the year, pitched 1.1 scoreless innings on Tuesday. He's gone 14 consecutive appearances without giving up a run.
"We want him to be a weapon," Terry Francona said afterwards of Sandlin's turnaround this year. "He adds something different than the rest of our guys."
James Karinchak came on to pitch the seventh, and despite what appeared to be a floating strike zone, he worked a scoreless frame and recorded two punch outs.
Trevor Stephan struck out the side in the eighth and Emmanuel Clase blitzed through the Padres in order in the ninth to convert his 29th save of the year.
The Padres finished the night 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and they left 10 runners on base.
Cleveland's bullpen has now fired 16.2 consecutive scoreless innings, so it's been a team effort. But the group that pitched Tuesday night has been particularly impressive.
Karinchak (18.0 innings), Sandlin (13.0) and Sam Hentges (13.0) own three of the four longest active scoreless streaks by American League relievers currently on a 26-man roster.
Karinchak gave up three runs in his first two appearances of the season, but hasn't given up a run since July 6, Sandlin last allowed a run on July 5 and Hentges has been spotless since giving up two runs on July 13.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel Clase now leads the A.L. with 29 saves. He entered Tuesday leading the Majors (min. 30.0IP) in ERA (0.48), saves (T-1st, 21), strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.67), baserunners allowed-per-9.0 (4.58), opp. OPS (.319) and WHIP (0.51).
Over the last 40 games, Clase, Karinchak and Sandlin have combined for 65 strikeouts and allowed one run over 48.2 innings.
Is that any good?!
Don't forget about Stephan either.
Entering Tuesday, he had turned in an A.L.-leading (min. 15.0IP) 0.47 FIP over his last 16 outings (dating back to July 10). Stephan also owned the 4th-lowest ERA in MLB since June 15 (min. 25.0IP) at 1.08 (3ER/25.0IP ... and it got even lower after a scoreless inning vs. San Diego), despite having the 6th-highest opp. batting average on balls put in play (.379) under the same parameters.
Baseball is a funny, streaky game and who really knows how long this keeps up. But the Guardians are threatening to pull away from the pack in the A.L. Central and they've got the pitching it takes to win in the post-season. No matter what, Carl Willis, Brian Sweeney and the rest of the coaching staff deserve A TON of credit for how they're getting the most out of this group.
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Guardians Farm Report: Martinez Doubles Twice And Drives In Two In Double-A Debut For Akron
Steven Kwan Deserves To Be Talked About In The Rookie Of The Year Race
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