Guardians Find Themselves On The Wrong Side Of History

Monday night was supposed to be the Cleveland Guardians' message to the Minnesota Twins that they weren't going to give up the division without a fight. They had their newly picked up pitcher Lucas Giolito on the moun and Kole Calhoun even deemed it the "most important game of the year."

Saying that Giolito struggled would be an understatement. He only pitched 3.0 innings and gave up seven hits and nine runs before he was pulled from the game. It certainly wasn't the debut Lucas of the Guardians had envisioned.

This isn't the first time Giolito has experienced an outing like this during the season. He gave up eight runs to the Mets on July 18 when he was still a member of the Chicago White Sox and Giolito also gave up nine runs to the Atlanta Braves in his second start with the Los Angeles Angels.

The last pitcher to give up eight or more runs for three different teams in one season was Bill Magee all the way back in 1899. That's not a great company to be in.

You're always supposed to play the game until the very last strike is called, but it was clear that this one was unsalvagable and Terry Francona didn't want to waste his bullpen.

This meant David Fry would have to take the mound and give the Guardians all he had.

Fry pitched the finale 4.0 innings for Cleveland and did exactly what was asked of him. However, he also made some undesired history while on the mound.

To start, the last time a position player threw 4.0 innings for his team was Jose Oquendo did it for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1988. Another interesting stat is that no other pitcher had thrown 30 pitches under 60 mph in one game and Fry clocked 64 during his outing.

Okay, we get it.

This was obviously a bad night for Cleveland and Twitter/X had their fun mocking the team while they were down. But it's only a game and the Guardians still have a chance to win the series.