Paul Skenes Dominates Guardians as Series Finale Proves Cleveland Needs Help

When the Cleveland Guardians' offense isn't clicking, they hardly resemble a competitive team.

But when they're locked in at the plate and their pitching staff is generating swings and misses, they can compete with anyone in baseball.

On Sunday, July 19, the Guardians got decent work from the pitching staff, but the offense was stagnant, generating little to no pressure on the Pirates' arms. After nine innings of work from Progressive Field, Cleveland ultimately dropped it's three-game series, 2-1, with a 7-1 loss in the finale.

Pirates starter Paul Skenes was practically unstoppable, throwing 100 pitches and striking out eight batters. He allowed just seven hits, two walks and one run across seven innings of work.

Quoted in an article done on MLB.com, Skenes shared that his early outs allowed him to settle in and get comfortable.

“Got some early outs, that helps,” Skenes said postgame. “Not a ton of long at-bats. It's just that's pretty much what it adds up to. If you can get early outs and avoid the nine- or 10-pitch at-bats, it's a pretty good equation [to] get outs when you need to. It's a pretty good equation for going deep into games.”

Paul Skenes punched out 8 in a solid performance against the Guardians ⚾️ pic.twitter.com/Figy5fpREC
— MLB (@MLB) July 19, 2026

While the Guardians, just a day prior, had gotten things going late to produce a comeback win, Skenes' ability to go through seven innings made it hard for any of the bats to pull themselves out of the rut they were in.

Even after he exited, Mason Montgomery and Isaac Mattson locked things down, striking out a combined total of three while allowing nothing on the base paths.

On the Guardians' end, starter Joey Cantillo was okay, allowing five hits and two earned runs across the first five innings. However, he would give up back-to-back doubles in the sixth before being relieved by Franco Aleman. He would then punch both of those runners across the base, pushing Cantillo's earned run total up to four.

Struggling to get out of the rut that Cantillo had him in, Aleman would go on to give up two hits and one earned run of his own, striking out three as well.

Hunter Gaddis ended up appearing in the seventh, shutting out the Pirates, before Will Dion finished off the game. He was called up Sunday morning, with Logan Allen being optioned back down to Triple-A Columbus.

Unfortunately, allowing two hits, two earned runs and one home run across the final two innings won't put Dion in a good spot to protect his roster spot in the big leagues.

While there weren't many bright spots in Sunday's showing by all involved, Steven Kwan produced a relatively promising showing in the one-hole. He went 2-for-4 with an RBI, boosting his season batting average back over .240.

Job well Dunne.#GuardsBall pic.twitter.com/YKGwwtVMXW
— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) July 19, 2026

Outside of Kwan, the only other players to get on base more than twice were Chase DeLauter and Gabriel Arias, both of whom had a hit and a walk.

Skenes may be one of baseball's best pitchers, but it is becoming increasingly obvious that the Guardians must add a bit more to the current roster if they want any chance of legitimately competing in this year's postseason. Without a more consistent, effective bat, they'll be a sitting duck for most contending squads.

The Guardians will be back in action on Monday, July 20, to start a four-game set against the Minnesota Twins from Progressive Field.

With hopes of getting back in first place in the American League Central, they'll kick things off at 6:40 p.m. EST.

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