Studs, duds as Cleveland Guardians drop series to lowly Reds

The Cleveland Guardians entered one of the most favorable parts of their schedule with a two game series against the lowly Cincinnati Reds.

Chalk up two wins, right? The Guards played the Reds tough, but managed to make David Bell’s rotation look like1995 Braves as Cleveland hitters turned Connor Overton and Tyler Mahle into Greg Maddux and John Smoltz.

The Guards’ starting pitching was good enough, but was really undone by some bullpen outings from usually reliable arms.

Here’s your studs and duds from the series.

Dud, Trevor Stephan: The former Yankee farmhand entered the game in a 1-1 tie and proceeded to allow three runs (two earned) in 0.2 innings. He gave up three straight hits at one point in what was his worst appearance of the season.

Prior to this outing, Stephan had been a reliable arm in the pen, entering Game 2 of the series with a 1.69 ERA. It inflated to 2.70 after a rough afternoon of work on the corner of Carnegie and Ontario.

Dud, Andres Gimenez: One of the Guard’s hotter bats cooled, going 1-for-8 against Reds pitching. Hopefully, A-Gim makes a quick trip back to the stud column with the Tigers coming to town.

Dud, Nick Sandlin: Thanks to Sandlin, who started the 10th inning in Game 1, the Guards weren’t able to build off Miller’s momentum.  The reliever issued three walks…something that just can’t be done in an inning when a runner starts off the inning on second base.

To Sandlin’s credit, he rebounded spectacularly, only allowing one run in the inning. It looked like hue was headed for an implosion.

Cleveland Guardians biggest stud

Stud, Owen Miller: The only offensive spark plug against one of the worst pitching teams in the majors…Miller blasted a game-tying homer in the bottom of the 9th in Game 1, as everyone in the ballpark thought Cleveland was going home for the night with a win. The Guardians lost 5-4…

Stud, Cal Qunatrill: Game 2 of the series put a spotlight on what the Guardians need to get more of: Stellar starting pitching. Quantrill was excellent, throwing seven innings while allowing just one run and striking out five.

He’s passed Civale and Plesac, at least in my eyes, in terms of reliability.