The Giants went on a selling spree at the Trade Deadline, and pretty much all they have for experienced bats is Rafael Devers, who is an incredible hitter (he was on my Guardians team once on MLB The Show).
Series Results
As we hit the last stretch of the season, the Guards have to chain together wins into a streak. While we were outclassed by San Diego, when you go up against bottom barrel teams like the Giants (sorry guys), you must win.
Getting shut-out in the second game really shows how shitty our bats are right now. We just cannot hit consistently, and it’s a big problem.
I keep going back to what Jason Kipnis was saying earlier in the year, that the pitching in AAA level is nowhere near the level it is in the majors. That means someone who’s lighting it up in the minors won’t be as good in the majors, and we do see that a lot. But that dearth alone doesn’t explain why Cleveland cannot produce runs.
Part of me wants to keep blaming the hitting coaches. But then I look at what Steven Kwan said about his own batting! He said after he hurt his wrist in 2025, he picked up some bad habits. Now that his wrist is better, he had to re-learn how to hit like himself. We see that also with José, now that he had his hamate surgery. That explains two guys.
When you look at the other players, you start to wonder if Vogt’s platooning is causing some of this? Fry and Manzardo are decent hitters, but they were getting such random playtime it was hard to get into a groove. Vogter talked about it on the Thursday Manager’s Pre-Game show, that he wants to get everyone in so they can keep hitting and get that rolling, but it’s hard when you have so many players and only 9 positions!
This off season, something needs to change. That’s the only thing I can say for sure, because it’s clear our current approach isn’t working!
Game Results
Game 1 (126) – WON
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SF | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| CLE | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 8 | 12 | 0 |
- DeLauter is out with muscle tightness, and an overabundance of caution.
- Adell knocked in six runs! The man is happy to be here. Sadly he fouled one off his knee and got pulled.
- José had some solid, hard, hits.
- Herrin looked way better than he has in a while.
Game 2 (127) – LOST
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 1 |
| CLE | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
- Happy Birthday to Tom Hamilton. We listen to Hammy in this house.
- Today’s starter for the Giants is left-handed Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson. Tugboat was one of our minor-league pitching prospects and was part of the Patrick Bailey trade. It’s kind of special he gets to start here.
- Rhys Hoskins is on the IL, so David Fry is back up.
- Sadly Messick gave up one run and that was all anyone got. Double digit strikeouts and still the L.
- The bats were mediocre… Again.
Game 3 (128) – WON
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| CLE | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | X | 5 | 9 | 0 |
- Gavin “Big Rig” Williams has pitched over 200 strikeouts in 2026, which is incredible.
- José slapping a run in, in the first, got us rolling.
- Big Rig gave up one homer, for San Francisco’s only runs.
- Kwan drew three straight walks!
- The Guards took advantage of the mistakes and misplays that, somehow, were not multiple errors, to get more runs in. I’m just saying when you screw up a pickle-in-the-middle play, that should be something.
Whew.
In non-Guardian (ex-Guardian) news, Gabriel Arias was picked up on waivers by the Mets, DFA’d a couple days later, and now got picked up by the Cubs.
Tonight the boys head out to Colorado for a weekend series in the Mile High City. Fingers crossed our bats stay awake!
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