News and notes: Is José back? You understand, bro.On Thursday afternoon, the sun came out, and Jose Ramirez, the big bat, woke up.
The frigid weather dampened hopes on Wednesday, but a pleasant breeze was all it took for the Guardians to reclaim their early 2024 form against the Red Sox, defeating the team from Beantown 6-4.
Will Brennan continued his recent hot streak by hitting a solo shot in the bottom of the second inning, giving the Guardians an early 1-0 lead. Later that inning, the Guardians loaded the bases for the greatest player of all time, who did not strike out.
Triston McKenzie toed the rubber for the Guards on Thursday afternoon, and he appeared to be approaching full strength. Sticks went four innings, throwing 75 pitches, giving up two runs on six hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts.
His overall troubles were with runners on base, as the stretch remains a mechanical struggle for Sticks, but McKenzie’s growth is positive overall.
Boston made surges after falling down, particularly in the fifth and sixth innings. Boston loaded the bases with no outs against Tim Herrin, but Nick Sandlin came on after Herrin recorded an out, retiring Masataka Yoshida on a weak tapper back to the mound before striking out Enmanuel Valdez to end the threat.
Just an inning later, Vogt got a little greedy with Sandlin, leaving him out there to try to grab some outs without using the rest of the bullpen, but it didn’t work out as Boston eventually got to Sandlin.
After hitting David Hamilton with a pitch, Reese McGuire singled to put runners on the corners. Rafaela grounded out as a run was scored, and Hunter Gaddis came in to relieve Sandlin, giving up a single to Jarren Duran, which plated McGuire. A 5-2 game shortly became 5-4.
Then in the eighth inning, Jose struck again. After hitting a single up the middle, Ramirez stole second and advanced to third on a wayward throw. Boston elected to intentionally walk Josh Naylor to face David Fry.
Naylor then dashed for second on a steal attempt; McGuire couldn’t handle the pitch, and because Chris Martin was delayed protecting the plate, Jose came in to score, making it 6-4, which would be the final score.
Emmanuel Clase tossed just 12 pitches to chop through the Red Sox top of the order, securing his 18th win and eighth save.
That’s right, the goat has returned. Jose Ramirez had his greatest day of the season on Thursday, going 3-4 with a grand slam and scorching all four balls he put in play at speeds of more than 99 mph. If you’ve been watching JRam in recent games, you can see where this is going.
In just this Boston series, Ramirez hit nine batted balls at least 95 mph, including two home runs and one double. Jose is getting back on track after a slow start.
Emmanuel Clase—my god, Clase is cooking right now. Clase recorded his eighth save, lowering his ERA to 0.69. Nice! After a volatile 2023, Clase’s offense in 2024 has been much more consistent.
Will Brennan: Look out, Silly. Willy might have found it out. Brennan is pulling more fly balls than he has ever before, making it difficult for Vogt to take him out of the order right now, as he added another home run and double on Thursday.Who is not?
Andres Gimenez experienced a blazing start but has already dropped to Arctic temperatures. Gimenez has only six extra-base hits in his last 39 games, dating back to April 8th. Gimenez had a 33.0% chase rate from the start of the season until April 13th, which put him in the 20th percentile of all qualifying hitters at the time and was a significant improvement from his 40% chase rate last season.
However, after April 14th, that figure has risen to 46.2%, the first percentile of all qualified hitters. He’s swinging at everything again because he’s pressing, and his power and general plate presence have been depleted. Hopefully, it won’t take him as long to regain his old form as it did last year.
Brayan Rocchio, like Gimenez, is currently experiencing a power outage. On April 13, Rocchio hit a double, his sixth of the season, tying him for the AL lead. Since then, he has had one double and is 5-for-28. The problem with Rocchio is that he is not making an effect on the ball.
Since April 14, Rocchio has had 23 batted ball events leading up to Thursday. There have been 12 groundballs. The bright lining for Rocchio is that, even in this dip, he still has a 35% sweet spot rate. Compared to Andres’ 24.1% sweet spot rate in the same slumping range, Rocchio’s numbers are at least somewhat better.
Who’s next?Cleveland will embark on a six-game road trip that has the potential to define who and what this club is. They’ll play at Truist Park for the first time ever against the always deadly Braves, and then they’ll travel to Houston, a sagging team, but MinuteMaid has been a house of horrors for this organization for quite some time.
Additional notes (from the editor): The latest episode of the Disgusting Baseball podcast features Covering the Corner’s Quincy and Nicole discussing the Guardians’ hot start, pulled fly ball rates, and answering entertaining listener questions.
Finally, if you want some interesting batted ball data on the possible first-round draft picks, Carlos Collazo of Baseball America has you covered:
