The Ohio Cup is officially heading back down to the southern part of the state as the Cleveland Guardians dropped their series opener with the Cincinnati Reds, 7-4, securing a season-series victory for Cleveland's National League counterpart.
For as well as the Guardians have historically played against the Reds, Cleveland has now lost all four games they've played against Cincinnati in 2025.
As for Monday night's loss, the Guardians simply didn't look like themselves on both sides of the ball, and manager Stephen Vogt admitted that after the game.
"We did not play our brand of baseball tonight. At all. This is the first night I've watched us, and we didn't look like ourselves. We need to take better care of the baseball. We need to run the bases better. We need to have better at-bats, and we need to throw more strikes," said Cleveland's skipper after the game.
"We haven't been ourselves. We've faced some really tough teams the last few weeks, but we're a really good team, too. But tonight is the first time I just felt like we didn't look like us."
Watch Stephen Vogt's Full Postgame Press Conference Here:
The Guardians ended the game with three errors, and also made a few base-running mistakes, such as getting picked-off at first base and finding themselves in run downs.
These are abnormal mistakes for a team that is typically fundamentally sound.
So, what's the fix?
Vogt believes, "We have a lot of guys trying to do too much right now. Back off. Just go play baseball and have fun. That's what makes this team great. That's what makes this group great. We just got to get back to being us."
Hopefully, this message can help the Guardians turn things around for the second two games of the series.
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