The Cleveland Guardians were rolling and playing some of their best baseball of the season coming out of the All-Star Break. However, they hit a roadblock in Missouri with a series loss against the Kansas City Royals.
The Guardians split Saturday’s doubleheader but lost Sunday’s rubber match in a frustrating fashion.
After the game, manager Stephen Vogt got honest about where his team stands after this three-game stretch.
“One series loss isn’t going to get us down. We’ve been playing really good baseball; we played good baseball over this weekend. They’re a really good team over there, too. So we’re going to get back to work tomorrow,” said Vogt after Sunday’s loss (quote via MLB.com).
The theme of Cleveland’s series loss to Kansas City was similar to what plagued Cleveland during the first half of the season: the offense simply didn’t show up when it needed to.
The Guardians scored 10 runs over the last three days, but they certainly had their chances to pile on more. As a team, Cleveland hit .206 (6-for-29) with runners in scoring position.
These numbers included the first inning of the series finale, when the Guardians loaded the bases with no outs in the first inning, but didn’t drive in a single run.
“It was a tough way to start,” admitted Cleveland’s skipper.
“We got the bases loaded, nobody out, and we weren’t able to push a run across. You just kind of felt like it’s hard to get stuff going after that. We let them off the hook, and it happens, it’s frustrating. And on the flip side, we didn’t shut them down right away in the first. So they kind of got all the momentum.”
Cleveland’s short trip to KC certainly didn’t go as they would have liked.
Thankfully, the Guardians have an opportunity to get back on track as they’ll open up a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies, who are 27-78, starting on Monday.
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