The road trip continues, as the Jays meet Cleveland for the first time this season.
As the trading deadline loomed, the Guardians found themselves just half a game out of first place in the AL Central. They were actually tied with the Twins in the loss column. So what did they do? They traded their best pitcher for a minor league first baseman. It's not like Aaron Civale was going to be a free agent in two months; he's arbitration eligible, but under club control for two more seasons after this one. And that wasn't all the Clevelands did at the deadline. They also sent Amed Rosario, their starting shortstop most of this season, to the Dodgers for the ghost of Noah Syndergaard. They traded DH Josh Bell to the Marlins for infielder Jean Segura - who was instantly given his release - and former first round pick Khalil Watson, a 20 year old who may or may not amount to something some day, albeit not any day soon.
The message GM Mike Chernoff was sending his ball club seems pretty clear, and it's hard to see his players being all that inspired by it.
Nevertheless, despite trading away Civale, despite Triston McKenzie (11-11, 2.96 in 2022) spending almost the entire season on the IL, where he's lately been joined by Shane Bieber (13-8, 2.88 last year), despite the struggles of Cal Quantrill (15-5, 3.38 a year ago), despite closer Emmanuel Clase merely being good rather than utterly unhittable - run prevention has not been Cleveland's problem. Only three teams in the league (Tampa Bay, Minnesota, Toronto) allow fewer opposition runs.
A lot of this could be a park effect, of course. The opposition has hit just .231/.302/.364 at Progressive Field, as opposed to .254/.322/.419 elsewhere, which is why the Cleveland staff has a 3.48 ERA at home and 4.24 on the road. But historically, Progressive Field has been a fairly neutral park, with a rather slight edge to run prevention. And Cleveland's hitters have actually performed a little better at home (.253/.319/.390) than they have on the road (.249/.310/.375). But the Guardians have just two good hitters, one of whom (first baeman Josh Naylor) is on the IL and the other (third baseman Jose Ramirez) faces an imminent suspension for his one punch knockdown of Tim Anderson.
The Guardians had their way with the Blue Jays a year ago. They took three of four games in Cleveland last May, and two of three in Toronto in August. Of course, none of the men who started those games for the Guardians will appear in this series: Bieber, Quantrill, and McKenzie are on the IL while Civale and Pilkington are no longer with the team.
Matchups
Mon 7 Aug - Ryu (0-1, 7.20) vs Williams (1-3, 3.38)
Tue 8 Aug - Kikuchi (9-3, 3.67) vs Bibee (7-2, 3.14)
Wed 9 Aug - Gausman (8-6, 3.20) vs Allen (5-4, 3.65)
Thu 10 Aug - Manoah (3-8, 5.72) vs Syndergaard (1-5, 6.75)
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20230806231727116