News and Notes: Guardians Shake Off Bad Bieber News, Beat Twins

On the day news of Shane Bieber’s upcoming Tommy John surgery broke, the Guardians responded by winning their fourth game in a row, beating the Minnesota Twins to go to 7-2 overall. Over the past three years, the teams have gone back and forth a good bit, but the Guardians are now 30-23 against Minnesota since Opening Day of 2021.

If you’re active on Twitter, you may notice that Twins fans seem to hate Andres Gimenez. Probably because of this:

While Gimenez was only 1 for 4 at the plate, he combined with Rocchio to make a special play and get an important out in the sixth, leading to a Mandy Bell piece:

Brayan Rocchio had two hits including a double. Rocchio seems like he has some good chemistry with his fellow Venezuelan middle-infielder but I still really think they should switch sides because Gimenez has the better arm. In regards to hitting, though, the big blow for the offense was a three-run homer for David Fry, playing catcher yesterday, in the second inning:

Fry is earning himself more playing time, but I love how manager Stephen Vogt is putting him in situations he is most likely to succeed. Fry had some encouraging words about the team’s mindset following the game:

The pitching was the star of the game, with Carlos Carrasco striking out six in three innings, giving up one run on one hit, three walks and some shaky defense, but then the bullpen shutting the Twins down AGAIN. Nick Sandlin struck out two in a scoreless outing, Cade Smith went an inning and two-thirds scoreless, ran into some trouble, and then new high leverage reliever Hunter Gaddis came in an struck out the two batters he faced. Scott Barlow danced around some control issues in a scoreless seventh (he owns the Twins for some reason), Tyler Beede owned the eighth again, and Emmanuel Clase gave up a hit to Carlos Correa but struckout two in the ninth to get the save. The bullpen isn’t going to be perfect every game, but it’s great to get some wins like this early in the season and to see some guys getting opportunities and making the most of it.

Speaking of getting opportunities, the Guardians are going to be giving folks opportunities to help the rotation with Bieber out for the year. It looks like today is likely to be a rainout (due to begin at 2:10PM EST, for what it’s worth), and Logan Allen will start the opener. I expect Ben Lively will then get the first chance to help in the rotation, unless the team wants to stretch Tyler Beede back out, because Xzavion Curry has an option and Lively does not. Lively showed some flashes of usefulness while starting for the Reds last year, but the best I can say is that if you eliminate a start where he got destroyed by the Cubs, he had an xFIP of 4.54 as a starter. That’s a fifth starter. So, hopefully, the Guardians have fixed something there, and, hopefully, positive first starts in the minors from guys like Doug Nikhazy and Parker Messick are signs of a coming breakout from a young arm or two because the Guardians may need the help.

Speaking of breakouts, don’t miss what Andrew Walters did in Akron last night:

Everyone is trying to process the Bieber news, including president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti, pitching coach Carl Willis, and Vogt:

Zack Meisel offered some thoughts on Bieber’s injury for the Athletic, as did Terry Pluto for Cleveland dot com, and Paul Hoynes. We’re in the first few stages of grief on this, but it’s nice to have a series win over the Twins to dull the initial pain a bit. All the best to Bieber on his recovery, and here’s hoping maybe the Guardians can find a way to keep him around for one more year, giving him a chance potentially to help in 2025.

Around MLB:

MLB and the MLBPA are publicly bickering about pitcher injuries. Great look, as always, folks. I hope everyone is ready to have a missed season with the next CBA negotations because it seems more and more plausible.

New Dodgers’ pitcher Yoshinoby Yamamoto had his first great start for the team.

Someone finally beat the Tigers again. And it was the A’s of all people.